PTR: April's Fair, Barcelona

Here comes this time of the year when fairs start touring Spain. One of the first is April’s Fair. In fact, this one is split into two big fairs far apart. The one in Seville is the biggest of the two although in Barcelona we get a fair amount of rides and craziness too.

So, April’s Fair takes place from the 23rd April to the 2nd or 3rd May. In my case, I visited the fair with some colleagues from Tibidabo, the Park where I work.

After we finished our working shift at 9:30pm, we went down to Barcelona and had our share of food at McDonald’s. While we were eating it started to rain. You would think the rides would close, huh? NO! In Spain, fairs operate rides even if it’s pouring rain. If you are willing to ride, you’ll get your ride as long as you pay.

Onto the photos. Most of them are blurry/not really great. It was not my camera and my skills are not the best so…

Laura and me! Little does she know what's about to begin...

We started wandering around seeing what we got this year. The ride selection was good although some of the kiddie credits were shut!

Still, we found the Top Scan and the world became brighter. This is my #1 ride at the fair since every cycle can be totally different depending on the skills of the ride operator and the weight distribution.

There's the entrance!

On entering we saw the stand-up Swinging Ship. I think Spain is the only country that allows these models with jails. You just need to be in good shape to hold on for dear life since there are no restraints in these cages LOL

The KMG Frisbee seems like the most "meh" ride compared to the others...

So here comes a story. We were about to buy our tickets to ride the Top Scan when there was a blackout and people were left stranded just when they were to start their cycle. We shot a video of that. I’ll try to upload later. The thing is that once they got the power back up they didn’t even lower the arm and checked everything was OK. They just ran the cycle with people on it!

After that, we got our intense cycle.

We went past the Stand-up falling Star, which by the way, looked it was about to collapse. Just look at the angle!

It runs an insane cycle and people seem to love it! BTW, for those who ask, those cameras next to the jail are realy CCTVs to watch out for bad behaviour.

The fog on the dodgems was SO thick you couldn't see anything.

That was one of the big credits. A standard Zamperla spinning coaster. Funny thing is that at the end of the ride there's a tunnel in the shape of a cat’s mouth eating your car.

There was a portable rapids ride. Not too exciting but still quite wet and can be fun with friends.

Here is the new ride for 2010 at the fair. The KMG Inversion called “Mega Extrem”.

Basically, it’s the love child from a mini-top scan and a KMG Frisbee. We rode that and got a really long cycle (by long we mean it took about 7 minutes!!). The gondolas spin freely until the ride reaches 90º.

Then they are locked into upright position and then you start your regular Frisbee ride although this time going upside down. Pretty intense ride but nothing to write home about.

More pictures:

There were plenty of Bouncy-bouncy rides. 3 adult-sized Bouncy-bouncy and 2 kiddies.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

And of course there were *3* kiddie credits. They were shut but since I had them all it wasn't a big deal

Huh. wait a minute. What is that I see? A balloon attached to the end of the train? LOLz WTF!!!

Kiddie cred #2. If you look closely you can see it's a Beauty and the Beast rip-off.

Kiddie cred #3.

There were classic rides like The Whip (although this one terrified me since it looked it was going to derail ANY TIME!) and...

The Train ride with the molesting Witch. Seriously... this is one messed up ride. Kids ride this "gentle" ride and out of nothing comes a scary witch with a Freddy Krueger mask and hits them with a broomstick! LOL

Finally, we got to the section of the fair where there was the unique V-shaped shuttle coaster simply called “Uve” (which basically means “V”). It’s a torture device, I mean, a ride, that slowly climbs the back spike, then releases the train, and it goes back and forth for what seems an eternity until it stops. Pretty impressive to watch, not so enjoyable to ride.

Catch-car fans get tissues right now!

The "V" was next to the big-ass wheel!

It's amazing how can people transport and build such big rides so fast... this thing has to be at least 45-50 meters tall!

No fair would be complete with a cheap-looking dark ride. But if your dark ride is 3 stories high it enters a whole new dimension LOL It really is tacky and not scary at all.

Last instalment:

After getting our share of rides, we had to go check out what was going in the tents. Of course, being at the Spanish April’s Fair you need FOOD and other crazy stuff.

There were like a million tents with food including tents where you could find “paella” (Spanish dish made of rice and seafood).

There were also tents JUST to dance flamingo and Sevillanas (Spanish dance). We visited a place where they served wine. It was not the wine that took us there (well, maybe yes! LOL) but there was one animatronic in the middle of the stall pretending it was making wine!

Raul decided to give it a try. For 1 € he got a shot of wine AND a small tapa. Cheap alcohol + rides = yeah!

Speaking of food. We found this tent where they sold these huge candy sticks. Needless to say we *had* to buy one!

If you are at a fair in Spain you MUST EAT CHURROS.

Want to check a big Spanish churro? This one's at least 3 meters long!

While heading out we came across this. If Dick Kinzel had been there, he would probably have had a heart-attack.

Cedar Fair's worst nightmare come true.

We all had a blast! I think we left at about 2:30am and rides were still running at full capacity.

Thanks for reading! Hope to you see you there next year

Mmmmm Spanish Churros... *drool*... uh the food... yeah... that's what I meant...

lol Great TR! It looks like you guys had a lot of fun even though it was raining, thanks for sharing.

Looks like you guys had a really great time there.

And rides always look so much cooler to me at night with their lights on, lol.

And a three-storey dark ride!!! Awesome.

Would love to ride that, no matter how tacky and un-scary it is, heh heh.

Thanks for sharing everything, including the fair food!

Awesome! I love ridiculous European fairs! The concept of a stand-up pirate ship is so insane.

OH man, that is awesome! Glad to see it hasn't changed much! Hopefully we'll get back there again some year!

--Robb

Damn, I wish I had been in Barcelona a month earlier! Great PTR!

Great report Looks like a lot of fun!

Nicole

Hmmmm Paella! <3

Awesome trip report!!! Ever since Robb posted a trip report from this fair awhile back (I'm pretty sure it was Robb who posted it), I've wanted to go. The rides where you can stand just look insane, and that kid's ride with the witch - wtf!? Thanks so much for posting another look at this really unique place.

Okay, so to recap:

--Standing pirate ship

--Standing Falling Star

--Dodgems with fog effect

--A witch hitting children with a broom (yeah, try attempting that in the U.S.!)

--Three story cheesy dark rides

--All of this still going strong at 2:30 a.m., even in the rain?

Sounds surreal. Sounds terrifying. Sounds absolutely, insanely awesome.

Wish I was in Spain to experience this! Thanks for sharing!

Great Tr and out of curiosity who manufactured the shuttle?

Great Tr and out of curiosity who manufactured the shuttle?

I honestly don't know. It's been around for quite a long time but I haver never seen any sign saying who manufactured the ride.

What I know is that it's counterpart in Zaragoza (Rameses) is manufactured by Safeco, a Spanish company that also makes the popular bouncy-bouncy rides.

bouncy-bouncy (sighing here)

Kids ride this "gentle" ride and out of nothing comes a scary witch with a Freddy Krueger mask and hits them with a broomstick! LOL

I love Europe.

I'm really glad I'll be able to check out kick- stuff like this! That fair alone has so much awesomeness that just can't be described!