Funfairs and Amusement Parks

Following the growth and expansion of the theme park industry in the late 1980s many commentators predicted the end of the more traditional travelling funfairs and the more sedate, old-fashioned amusement parks. Coney Island, for example, has rapidly declined since the 1970s but its counterpart in England—Blackpool Pleasure Beach—is still one of the largest visitor attractions in England, with 7 million visitors a year. Innovations in ride technology and the allure of the travelling fair tradition in Europe mean the popularity of the funfair is undimmed. The annual Oktoberfest, held in Munich, Germany, since 1810, attracts more than 6 million visitors each autumn, and annual fairs held at Hull and Nottingham (Nottingham Goose Fair), in England attract 1 million visitors. Hundreds of travelling fairs operate in Europe. Old, established fairs such as those at Leipzig in Germany and Tilburg in the Netherlands offer every form of modern high-tech attraction that can be found within a theme park, including roller coasters. The modern amusement industry now operates at both macro and micro levels: large-scale theme parks on the edges of towns and cities co-exist alongside the travelling funfair and the slightly slower-paced amusement park located by the sea or in urban parklands.