Local Fairs, Festivals, and Carnivals

Woohoo! It's time for another festival! Every year, around this time, Keizer has an Iris Festival complete with a fair, a parade, and lots of other festival related activities. This is a big deal for the area, because Schreiner's Iris Garden is in Keizer, and they are a major source of the world's iris'. And who doesn't love a parade, especially one that you can walk to? The Statesman Journal estimated that 20,000 to 30, 000 people attend the parade every year, and I don't doubt that based on the attendance I saw today.

This year the Iris Festival fair is being held at Keizer Station, which is right off of I-5, and has the potential to bring in a lot of business to the area. During the parade, the local Dutch Brothers probably did more business in a few hours than they did all last month, and I'm sure that the local Panda Express, Starbucks, Round Table, Subway, Taco Time, and other merchants are cashing in from the fair.

What I want to know is why tickets are $0.50 and kids rides cost 6 tickets? $3.00 to ride a carnival kid's ride! Well, I do think that it's expensive, but that's not what I have the real problem with. If I were Emperor, the tickets would cost $3.00 and each kid's ride would cost a single ticket. Maybe I'm over simplifying the matter, because an "adult" ride costs 7 tickets which would be $3.50, and maybe there are game booths that cost less than 6 tickets. However, this $0.50 denomination still doesn't work for me.

Junior: "Mom, can I have 12 tickets?"
Mom: "Sorry, sweety, we only have 10 left. See if you can beg 2 off that nice looking man over there on the corner."

I may have misled you into thinking that I didn't care that it's so expensive, but it just wasn't the primary issue. $3.00 to ride a carnival kid's ride? That's highway robbery, especially in the current economy.

Mom: "Junior, do you want a BK kid's meal, or would you rather go on this ride?"
Junior: "Ah, Mom, can't I do both?"
Mom: "Sorry, sweety, not while your dad is out of work and begging on the street corner."

Revised Declaration

If I were Emperor, tickets would cost $1.00 and each ride would cost 1 ticket for kids and 2 tickets for adults. Families that have the money to spend would still spend the same amount but go on more rides. Maybe they would spend more. Families that don't have as much money to spend would end up spending some money and having a little fun instead of giving up on the idea entirely.