Fairground Follies 2022
28 August 2022 / Words: Bill Short Photos:
Rob Wilko's Photos and videos here
Early morning start for a run from Hayward’s Bay to Bowral. The prediction of cold weather and showers did not deter a (mostly) tops down run of ten cars with an unusual mix of eight different colours. Little Red Riding Hood in the lead car lead an excellent run up Macquarie Pass and the Tourist Road to Bowral with the Big Bad Wolf in his Mustang bringing up the rear.
Illawarra was off to the Fairground Follies Museum for a morning tea of tea & coffee, lamingtons & cup-cakes and to be transferred back in time to our childhood with the music and lights of the fair. Sounds good but I had really no idea of what we were in for.
We enter the building to be greeted with an organ like sound playing Buglers Holiday. Nice but where was it coming from. Follow the sound to find out and a short walk around a corner takes us to…
Wow – a fully lit up merry-go-round which was rotating at a sedate eight revolutions per minute. Not just a merry-go-round but the carousel was once at Luna Park. And there is more….and more…….and even more!
And we commence a two hour visual and aural experience of unique fairground, dance hall and theatre organs and instruments, all producing music by the mechanically by blowing, sucking, plucking and striking. Not just theatre and fairground music but Gypsiecaravans, a steam tractor and two vintage cars!
Yes, I remember the carousel that was at Luna Park and even rode on it in my childhood. I also have seen the Dutch Street Organ somewhere previously, and the large fairground “organ” with the gold top and oval mirrors that had a pattern resembling a gunshot but was actually cut into the glass to resemble a star.
This spectacular is something that is going to be almost impossible to describe with words. Hopefully the accompanying photos with do the exhibition justice.
A huge nostalgia trip best summed up from the refrain of Neil Sedaka’s “One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round “
Give me one more chance at the midway
Stop the clock from spinning around
Give me back the world I remember
One more ride on the merry go round
