All good ones.
8. A booked in local sponsor/town business is giving away free bottled water, canned soda, and popcorn across from your floss wagon. ....
I've actually seen this happen.
A number of years ago, show booked three kiddie rides (a Carousel, Hampton and Sky Fighter) and a popper for a one-day event in a downtown business/shopping district for a holiday celebration. The event was being held the day after Thanksgiving to coincide with the same day as the city's annual Christmas parade. The rides were rented to the local Merchant's Association on a flat-fee basis, with I think 50 cents per ride charged by the Merchant's Association to recover some of the cost. Sure enough, the Merchant's Association decided to distribute complimentary popcorn right next to the show-owned popper. One can only hope the floss sales were strong enough to offset the loss of popcorn sales. In retrospect, considering that the crowds were coming to the little carnival after the parade, there were likely vendors working the crowds at the parade selling floss, so sales were probably down on that as well.
the event was held in front of the stores of a shopping plaza on a busy downtown street. The show wasn't permitted to close the street until the night before the event, so the show had to come in Thanksgiving night to set-up. I remember talking to the show owner and he said having to set-up on Thanksgiving night didn't bother him as much as the fact that the Merchants' Association was distributing popcorn in such close proximity to his popper. He took it in stride however, stating there wasn't much he could do about it since it was a flat-fee rental.
The reason I recall this so well is because I wrote an article about the show and this event for AB. In the article I stated something to the effect that, "The event was sponsored by the Local Merchant's Association as part of a Black Friday promotion to kick-off the Christmas shopping season". Somehow, in the editing process, whoever edited the article at AB left the copy of the article as submitted, but changed the above sentence to... "The event was held as a celebration for the local black community". I remember telling Tim O'Brien, Managing Editor of AB at the time, and he found it humorous that the way it was edited it was taken completely out of context. (Maybe in Nashville they've never heard of "Black Friday", or perhaps the term was too politically incorrect) LOL.
This one doesn't really fall under any of the "Bad Side" scenarios. Maybe it should be listed under humorous or unbelievable stories from the show trail (I wouldn't believe it myself, if I didn't witness it with my own eyes)...This happened in Delaware, sometime I believe, in the mid-80's. And, it was the first season a few out-of-state shows picked up some new spots after a long-time Delaware-based show owner decided to retire and sell off his equipment (he was owner of a "forty miler" operation who had most of the Catholic Church carnivals in Northern Delaware tied-up for years).
A Pennsylvania-based show was setting up the show in the parking lot of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church/School for a carnival. There were two 4'X8' wooden signs on posts in a grassy area on a corner of the property advertising the Carnival. The show was in the process of setting up some of the rides on a Sunday afternoon for a Monday opening. One of the rides was a Cobra. The fence was put around the perimeter of the Cobra and the ride was mostly set-up. A couple of other rides were spotted and blocked and in the process of being set-up. One was a wheel and I don't remember what the other major ride was. There were milk crates of blocks strewn about the grounds and some wire was in the process of being stretched-out. Only problem was.... This was not the location they were supposed to be playing! Yes, the signs were advertising the St. Elizabeth Parish Carnival - which was being held one or two weeks later. The location this show was supposed to be setting up at was
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, approximately ten miles south of this location.
I was driving by the lot where the show was setting up and saw the show being set-up, realizing it was a bit early to be setting-up for that carnival and knowing the location they were they were supposed to be setting-up. When I was there, the weird thing was, there wasn't a soul around anywhere. It was almost like everyone dropped everything they were doing and all went to lunch. I waited around for about an hour. Still, no one showed up. I don't know if they went to double-back for the rest of the equipment or if someone brought their error to their attention and they went to take the rest of the equipment to the
actual location they were supposed to be playing. In the end, the show did make it to the correct location and managed to get set-up and open on time (All's well that ends well. However, I can't help think how embarrassing it must have been. not to mention wasted time).
The thing that puzzles me to this day is how the show ended up at the wrong lot to begin with. Of course this was back in the day before Smart phones, internet or GPS. The only thing I can think of is maybe they got off of an exit of a major highway and stopped at a gas station or somewhere and asked someone if they knew where "
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton" church was and maybe someone told them something like,"Oh yeah, I know where
St. Elizabeth is" and unintentionally misdirected them to the wrong location (?).
"Don't forget to be half fair and give a little credit to the small concessionaire"