Carnival & Fair News

Amusements of America, headquartered in Florence, South Carolina, runs two separate east coast units and operates 70 rides in all, on a route that stretches from Florida to New York State.

According to co-owner Dominic Vivona, “We do county fairs and state fairs along a route that runs from March through November annually. We do about 40 to 50 stops each year.” Besides the company's regular route, Vivona also helms a Christmas carnival in Puerto Rico. “We've done that every year since the 90s, with a few years off due to hurricanes and the pandemic. We transport our equipment by boat. It's a big boat,” he laughs, noting that the rides and gear take a week on average to ship.

While each fair is a special occasion for Vivona and his family, he notes that the company does have some consistent favorites.

“We have some great fairs we have been doing many years, and they're all very popular fairs. In the Carolinas, we've had the Sumter County Fair over 50 years, as well as the Florence County Fair, which is also known as the Eastern Carolina Fair (ECA Fair), for around the same amount of time,” Vivona attests. “We also have some very popular New York county fairs, including Saratoga, Columbia, Washington, and Franklin counties. We've been doing these fairs for many years as well.”



He adds that each of these fairs “are big fairs for us and represent long term relationships with good fairs that bring in a good crowd. They've all grown larger over the years with nice community and a full range of events such as agricultural displays and livestock exhibits.”

Among its 70 rides, the company offers two Giant Wheels, two drop towers, a Crazy Mouse roller coaster, a Himalaya, and bumper cars, among many others. “I would say that the Crazy Mouse is definitely one of our most popular rides, as well as the Top Gun and Air Scramble. Top Gun and Air Scramble is a Technical Park built Street Fighter 360 with a custom theme. That type of ride is hugely popular,” Vivona relates.



“We also completely refurbished our Kaos ride. It went back to the factory in Italy and became the Air Scramble. We took a Cobra and refurbished it completely too, retheming it to a Viper. It's a very nice ride now. We also have some new kiddie rides, as we've been purchasing and refurbishing both a Granny Bug and a Sky Fighter,” he explains. Vivona says the company has a mix of attractions that are half kiddie and half adult rides.

The company also offers food and a small number of games. “When it comes to food items, the most popular treats we sell are typical carnival fare, such as funnel cakes, ice cream, and popcorn. We also sell pizza, sausages, hamburgers, and hot dogs, and they all do well,” he says.

In the games category, Amusements of America offers basketball, duck ponds, and water games such as Shoot the Clown and Rising Water. He describes basketball as the most popular.

Amusements of America was started by Vivona's father and his brothers back in 1939. “Today, we're the second-generation running things, four other family members, cousins and brothers, and I. We are running things together.” He says working as a team with his family is something that comes naturally to each of them. “We've been doing this all our lives – we grew up in it,” Vivona reports.

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Growing up in the business meant undertaking a wide range of odd jobs at the carnival, from “running rides to making food. We just kept on expanding our roles from there,” he says.

Today, those roles include creating promotional social media, which the company uses as a mix with traditional advertising when Amusements of America plans events for themselves. “When we work with fairs, they usually do most of the advertising. How actively we are involved in promotion really depends on the venue,” he stresses.

The carnival utilizes both FUNtix and Magic Money cashless systems for its events and Innovative Ticketing for online sales. “We're very happy to be using these systems,” Vivona reports, noting that they are powerful tools in today's amusement world, and serve as an advantage in a business that often has “many challenging logistics. There are expenses that are hard to contain sometimes, such as insurance and fuel costs. We can't really control these areas of the business. We just need to deal with them and make the best of it.”



One such logistical challenge is labor. “We wouldn't be in operation frankly, if we didn't apply for H2B employees. Labor is an issue for us. HB2 employees make up the bulk of our staffing. It would be extremely helpful to have those visas be easier to get,” he points out. “We recently had a situation where we were not able to get workers on a timely basis. Had we been able to do so and have a guaranteed workforce available for when we need them, it would be huge. As the system is now, sometimes it doesn't work out for you, right when you need it the most. ”

Amusements of Americas was originally owned by five brothers and is now run by three second-generation families. “It isn't too common to have five different family members who get along and work together for fifty plus years, then pass on their business to the next generation, a group of people who also work really well together,” Vivona points out.