Carnival & Fair News

Chris Walden began his fascination with the carnival community by building carnival rides out of LEGOs when he was a kid. Today, Chris owns Walden Concessions while also working with several of the largest fairs in the U.S. as a consultant and in positions such as concession coordinator, midway coordinator and more.

Unlike many working in the carnival industry, Walden is first generation. “It all started when I was 12 years old, and I went to a fair convention. I was a model builder, and I had 150 models that I built along with midway layouts. To this day I, still am a model builder and collector. That's how I taught myself to build out lots,” he laughs.

At the still tender age of 14, he had the opportunity to work in a game concession, also helping to move rides around a midway. That taste of the carnival life was definitely it for him: he'd found his passion. He was 15 when he first purchased his own game, a Ring a Bottle. “I bought it to pay for college. I did a little route in Southern Illinois,” he says.

The game was successful, and he ended up with six joints, paid for his college, and received a degree in architecture.

He met the owner of Tinsley Amusements, Richard Tinsley, and worked with the company for several summers before purchasing the company's games and running his own game stands.

Meeting and working with Tinsley was far from the only significant relationship Walden enjoyed during his college years. He also met his wife Allison through her father Big Al. “I first met her dad during a tear down at a carnival I was working. He had poppers and I had game joints at the time. Allison and I got to know each other while she was in college at ISU. We married in 2002 and welcomed our daughter Hadley in 2009 and son Hampton in 2012.”

Today the whole family is very much involved in running Walden Concessions, operating the stands, and serving guests.

Post pandemic, Walden stopped running games and now focuses entirely on the food concessions. The company runs the food concessions that father-in-law Al Krietemeier began in the early 1990s. “He was always known as Big Al, so of course that is what our stands are called to this day,” Walden relates. “He started Big Al's Shakeups as a 40-miler, which we still are. I had already purchased several lemonade stands back in 2008, thinking that perhaps we could merge the games and the food together so that Al would be in the business with us.”


Big Al was a teacher who “really taught my wife how this business works. He made a real name for himself,” Walden explains. “Unfortunately, he passed away at the end of the season in 2014. We took over the business and his route from my mother-in-law in 2016.”

He adds, “Even though he has been gone ten years, people still talk about him, and how he helped them out. We still hear stories about his generosity, how he gave a free shakeup to a medal winner and things like that.”  

Chris and Allison made two promises to Big Al before he passed. “We promised to keep our trailers yellow and never change the recipe of our lemon shakeups. There are a lot of people who know all about Big Al's Shakeups as the premium lemonade in our area. We're known for it,” he says. “We would never change a thing about them.”



Big Al's started with just lemon, but since then, Walden has added strawberry, orange, and lime shakeups to the menu. “We use all real fruit with no syrup of any kind, so we really stand out,” he says.

Along with the shakeups, the company also sells snow cones, cotton candy, fried Oreos, and funnel cakes.

The company travels a route throughout Illinois, traversing destinations that include Danville to the north, Martinsville to the south, and Shelbyville to the west.

Don't let the 40 miles radius that Walden runs fool you into thinking the concessions only pick up a few shows here and there. “Last year we did 140 different locations, doing fairs, festivals, and sporting events for high schools and local universities, as well as employee appreciations and parking lot events. We picked up a whole new clientele of parking lot events post-pandemic.”  

Among the biggest locations for Walden Concessions are the Coles County Fair, which the family has been a part of for 30 years, the Martinsville Fair, and the Illinois State Track Meet, where the company runs concessions for both the boys and girls meets. “However, the most aggressive time we had last year was working at ten or eleven different fireworks shows in nine days. We were up and down every day, bookended by the weekends on either side of the July 4th holiday. That was a tough week and a half for our guys.”

While no new concession products are planned, seasonal items are a part of the concession mix during the carnival season, which begins the middle of April and runs through Halloween. The company offers seasonal funnel cake flavors and promotes them on Instagram and Facebook ads, which Walden says drives engagement.

The seasonal choices include strawberries and cream, Oreo, churro, and in autumn, pumpkin spice. “We play a lot of harvest festivals, scarecrow days, and trunk or treat events from September to October. It smells like fall when we serve those pumpkin spice funnel cakes,” he notes.



The Shakeups go seasonal, too. “We have Spooky Shakeups in the fall with names like Monster Mash, Witches Brew, and Vampire's Blood that we serve in souvenir skull or pumpkin cups,” Walden says. “These special seasonal Shakeups are garnished with gummy worms and gummy eyeballs and body parts. A bit of blue raspberry syrup is added to color the Witches Brew.” One reason for the seasonal diversity is to keep offerings fresh and different. “You're playing a lot of the same areas and get a lot of repeat customers,” he says.

Another way to keep things looking fresh is with yearly upgrades on the three trailers and two stick joints Walden runs. “We added LED lights two years ago, and last year we got a new LED neon sign. We may replace one of the trailers in the next few years.”

Along with running the food concessions, Walden also works with large fairs as a consultant. He helps with midway coordinating at both the Wisconsin and Minnesota state fairs, as well as handling midway ticketing with a staff of 70 at the Miami-Dade Youth Fair every spring. For the springtime Florida State Fair, he serves as outside vendor coordinator, booking food, straight sales, and “anything on the independent side that needs coordination.”

His career in coordination and supporting big fairs began when he was managing rides for Tinsley Amusements then-owner Richard Tinsley at the Minnesota State Fair. “They created a position for me doing the Kiddie Land Guest Relations and helping with midway beautification pre-fair and for teardown. A few years later I was promoted to where I am now, in charge of helping with the full midway layout, house trailer locations, and guest and vendor relations.”

Walden is enthusiastic about all his roles in the carnival life. “I just love this business. I get to work with such great operators, the people I have always looked up to. It's pretty neat to be part of an industry that you love,” Walden attests.

Following his work in Minnesota, Walden was hired to manage the newly built Skyway ride at the State Fair of Texas; after six years there, he went to work doing media and layout for the Arkansas State Fair before moving on to his current work with the Wisconsin State Fair. “They made the decision to go independent with their carnival rides when Muphy Brother's contract ran out. I was hired to coordinate all the independents there. It has progressed and grown to where there are approximately 15 different ride purveyors with 45 rides and about 30 games at the Wisconsin Fair.”

Walden's most recent additional coordination hires were just post-pandemic for the Miami-Dade and the Florida State Fairs.



He notes that “I have been blessed to be hired by great operators, and to travel with my wife and my kids. My wife homeschools them, so we are together all the time. I give my wife many thanks for that. It is wonderful to have the whole family together.”

As Walden's carnival acumen and expertise grows, and the popularity of his food concessions continues strong, the only “shake up” on his personal horizon is the tasty, iconic lemonade, Big Al's legacy and the ultimate toast to the carnival life Chris Walden has loved since childhood.