February, March & April 2011 in Review

The amusement business begins to awaken as the snow melts. February sees an end to the live trade shows. Although trade shows have been dwindling in attendance and vendors for quite some time now, I believe its more of a process of natural business evolution and technology with a little bit of the slow economy thrown in. Unless trade show organizers can come up with a way to make these events more worthwhile & viable for all I believe we will see them disappear over the next several years.

Dreamland Amusements paid its annual visit to Kings Bay Village Plaza in St. Mary's Georgia in mid-March (March 16 to 20th). The weather was quite nice and seasonable and we were all hoping this trend woul

d continue throughout the spring.

In April we had three shows open on the East Coast. Power's Great American Midways played the Randolph Mall in Asheboro, NC April 15th to the 23rd as well as the Staunton Mall in Staunton, VA. Of course that was during the major tornado outbreak in the south, fortunate the bad weather went around the shows, as tornadoes for those who have never experience them are very isolated incidents, unless of course they hit your home. However we weren't spared by the heavy rains and thunderstorm. It was school vacation in Staunton and the carnival is always welcome by parents looking for affordable nearby entertainment for their children.

Up in Massachusetts, Rockwell Amusements played the Silver City Galleria in Taunton from April 14th to the 24th and about half of the days saw rain. This year we haven't seen nearly as much warm weather as last year and it has rained in some amount nearly every day.

Spring Carnivals are really popular with the malls, retailers always see an upswing in business at the mall often as much as 20% of the weekly sales over the previous. It is a win for the carnival because they are usually set up on pavement and grass is notoriously soft in the spring.

We are really hoping the weather improves and the rest of the spring and summer events will soon be in full swing!