The Extreme Canine Stunt Dog Show, featuring rescued dogs, is a new attraction at the Allentown Fair. It will be located in the Farmerama Theater. (PHOTO BY BELINDA JONES / August 19, 2010)
Allentown Fair 2010: Taking another colorful spin
Allentown Fair 2010: Taking another colorful spin
By John J. Moser, OF THE MORNING CALL August 27, 2010
A massive entertainment development is rising in West Allentown.
It includes a 10,500-seat concert venue that will host some of music's biggest names, as well as smaller performance areas offering an eclectic array of music.
It will have a multitude of eating places offering a wide variety of food.
There will be a huge educational exhibition and demonstration space, where more than 7,000 items are displayed and judged. It will include live animal displays with more than 1,200 creatures.
In addition, there will be amusement rides, gaming and more.
About a half million people will flock there in a week's time.
If a developer offered that to Allentown, he'd either be laughed at as a dreamer or embraced as a savior.
But for the 158th year, starting Tuesday, that's what Allentown Fair will bring to the fairgrounds at 17th and Chew streets.
"This fair is like erecting a city," fair Marketing Director Bonnie Brosious says. "And if you provide an escape and a destination for someone, they'll come to that city."
Here are some of the things you'll find in that city starting Tuesday.:
THE MIDWAY
The heart of Allentown Fair is agriculture, but the flash of any fair is the midway.
And this year's Allentown Fair midway will be all about the flash.
Its centerpiece will be the Gondola Giant Wheel – a Ferris Wheel that's been refurbished into "a show within a ride," Brosious says.
Charlie Belknap, spokesman for Powers Great American, which operates the midway, says 44,000 LED lights were added to the ride during a four-month renovation this winter that "rebuilt the ride from the ground up." Also added was more steel to enhance the glow effect, as well as flags on each gondola.
The lights offer a show through three programs that change patterns for 15 minutes without repeating.
Powers also added an LED light show to Wave Swinger, the flying swings ride, and also refurbished Orbiter, a spin ride in which riders sit in orbiting "satellites," adding LED lights to that, as well, Belknap says.
And returning will be Vortex, a 100-foot-tall thrill ride with a spinning arm that seats eight people and accelerates them to 60 mph with 3.8-G force on their bodies. It also is illuminated by an LED light show that cost $42,000 a few years ago. Because Vortex has very limited seating, the cost to ride is higher.
In all, about 45 rides will be on the midway, Belknap says.
Much as the midway moved slightly a couple of years ago to allow more access to the Allentown Farmer's Market, there will be a slight shift this year to get the carnival a high profile right inside the main entranceway to the fair, which has typically featured vendors..
A massive entertainment development is rising in West Allentown.
It includes a 10,500-seat concert venue that will host some of music's biggest names, as well as smaller performance areas offering an eclectic array of music.
It will have a multitude of eating places offering a wide variety of food.
There will be a huge educational exhibition and demonstration space, where more than 7,000 items are displayed and judged. It will include live animal displays with more than 1,200 creatures.
In addition, there will be amusement rides, gaming and more.
About a half million people will flock there in a week's time.
If a developer offered that to Allentown, he'd either be laughed at as a dreamer or embraced as a savior.
But for the 158th year, starting Tuesday, that's what Allentown Fair will bring to the fairgrounds at 17th and Chew streets.
"This fair is like erecting a city," fair Marketing Director Bonnie Brosious says. "And if you provide an escape and a destination for someone, they'll come to that city."
Here are some of the things you'll find in that city starting Tuesday.:
THE MIDWAY
The heart of Allentown Fair is agriculture, but the flash of any fair is the midway.
And this year's Allentown Fair midway will be all about the flash.
Its centerpiece will be the Gondola Giant Wheel – a Ferris Wheel that's been refurbished into "a show within a ride," Brosious says.
Charlie Belknap, spokesman for Powers Great American, which operates the midway, says 44,000 LED lights were added to the ride during a four-month renovation this winter that "rebuilt the ride from the ground up." Also added was more steel to enhance the glow effect, as well as flags on each gondola.
The lights offer a show through three programs that change patterns for 15 minutes without repeating.
Powers also added an LED light show to Wave Swinger, the flying swings ride, and also refurbished Orbiter, a spin ride in which riders sit in orbiting "satellites," adding LED lights to that, as well, Belknap says.
And returning will be Vortex, a 100-foot-tall thrill ride with a spinning arm that seats eight people and accelerates them to 60 mph with 3.8-G force on their bodies. It also is illuminated by an LED light show that cost $42,000 a few years ago. Because Vortex has very limited seating, the cost to ride is higher.
In all, about 45 rides will be on the midway, Belknap says.
Much as the midway moved slightly a couple of years ago to allow more access to the Allentown Farmer's Market, there will be a slight shift this year to get the carnival a high profile right inside the main entranceway to the fair, which has typically featured vendors..
read more at: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-fair-preview-20100827,0,6647979.story
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