An old favourite and some new thrills will be coming to town at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition this week.
The 60-foot-tall Ring of Fire rollercoaster is back in the CLE skyline and right next to it is the new 110-foot Slingshot. The drop tower will fire people straight up in the air.
“Then you sit and wait and you never know when it’s going to drop you all the way to the bottom,” Select Shows president Jim Mills said Monday afternoon as he and his crew get ready for the gates to open Wednesday. “It’s quite a ride.”
Mills said the new tower has been a huge hit with fair-goers. Even he’s given it a shot.
“Once,” Mills laughed. “Never again.”
It takes around 100 people only eight hours to set up Select Shows’ 36 rides and 30 games booths. Plus there are the ten food booths ready to serve everything from hamburgers to cotton candy.
“You name it we got it,” Mill said.
Along with Select Shows, the CLE board is getting ready to run all of the children’s activities, arts and crafts and other displays. Then there are the talent shows. All in all there are 11 committees with more than 200 volunteers getting the 122nd annual fair together.
“You could imagine just marshalling those resources is a big task,” fair chair Ralph Scharf said.
The CLE runs Aug. 8 to 12 from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.
