Jakob Menendez

The sun ducked behind the Ferris Wheel at Keaney Park Saturday night, painting the sky with intense hues of pink and yellow as kids and adults alike crowded the ticket booth to buy ride credits. 

Scents of cotton candy, popcorn, and sweat permeated through the air as the night drew on and the lines grew longer. 

The carnival –– held as a fundraiser for the July 3 Lynn fireworks display –– had no shortage of entertainment with rides like Pharaoh’s Fury, Zero Gravity, Hyper Spin, Viper and the aforementioned “Expo Wheel,” alongside a slew of basketball and dart-throwing games. And of course, there was classic fried fare to scarf down, which included –– but was not limited to –– chicken fingers, french fries, and “market-priced ribs.”

While the denizens of Lynn ran about collecting over-sized stuffed animals, the blue-collared (quite literally) workers from Fiesta Shows, the traveling amusement provider who brought the carnival to Lynn, kept the place running like a well-oiled machine. They man the soft-serve station, the game booths, and are responsible for keeping everyone nice and strapped in on all of their rides.

By 9 p.m., with my chances of getting on a ride before the park closed at 11 growing increasingly slim, I turned my attention to the workers supplying all of the fun.

They’re a collective; a family of sorts who are bonded through the chaos of working carnivals night in and night out across the country. Some have been doing it for decades, others have only recently joined the tour in the past few years. But one thing is certain, they’re all here for the show, and they all live by the show. 

Responses have been edited for grammar and clarity

Ashley “Cupcake” Rose, 34, Londonderry, New Hampshire

Tenure: 1 year 

Favorite Ride: The swings

Favorite Food: Mozzarella Sticks and Chicken tenders

Favorite Memory: “Watching my daughter come and ride all of the rides. It’s like a family here, so it’s really nice to be away from home and still feel like you have a family unit around you.”

Craziest Memory: “Watching adults fight over toys that they can’t have.” 

Keenan Davis, 26, Akron, Ohio

Tenure: 3 years

Favorite Ride: The Freakout

Favorite Food: Italian Sausage, “I’ll slam those down all day.”

Favorite Memory: “The Big E, down in Springfield, Mass. We worked the food for that fair so it was just fun and crazy.”

Craziest Memory: “A few weeks ago, these guys came up and wanted to shoot a scene for a music video in front of the game, and we told them no and they left. Then they came back with our boss on the phone who told us, ‘Let them do whatever they want.’ After the call they’re like, ‘okay we’ll come back and shoot the scene.’ We’re thinking they just wanted to pop a balloon or something in front of the game. Then they came back emboldened [by our boss] and said, ‘We have a different idea. We’re going to hop in the game while you guys are working and dance around and rap.’ And for like an hour they were just in there making a music video while we were working.”

Dennis Cowdrey, 45, Brimfield, MA

Tenure: 25 years

Favorite Ride: The Apollo, “a ride that used to take you 70 feet upside down.”

Favorite Food: Italian Sausage

Favorite Memory: “Meeting new people.” After being asked to specify if there was anyone in particular who he’s remembered meeting, he points to his girlfriend Becky who was working alongside him and said “Yeah sure, her.”

Craziest Memory: “I used to be the show electrician and one year when we were in Gloucester, someone stole all of our diesel fuel so we had to get diesel fuel in a hurry. We went to start the generators and the tank drum was empty, so we had to bucket fuel from the gas station across the street to keep us going until the diesel truck got there. They siphoned it right out of the tank.”

Branden A. 25, Rhode Island

Tenure: 14 years

Favorite Ride: The Freakout, “150,000 gallons of water keep it in place.”

Favorite Food: “None of it because it’s all unhealthy, but if I have to a burger”

Favorite Memory: “There was this one guy at the Marshfield fair. He was a little intoxicated, and he said ‘I just came up on a $20,000 settlement and I’m not leaving this game until I’ve spent $1,000 trying to win your prize. The guy just kept insisting, I told him no like 100 times, but he kept dropping 40 after 40 after 40 after 40, the guy was a gambler and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Needless to say, the guy finally won after spending $540 and I get commission, so that really made my night.”

Craziest Memory: “I was working in Wisconsin at a cheese fair and all of a sudden the [bosses] said ‘We have a tornado warning’ and a big siren went off. We’re in the middle of a field, there’s not much around, but there was one building and it was made out of aluminum and they told everyone to evacuate to the aluminum building. So everyone ran toward the building, as all of the toys and prizes started flying around all over the place. It was just horrible.”