The Great Dorset Steam Fair, 2009

This report is for a trip I made at the beginning of September 2009 to the Great Dorset Steam fair. It's a place I've been wanting to travel to for a good couple of years, but have been previously unable to get the time off work, and arrange transport too. I'm glad to say it was worth the wait, it ranks up there with some of the best fairground events I've been to. It had a great selection of modern fairground rides, plus a very nice collection of heritage fairground rides. What really made it stand out from the crowd though is the selection of sideshows and exhibitions that were found along with all the great rides.

Here's a view of the fairground while walking up to one of the entrance gates.

The funfair field was split in to 3 main sections. On one side was the large collection of modern funfair rides, opposite that was a large area containing a huge variety of amusements and sideshows. Splitting them was a long walkway were the steam fair was, on one side was this large collection of steam engines.

Opposite the engines was a long row of antique fairground rides.

It included a lot of classic rides such as this Helter Skelter.

The steam fair also featured two different classic carousels, one of which is pictured here.

Another ride is this beautiful looking Ferris wheel.

All of the antique rides featured some beautiful looking artwork.

Also at the fair was the steam yacht, a forerunner of the pirate ship. This version though featured some real hair-raising swings, lifting you out of your seats. This and the lack of any lap bars make this a very wild ride.

This ride is an Ark. It is a very early thrill ride, which evolved in to the Waltzer. You can see it has the same wavy undulating platform.

Unlike a Waltzer there are no spinning cars. Instead you ride on one of these horses or motorbikes, which rock back and forth during the ride. You do have to hold on tightly as you ride to make sure you don't fall off.

I think my personal highlight of the antique fairground was this ride called the Skid. Partly because it's a ride I've never done before, but also because it was a fun and very wild ride.

You sit in these pods that travel around at speed. In the pods is a pedal that activates a break that causes the pods to swing inwards. You can then release the break, which means the pod swings around at a high speed creating a very high amount of G-force, it's a thrilling ride, and the pedal adds a good fun aspect to it. Towards the end of the ride I had a slightly scary moment when I got it to whip around enough to make the pod smash in to the centre circle. Luckily no damage was done to me or the ride.