Lights, Cotton Candy, Action

If laughs and screams are the things by which carnivals are measured, then the Rotary Club's harlequin-colored fair this weekend was a resounding success.

It's odd to think that adding more blinking lights, and blinding dust, and rumbling racket along Danbury Road would actually be a good thing, but the carnival actually seemed quite busy throughout the weekend; save for Sunday, of course, when rain washed away the final day.

The most popular ride was the Avalanche, a giant row of seats that swung patrons high above the fairgrounds and had a consistently full row and a line in front. "Scat" had by far the most fanfare, eliciting high-pitched screams and yelps from its victims as they paid in $1 ticket increments to be whirled in circles at high speeds, pinned against the contraption's walls, and occasionally nauseated (near as anyone could tell, there were no visible manifestations of this).  Incidentally, "Scat" pounded rap and dance music most of the time, leading one to wonder about the origins of its name.

The climbing wall, the slide, the Ferris Wheel, and the pirate ship all saw their fair share of visitors, too, and when compared to, say, Six Flags (where rides cost ten dollars and up), the Rotary Club's Carnival seemed like a bargain, especially considering that about 25 percent of the proceeds go toward funding the grants and programs they distribute and sponsor.

Games of chance appeared to be slightly less popular, perhaps because stuffed animals just don't hold quite the same allure they used to in light of contemporary childhood icons like XBOXs and PlayStations. But the candied apples, cotton candy, and barrel-sized sodas were in high demand.

We hope you enjoy the Wilton Patch's few pictures and we'll be following up soon with the Rotary Club's take on the event, while also looking ahead to the event that has already replaced the carnival along Route 7: Minks To Sinks this weekend.