Australian Amusement Fanatics

This year's Show will be on from 19 to 21 April. As it will not be competing with bathurst which is on a week earlier and will be held during the school holidays, I'm really hoping for a big ride line-up . Any suggestions on what will turn up? I'm guessing the usual gear from Bell's, Chant's, Joylands, March's and TPA along with the Alpine Express which has been operating at Hawkesbury every year without fail since the early 90's I think.

I am planning to attend as I usually do but am not sure of the day yet.

Pirates revenge won't be at Hawkesbury this year as it's doing Luna Park for the school holidays. This is not surprising, owing to the short duration of the Show verses the entire 2-week period in Luna Park where the ride is always popular. I hope Power Surge does Hawkesbury instead along with the Hurricane!

I'll be there next Friday or Saturday.

Drove past Tuesday with SkyView Wheel, Space Roller, Crazy Coaster, Wave Swinger set-up with others there including No Limit, Townsend's Dodgem Track and a few others. guessing Chant's, Young's, Osborne's etc are at Bathurst for the weekend.

Unfortunately don't think Power Surge will be there, not sure what is going out at the moment, will find out over the weekend

Line-up that I could see last night:

Sky View Wheel
Freestyle
RockStar
Rock N Roll
Cha Cha
Music Trip
Gravitron
Dark Ride
Space Roller
Extreme (I think?)
Space Roller
Alpine Express
Disk'o
Wave Swinger
Crazy Coaster
Power Surge
No Limit
Hangover
Magic Circus
Sky Flyer
Few Dodgem Tracks

Few I would've missed as it was dark, not sure if I'll be there over the weekend will find out tomorrow

There are two space rollers there how did one slip under our gaurd lol.

Good to hear Sky Flier is back. Am disappointed there's no Hurricane again; it's really disappearing from the Show circuit isn't it? Will be at Hawkesbury early tomorrow.

ozshowkid wrote:There are two space rollers there how did one slip under our gaurd lol.

In such high demand Oz hope you can clone yourself

NSW anyway ben, was always Young's that did a fair few shows in NSW. Was a ride I never used to miss going on

Called in for a while today.

The carnival area was quite a bit larger than last year and it was nice to see the return of the Zipper, Breakdance and Sky Flier. Disappointing not to see Hurricane but all in all, a great line-up for this year. It's a pity that agricultural shows are now so expensive to attend. This is of course no one's fault but prices do keep rising and it's hard to know whether this will ever stop. While Hawkesbury is cheaper than the Royal Easter, it is still probably out of budget range for many families who would find it hard to scrape together the entry fees, let alone rides and showbags, a pity because IMO, it's a great day out for people with varying interests.

I went on a couple of rides and as usual it was lovely not having to line up for anything. I'll be posting some pics on Facebook soon, not sure how to share with AAF but will work it out...

I think Joylands made the right decision in bringing the Power Surge instead of Pirates revenge. Not only was the wind much too cold to get wet, the Surge looked to be more popular than Pirates ever was when it operated at Hawkesbury.

Another ride in fairly high demand was Chant's Free Style. It didn't always run with full loads but it seemed to me there was always at least two or three people waiting to ride without it ever being unoccupied. Not sure if I'm correct but I feel this model of Speed operates much faster than Goldenway's and the rides were certainly much longer!

No Limit eventually became popular early in the afternoon but it operated many times with no one riding throughout the morning. I'm sure it'll do better as the weekend goes on.

Young's very nice Music Trip wasn't doing so good but again, it attracted more and more people as the day went on. I'm glad Young's persist with this ride because it's a classic despite it not being particularly old in the scheme of things. Their Cha Cha is also great.

Alpine Express was there as usual and in its usual spot, not far from the main gate. This Sobima machine must be quite old now and I'm sure it has done Hawkesbury and Castle Hill since the mid to late 80's.

March's Waveswinger seemed to have issues and also wasn't in the ideal spot, tucked away amongst sideshows I think. It was completely shut down early in the day and when I left, it was operating but looked like they were testing it. Hopefully it gets going over the weekend because the Sky Flier was stealing all their customers.

TPA's Crazy Coaster was also doing well and I think an operator was being trained because I heard someone explaining how to dispatch the trains and only one car at once was on the track at one time. It was interesting information and reafirmed the skill operators must have to run these rides safely.

That's it, a great but cold day although I'm glad the predicted rain stayed away. That showground is a total mud heap at the first drop!

Thanks Ben, rain is here today and seems to be spread across Sydney, shame