P.O.Box 1319 Fort Worth, Texas 76101 817-847-0888 May 28, 2020

Subject: Outdoor Amusement Industry

Thank you for the call back today regarding our industry. As you can see in the article I sent you yesterday, our Texas fairs, festivals, traveling carnivals, circuses and all the service industries and manaufactures have not been given a thought or even represented in the Governors phase in program to re-open Texas.

So I will start with the Fairs: State and County fairs have been around for 100+ years. My Great-grandfather started traveling with a horse drawn Merry-go- round in 1910. He pulled his ride with a horse and charged a nickel per ride. He booked it everywhere in Texas when at that time they had Old Settlers Reunions and such. As time went on County fairs were started. Agriculture was a big part of these events.

The State Fair of Texas today is known to be the largest state fair in the nation. It draws anywhere from 2.5 million plus visitors in a 24-day period. It has a wonderful agricultural contest for our Texas youth that provides them scholarship monies to attend the college of their choice. There are many types of vendors that depend on making their living by selling their wares in the exhibit halls, food vendors who provide all the yummy fried treats that are the most popular and the of course the carnival rides midway.

The Midway consists of rides and games along with the food. The largest ride at the State Fiair of Texas fair is my Texas Star Ferris Wheel, a landmark in the state. It operates one time per year for 24 days. It has brought joy and excitement to over 4 generations of families. It is a permanent structure that cannot be moved to another event. It is critical that our State Fair of Texas does not get canceled! It is the bigest revenue generator we have on our route. It also brings in millions of dollars into the city of Dallas for hotels, restuarants etc…An ecomonic impact study was conducted in 2016 for the State Fair of Texas. The results of this study showed the economic impact was 499 million dollars plus just for for DFW area. You can go to bigtex.com to see the actual study.

Every county fair in the state of Texas is similar to State Fair, but obviously on a smaller scale. The rural community non-profit fairs in Texas depend on the revenue from the carnivals, agriculture and local businesses to keep themselves in business from year to year. They also sell corporate sponsorships with other small businesses to stay afloat.

Mobile carnivals and circuses have not been addressed at all by our state. Our industry nationwide generates 4.5 billion dollar annually. We depend on the fairs and festivals due to the sponsors (small business) who help to promote the regional fairs. Hence the fairs need our carnival midways and the local small business to do the same.

A midway consists of rides, games and food. The rides, games and food trailers are purchased from manufactures from all over the country. Many are here in Texas. The builders/suppliers of these rides, games and food trailers depend on carnivals, Six Flags, Disney and all the other small amusement parks in Texas and beyond. I have spoken with a few manufactorers that shared they will be forced to close permanently if the state does not allow us ( Fairs, Carnivals & Amusement Parks) to operate soon.

We purchase from many small businesses that I am sure the Task force does not even realize.

All of our food products are purchased from Sysco, Fare Foods, Costco, Sam’s and many others. We buy thousands of gallons of off-road fuel from local oil companies for our generators that power a carnival midway. Talley owns Cat and Cummins generators…enough to power a small city. We own a fleet of trucks that buy thousands of gallons of fuel. We pay sales and franchise tax to the comptroller for events that are not excluded.

Toy and merchandise small business depend on us to purchase all of our game prizes. If our ride and game stock businesses are forced to close because they are considered a non-essential, where are we going to buy the parts for the rides and games we currently have?

We spend millions of dollars on light bulbs, electrical wire, port-a-lets, landscaping, forklift rentals, sanitation services, sign and banner small business, Flag distributors, local security, tent companies, ticket stock small business, safety inspection companies, marketing firms for advertising, sound system small business, local canvas shops….and the list could goes on and on

And what about the jobs and people that these fairs and mobile companies employ form year to year?

We are requesting that fairs and carnivals be given specific language in an upcoming executive order from Governor Abbott. Please make us a part of the Governors re-opening process in Texas. Thank you for your time. Mary Brown Talley