Live entertainment, fairgrounds, penny arcades and beach huts!

Fairground Culture: Part of our seaside heritage, or something the resorts would rather forget?

Think of the British seaside fairground. Do your thoughts turn to images of candy floss and sticks of rock, hooplas and hook-a-ducks, adrenaline rides overlooking the beach and the fun house? Or do you think of a very different environment; one where gangs of youths dominate the scene, where the rides have seen better days, the paint is peeling, the burgers are undercooked, and the staff look like they have been in a fight? This paper aims to look at the contrasting images of the British seaside fairground. It draws on interview data with employees and customers at a former fairground/amusement park in Southport as this attraction struggled to distance itself from its past image of ‘fairground’ and progress to a ‘theme park’ - associated with safety, technology, and modernity (Urry, 1990; 35). These interviews were undertaken prior to the closure of this attraction, and the paper will then progress to consider the resort’s reaction to losing its ‘fair’.

Southport is currently aspiring for ‘Classic Resort’ status. Sefton Council (2006) define ‘Classic Resorts’ as having quality as their main focus and “of being attractive for their sense of quiet sophistication and their contemporary preservation of their spirit of the traditional seaside resort” (p2). In 2008 it was announced that Southport would not be replacing its fairground, but instead developers Urban Splash would be regenerating the site into a ‘Marine Park’ featuring a winter garden, a lidostyle pool, accommodation and a marine lake. This development is considered by the developers, Sefton Council, and other tourism organisations within Southport to be representative of a ‘classic resort’ rather than a fairground. The paper considers interview data concerning the culture and image of Southport’s fairground, and will then question if British seaside fairgrounds can ever conjure images of ‘quality’, or if they are consigned to become part of the seaside resorts’ past?