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Midway Directory · By type

Festivals with a midway

A festival whose main draw is something else (music, a holiday, a harvest) that brings in a midway too.

A festival with a midway is a celebration whose main draw is something else, a harvest, a holiday, a town’s history, that books rides and games as well. Trail’s Silver City Days, running since 1964, is a BC example: parades, music, a food fair and midway rides, all in one weekend.

What it is

The festival is run by a town, a society or a service club; the midway is booked from a travelling carnival. The two share the grounds and the crowd, and the midway often runs a day or two longer than the festival programme.

History, era by era

1893
The Chicago fair showed that an event could add a strip of paid amusements beside its main programme; the Midway helped it turn a profit.1
1890s
Early carnival companies played street fairs and town celebrations, bringing the Midway to places with no fairground.2
1912–1923
Calgary added a rodeo to its exhibition, and the combined show now runs a large midway with rides and sideshows beside the rodeo.3
1964
Trail held its first Silver City Days in 1964, a celebration of the city’s heritage that now brings midway rides, food fairs, parades and live music.4
Today
Prairie town festivals such as Taber Cornfest book a midway company for their weekend.5

The midway connection

For a town festival the midway is the part that keeps the families on the grounds after the parade. Silver City Days lists its midway rides first among the attractions.4

And beside the rides are the booths: local businesses, community groups, craft sellers and food. That mix is where a booth like ours fits best.

Wherever people walk a row of booths, the midway is there in some form: the full kind, with rides, games of skill and food joints, or the quieter kind, with craft tables, home baking and a booth like ours. That walk, with family and friends and something to look at every few steps, is what this directory is about.

One fact worth knowing

Questions people ask

How is this different from a fair?

A fair is built around judging and exhibits; a festival is built around a celebration and adds the midway for the crowd.4

Who brings the rides?

A travelling midway company booked for the weekend.5

Sources

  1. Chicago Park District: Midway Plaisance Park. Read on · government
  2. South End Historical Society: The Origins of the American Traveling Carnival. Read on · reference
  3. The Canadian Encyclopedia: Calgary Stampede. Read on · reference
  4. City of Trail: Trail Silver City Days. Read on · government
  5. West Coast Amusements: Taber Cornfest. Read on · official

Short listings from the census

Checked and sourced, but without a full page yet. Each one links to its row on its province or state page.

The Midway Mailbag

New listings as they arrive. Notes on new listings.

Running a fair, a booth or a fundraiser?

Bring the Machine to your event: sell printed reading tickets, or run the machine on a screen facing the crowd. Reading codes for booths and fundraisers.

All kinds of fairs · Midway Directory

Written by The Midway Machine. Last checked 2026-10-21.

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