Towering over the state fair skyline, the rotating contraption appropriately named Speed causes passersby to stop on their way to trampoline shows and food stands, shield their eyes and watch the attraction as it launches its riders into the cotton candy-colored sky.
Dorothy Kouroupis and Tiffany Dove, guest services employees for North American Midway Entertainment, the company providing the 53 Midway rides for the Indiana State Fair, sit at an information booth most of the day, helping fairgoers with any questions or concerns. During the quiet moments of the day, they observe the families and the groups of friends as they walk the Midway.
“I don’t get to see [guests] get on and off, but I can hear them on the rides,” Kouroupis said. “They have all kinds of responses — mostly screaming on the scary rides.”
Dove and Kouroupis both recommend the ride Speed for the more daring fairgoer.
The trip from their claustrophobic information desk to the 120-foot-tall colossus that is Speed takes only five minutes of weaving in between children with animal face paint and game vendors issuing challenges.
“Take a swing,” says a hawker while gesturing toward a high striker.
After passing the low roofs of the carnival games, the rides emerge into view. Although the swings and haunted houses draw in glances, most eyes stay concentrated on the intimidating height of Speed.
The walkers temporarily pause and gawk upward before muttering a quip or laughing with their friends and moving on. Speed seems to garner more stares than riders.
This pattern of looking and leaving continues until a younger girl sporting a fake black mustache and a matching lei drags two people who appear to be her parents to the gates of the ride.
She steps toward the measuring display and excitedly plasters herself against the human-sized ruler reading, “Minimum height: 56’’, Maximum: 75’’.”
“See, I can go!” she says as she excitedly jumps toward her escorts.
After her ride, more pairs follow her lead and file up to the ride’s entrance, often sporting stretched smiles.
When their turn comes, they step onto the platform, shedding their glasses and flip-flops before hopping into their harnesses.
The ride begins slowly with a sluggish once-around and gradually picks up pace, rocking the compartment more and more with each rotation.
Each passenger reacts differently. Some display faces with a combination of amusement and a wish to throw up and others smile and wave to onlookers.
The pedestrians on the ground swivel their heads to the circular motion of Speed.
After the movement stops and the unloading begins, the previously calm person who waited nervously for the ride to start has transformed into an enthusiastic, giggling kid. They run to the next attraction, spurred by their pumping adrenaline.
Couple Megan Shipley and Ronald Huffman take their turn with Speed, but not without hesitation.
Shipley says Huffman drafted her into accompanying him.
“Yeah, but she enjoyed it. She just doesn’t know it yet,” Huffman says smugly.
Shipley’s personal review doesn’t quite match Huffman’s.
“It was alright. It was good I didn’t puke,” she says.
Not everyone agrees to satisfy their adrenaline-junkie friend’s fix. Far more often, the queasy opt to spend their time at the fair on the ground rather than being hurled through the sky.
This trend often leads to one person searching for a partner in a stranger as the ride requires no one to go without a companion. The line for Speed morphs constantly as who’s in and who’s out changes.
Jackie Amos watches from a bench as her friend finds someone else to share his moment in the air.
Amos doesn’t like heights and has already sat with no one but a carnival-game stuffed penguin multiple times today while she watches from below.
“You see them and you feel scared for them,” she says.
But Amos knows her friend will emerge from the ride with a dopey smile and a story to tell, so she’ll choose to hug her penguin and not to worry. Not too much, anyway.
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