Every year it shows up in the spring. Along with buttercups, motorcycles and orange barrels, a carnival appears as if by magic in the parking lot at Eastland Mall. With very little if any fanfare, all of a sudden, it’s there! Earlier this week this year’s carnival showed up.
This carnival is owned by North American Midway Entertainment, the largest carnival in North America. Currently the carnival is split up into six groups with one being here in town.
Bridget Sparks is the Office Manager for this group. According to Sparks this is only the second spring this particular carnival has been here. In the spring carnivals set up in mall parking lots across the country before the fair season starts. In this case the carnival called the mall to see if they could set up in the parking lot.
Sparks has been in the carnival business for 26 years. She says the best part of the job is the employees. 98 percent of the carnival’s employees are foreign labor. Many are from Mexico and South Africa. The same employees come back year after year. The employees from South Africa were recruited while in high school through career days. They are young and can make more money working in carnival’s here than they can at home. Many of Sparks’ employees have been able to buy homes and start businesses.
Today’s carnival workers are not yesterday’s carnival employees. Employees for many positions have to be finger printed and background checked. Some municipalities don’t let you work there if you have committed a felony or been arrested for DUI in the last seven years. Because most of North American’s employees are foreign they have had their background checked by Homeland Security.
Wes Sparks is the Manager for the carnival. According to him they did 31 shows last year. The list of shows includes the Illinois State Fair as well as the Kansas and Mississippi state fairs. Recently the carnival has been in south Texas and is working its way north with the warm weather to Chicagoland. The Sparks are originally from Lincoln and are based in Marengo (Chicago).
