Will the U.S ever host another worlds fair?

When was the last North American fair, or fair-like event? Didn't Vancouver have something (Expo '86?) Isn't that where SFStL's Ninja came from?

That POS? The canucks can have it back IMHO *** Edited 8/31/2006 2:53:51 PM UTC by Charles Nungester***

Send it to Adventureland first! I actually like that POS. Love the chain headchopper.

Never been on it, although it looks like it could be one of those Arrows that is miraculously decent. Maybe.

Except that it's a Vekoma.

I don't hate Ninja, but I don't love it either. Personally I'd rather have the coaster that it replaced.

Because it has a Arrow Train, I assumed Arrow, After having ridden Orient Express the day before. My reply to my brother durring the ride on Ninja was Toomers trying to kill me.

Only later did I find out it was a Vekoma.

A major factor in bringing an end to World's Fairs in the United States was the opening of WDW Epcot Center. This park has the main elements of Worlds Fairs including a section centered upon industry and technology and an area centered on International themes.

Even before Epcot, however, the decline in staging them was noticable. Most significantly, there was no Bicentenial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1976.

The two most important Worlds Fairs in North America since World War II were the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965 which celebrated the city's Tricentenial and Expo 67 in Montreal in 1967 which was part of the Canadian Centenial. Two examples of smaller Worlds Fairs during this period were in Seattle and in San Antonio.

Yeah, I think the relevance of World's Fairs has decreased in recent years. Not only did Epcot offer a lot of what a World's Fair was supposed to offer but many theme parks before Epcot limited the need for something like that. As spectacular as they were, seems to me that a World's Fair was really just a gigantic long-term carnival.

As for Ninja, it was a project started by Arrow and finished by Vekoma when Arrow went backrupt (probably at the end of the Arrow-Huss thing). But really... is there really a difference between old Arrows and pre-Boomerang/SLC Vekomas? Differing layouts aside, they seem very similar.

Four of the attractions from the 1964-5 New York Worlds Fair ended up at Disneyland. They included the GE Carousel of Progress (later relocated to WDWMK), the State of Illinois Abraham Lincoln show (later part of the Hall of Presidents), the dinosaurs from the Ford Motor Co. exhibit (placed in a tunnel on the Disneyland and SF RR.), and It's a Small World from the Unicef pavilion.

I agree with Rob. Part of the new technology is that you don't actually have to get off your ass to go anywhere to see it. It comes to you. Plus, it seems there's always some big event going on anyway (millennium events, olympics every other year now, etc.) so we don't need World's Fairs-- unless they introduce a new flavor of Dippin' Dots.

IIRC, wasn't it the Columbian Exposition where the Ferris wheel was introduced? And another one (St. Louis maybe) where the hotdog was introduced?

Ice cream cones! :)

The 1982 World's Fair, while not as big as some of the other World's Fairs, had a huge impact on Knoxville. We still have a few remnants of the fair - most notably The Sunsphere is still here and is wig-free. It will be going under renovation over the next year and will once again be open to the public with a small restaurant, observation deck and office space. The park where the fair took place has been remodeled and it has become a place where regional festivals are held, outdoor concerts, garden shows, and it acts as a park for the nearby university. It's really a very attractive park that would have never been there had it not been for the fair. Friends of mine who lived blocks from the fair still to this day talk about the daily firework and laser shows they could see from their porch :) Coincidentally, "World's Fair" was one of the most popular Google searches conducted by people in Knoxville...so many people here in Knoxville are very nostalgic and proud that it happened here. It's also worth noting a couple of other things 1)that the Knoxville World's Fair was the ONLY WF to make a profit and 2) that the Knoxville World's Fair had an attendance of over 11 million people - which is over 3 times as many people that visit Cedar Point in a given year. *** Edited 8/31/2006 6:35:46 PM UTC by coasterfreaky***

"Shoulda gone to Macon, Georgia." ;)

As soon as you mentioned the Knoxville fair, I immediately thought "Wigshere". You beat me to it in the next sentence!

I think World's Fairs have seen the debut of many things, although most of those things came at a time before TV. Nowadays you can turn on the news and find out what's new in the world today without having to go to a World's Fair and see it for yourself. I guess the progression of the modern world left behind the concept of the World's Fair?

The 1964 worlds fair had 54 million guests, they were expecting somewhere in the 70 million range.

The short answer is, "no."

The longer answer is, "no way in Hell."

World's Fairs have long outlived their usefulness as demonstrations of technology and culture thanks to things like television and the internet. The speed at which information can be shared ensures that a World's Fair will immediately become a museum rather than a harbinger of the future.

The 1964 New York World's Fair, heralded by many as the end all of such events, was a collosal failure. It was the will of Robert Moses and little else, lost heaps and heaps of money and really marked the end of the usefulness of such expositions.

That doesn't mean that expos don't take place anymore, however. They're held often elsewhere and are typically poorly received and financially wasteful, just as they'd become here. The best long term benefit realized by these events have been civic and infrastructure improvements, so it's no coincidence that their death knell rang, in addition to all the other contributing factors, just as America's highway network finally started coming into its own.

Huh! I thought Bart Simpson knocked over the Sunsphere!

Anyway... Interesting piece of history....That Giant Ferris Wheel now operates at Darien Lake

The tire/ferris wheel that was in the 64 worlds fair, now sits aloungside I-94 in detroit as a big advertisement for a tire company.

Here is some pics...

http://www.uniroyal.com/about/gianttire.html *** Edited 8/31/2006 10:32:55 PM UTC by crazy horse***

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Rob Ascough said:
"Shoulda gone to Macon, Georgia." ;)

As soon as you mentioned the Knoxville fair, I immediately thought "Wigshere". You beat me to it in the next sentence!

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The funny thing is...Knoxville actually had a lot of wig stores. I moved here in the early '90's and there were, what seemed like dozens of wig stores. Not sure why, but there were. Most are gone now. Whoever wrote that episode had obviously visited here and had a great sense of humour about it ;).

"Tennessean is Tennebelievin!"

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If I could travel back in time I'd visit the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. There would be one big problem however. Just everybody would be raving about what life would be like "In the Future" EXCEPT this one "Characture" (Me) who's HOWLING at just about every exhibit at the fair! :) I read there was one Pavilion there devoted to "The Miracle Mineral of the Future" ASBESTOS!

Well this debuncts all doubters.

The next Schedualed one is for 2008

http://www.expomuseum.com/