At the Lane County Fair, where do rides come from and how do they get set up?

For a good chunk of the year, the Lane Events Center, also known as “the fairgrounds,” doesn’t actually have a fair set up.

There are no roller coasters, Ferris wheels or carnival games. Yet for a week in July, thousands of people swarm the grounds, enjoying the fun of the county fair, but unaware of the preparation and work that goes into setting up.

Ronald Burback, president of Funtastic Rides, the supplier of amusement park rides for the Lane County Fair, says the company starts prepping a year out, planning for which fairs get which rides during fair season.

The county fair, which opens Wednesday, July 22, contracts for a certain number of rides, trying to strike a balance between kiddie rides and major thrill rides. Burback said that Funtastic Rides sent a list of the 34 rides scheduled for the fair 30 days in advance so that fair officials could post that list well in advance.

Some rides rotate in and out, while some have stayed in the rotation for years.

“The Zipper is a classic,” Burback said. “We pull (the Zipper) from the lineup of other fairs to make sure that the Lane County Fair has it, because people down there seem to love it.”

The Zipper, a ride that features a rotating oblong boom with 12 passenger cages that also freely rotate, is one of the more intense rides, according to Burback.

As for the most tedious ride to put together, Burback said that the Ferris wheel takes the longest to set up, demanding at least two days.

Getting rides like the Zipper to Eugene is an operation of its own. Funtastic Rides runs out of a 15-acre facility in Portland, where employees are always working on rides, Burback said.

The company also employs welders and machinists who handle everything from routine fixes to full rebuilds. Since most of the rides are steel-based, damaged parts can typically be welded or remanufactured.

That’s not always possible. Burback said once parts for an older ride are no longer available, he doesn’t sell the ride. Instead, it gets scrapped so it can’t end up back in public use.

He said the paint and truck shops in his company almost never close, working to keep the rides up to standards throughout the year.

The rides also have to pass an annual state inspection. 

Burback submits his equipment to the Oregon Building Codes Division each September, and once approved, the rides carry a decal showing they’ve passed inspection within the last 12 months, even though the machines sit in storage over the winter and don’t come back out until spring.

Kelly Larsen, sales and events supervisor for the Lane County Fair, said the fair has not had any incidents or injuries regarding fairgoers and Funtastic Rides.

As of Friday, July 17, about 80% of the rides that will be at the Lane County Fair were in Olympia, Washington, for the Lakefair. Burback said that all of that would be shipped down to Eugene overnight in a 60-truck fleet.

Setting all of the rides up takes a small army, Burback said. He expects 100 to 110 workers on site for the Lane County Fair, with a mix of local hires from Oregon and Washington and workers from Latin America and even as far as South Africa.

The Lane County Fair is one of the company’s hottest fairs, according to Burback — and not just in terms of attendance; he’s referring to the temperature.

“It gets pretty warm down there, and the steel gets hot,” Burback said. “So we try to set up late in the evening or really early in the morning before it gets too hot.”

Despite decades in the amusement park business, Burback said he doesn’t ride any of the attractions. 

“It’s an equilibrium thing with me,” he said. “If I rode a ride that spun around, I’d be done for.”