Carnival coming to Adrian Aug. 26

When Matt McDonagh found a hole on his carnival schedule for this summer, he knew right where he wanted to go.

Big Rock Amusements, the same company that has put on the carnival part of the Lenawee County Fair for several years, will host a special five-day festival beginning Wednesday, Aug. 26, in the parking lot of Howard Center — the former Adrian Mall.

“Adrian is a carnival town,” McDonagh said. “We always get a great response from the community.”

Big Rock Amusements is based in Florida but spends most of every summer across Michigan, playing at fairs and festivals week after week. Traditionally, they have gone from Adrian to Arcadia and then begin their southern tour by heading to North Carolina for several weeks. This year, however, one of the stops between Michigan and North Carolina had to cancel its dates so McDonagh made the decision to come back to Adrian.

“I flew into town, met with the mall owner, and he took me down to the city, and we got all the permits taken care of,” he said. “They could not have been accommodating and more gracious about getting this all set up.”

A couple of Lenawee County Fair board members also helped out, McDonagh said.

McDonagh said his team of 50 trucks and 100 employees would be converging on Adrian next week to set up the show.

Big Rock will offer free admission for all days of the show for five days. It will be open from 4-10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 1-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

With Lenawee County students going back to school, he said he decided to make it a “back-to-school” extravaganza. There will be rides, amusements, games and, of course, fair food. There will be no admission to get into the event, but wristbands will be required for rides.

“They will be at a discount compared to the fair,” McDonagh said. “I’m excited this is going to be a great thank you for everyone involved.”

McDonagh has been involved in fairs and festivals nearly his entire life. His family owned an amusement business before he branched out on his own around 2010. He bought an amusement company in Georgia that already had a schedule that included stops in Michigan. McDonagh, who is from Michigan, said he kept that schedule and added several Michigan dates to it.

The company works around the country nine months out of the year. Everything kicks off in Florida in February, and he begins working north with shows in Georgia and Kentucky before descending on Michigan. In late August or early September, he’ll head to North Carolina and then South Carolina for several weeks of shows, ending in November.