North Brunswick Youth Sports Festival 2014I go to roughly four “big” fairs each season. The first of which is always the Youth Sports Festival in North Brunswick, NJ. The fair is located in a field next to Devry University in North Brunswick and is almost impossible to miss when driving down Route 1, a major thoroughfare in central Jersey.

I headed down to the fair on Saturday, the 14th. I left at 7pm and arrived about 40 minutes later. Upon approaching the fair, I was met with the access road to Devry’s parking lot choked with cars…but not nearly as congested as the opposing eastbound lanes! I rounded the lot a couple of times before finding an open spot. Strates Shows was doing the midway for the second year now. Admission was $5 and the fair had…

… Trip Report: 2014 North Brunswick Youth Sports Festival

Feast of St. Anthony - South Plainfield, NJWhich was first unintentional  but has now become deliberate, I went to the Feast of St. Anthony Festival at Our Lady of Czestochowa in South Plainfield, NJ after taking a year off from visiting. I first went in 2008, then again in 2010, then I happened to go in 2012 and then decided that I would not go in 2013 and instead wait until this year. I will tell you right now, 2016 is when I’ll be going again, just to keep with tradition. (2016 Edit: I failed to keep up tradition 🙁  )

Let me say, the difference from 2008 is stark. It used to be a crumbly little carnival with a few of rough rides and a bunch of food. Now, it has a massive midway with more food than one can fathom. Dreamland Amusements had the midway and seemed to bring a good deal of their equipment, the fair had…

… Trip Report: 2014 Feast of St. Anthony Festival

St. Vincent de Paul Carnival- Stirling, NJI was made aware of the St. Vincent de Paul carnival in Stirling, NJ by two different people trying to get the word out on my NJ-Carnivals site. This was their first annual event so they wanted everybody talking about it. It’s funny because I always thought that the Long Hill area had a place doing a carnival already but was just so poorly promoted that my Googling could simply never turn it up. There’s one now, I guess.

Since I live fairly close by, I started seeing signs for the event pop up about a week prior while on my bike rides. I eventually headed over on Saturday, May 31st. The rides were brought in by McCafferty Enterprises, a show I haven’t seen since the now axed MusicFest back in 2011. While the midway was smallish, they had quite a few things lined up at this event. The fair had…

… Trip Report: 2014 St. Vincent de Paul Carnival

SlideAfter leaving St. Matthias, I headed back towards Bound Brook to stop by at the Bound Brook Fire Dept. Carnival at Billian Legion Park, about 15 minutes away from carnival #1 that night. I made this my second stop because the fair closed later than St. Matthias, at 12am. Or was it 11pm? I don’t know, I was supplied with a revolving door of hours at my NJ Carnivals site. Whatever the case, it was later.

I managed to find street parking on this road in front of the carnival that had been made one way for the event; one lane was thru traffic while the other was made into parking spots. Blue Sky Amusements was doing the event, fresh off their stint in New Providence. The fair had…

… Trip Report: 2014 Bound Brook Fire Dept. Carnival

St Matthias Carnival 2014 - New JerseyOn Saturday, May 17th, I embarked on a rare double carnival trip. I mean, it’s not like that opportunity arises with the same frequency as a solar eclipse, I’m usually just too lazy to plan double trip. However, it was impossible to pass up on this occasion as my route to St Matthias in Somerset, NJ literally went past the Bound Brook Fire Dept Carnival in Bound Brook, NJ.

I decided on hitting St. Matthias first as they closed earlier. I arrived at the fair at around 8pm and parked in St. Matthias’ auxiliary parking lot, better known as the school’s soccer field. The fair was done by Amusements of America, who brought in their “smaller fair” unit as I like to call it. Make no mistake, it’s a pretty decent sized fair, after all it had:

… Trip Report: 2014 St. Matthias Parish Carnival

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