Welcome visitor to return
The West Coast Carnival is constantly on the move around WA and Port Hedland is one of the few towns to get two visits each year, amusing crowds with everything from sideshows to fairy floss.
The carnival recently stopped in South Hedland en route to the Derby Boab Festival, and will return in the last weekend of July for the Spinifex Spree.
Carnival director Mitchell Ross said business was difficult everywhere at the moment.
“One of our biggest problems is our expenses just continue to rise but our prices have to stay the same,” he said.
“We haven’t had a price increase in ten years and we just cannot put our prices up because we wouldn’t get the patronage.”
Offering wrist bands for three hours of free rides is one way the carnival is trying to adapt, but sales had been sluggish.
Mr Ross said while in Port Hedland the three-day carnival received an “overwhelming response” from the local community and more wrist bands were sold than expected.
“It was just fantastic,” he said.
The carnival has been coming to Port Hedland since 1992 and this year Mr Ross said he believed it was the only one of its kind this year travelling into the Pilbara and Kimberley.
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