BILLINGS — MontanaFair is celebrating its 110-year anniversary from August 8-16 at MetraPark with something bigger and taller.
For the first time, Thomas Carnival brought its 110 foot Ferris wheel to Billings.
Watch what new things are at MontanaFair:
“There's 20 tubs, each tub holds six people. So, 120 people at any given moment,” Brandon Tetree, co-owner of Thomas Carnival said Friday.
After making it to MontanaFair, the Ferris wheel is quite a sight to behold.
“It weighs over 100 tons and it's three semi-truck loads,” Petree said.
Petree says Thomas Carnival has been in business for close to 100 years and coming to MontanaFair for just over four decades.
Safety remains a top priority for Petree.
“We do daily opening inspections. We also have third party inspectors come out,” Petree said. “All of our guys are highly skilled and trained to inspect their rides.”
For Petree, seeing the smiles on riders’ faces makes it all worthwhile.
“We're really excited to just bring all the fun, thrilling rides we have and let people get on them and have a good time,” Petree said.
Rides aren’t the only new attractions at the fair. Cody Reitz, director of sales and marketing at MontanaFair, says there will be more vendors showcasing various displays of art.
Reitz highlighted the significance of the fair’s long history.
“Looking at the history of what Montana Fair was, bringing back the community is something we’re really excited about,” Reitz said.
Reitz also noted the work that goes into this event.
“We work on this all year round, so it's nice to see all the work that we put into it pay off and be able to showcase that to the community at the state,” Reitz said.
