Though rain showers put a damper on Saturday’s flights during the three-day annual Pahrump Balloon Festival, the carnival portion was not affected.
What was different this year, was the provider of the carnival attractions.
Since its inception, carnival rides were provided by Pahrump’s now defunct Davis Amusements Cascadia until this year, according to the new provider, Paradise Amusements.
Sherry McKay is the owner of the business.
“We actually store our equipment here in Pahrump, so we are basically local,” she said. “We have been here for five years and Davis Amusements are actually my friends. We’ve never solicited business here before because Davis Amusements are our allies. We work together on other events up north, so we kind of travel to the same areas. We are both competitors in the Northwest as well, so we kind of travel the same areas.”
McKay also noted officials from the Pahrump Chamber of Commerce reached out to her regarding the carnival this year after learning Davis Amusements opted out.
She also said that she would like to continue providing the carnival for the balloon festival as well as the annual Pahrump Fall Festival.
“We are very happy to be here and we want to build a good rapport with the community and let them know that we are local,” she said. “A lot of people live here who work for us, and we also picked up a lot of Davis Amusements staffing. We weren’t sure what kind of staffing we would need, so we brought equipment that was familiar to the people we knew we would have working. Our staff usually doesn’t come until April, so we are happy to be working earlier in the year. I would love to continue working the balloon festival, if we can get agreements worked out with the Chamber of Commerce. We only brought 10 attractions to the park. For the Fall Festival, we would probably have 20 to 25. We were able to do this because we normally don’t work this time of year. We are just very happy to be here and we hope that the community will welcome us as much as we will welcome them, so we are here to serve.”
Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jenney Sartin said in an email, “We have spoken to Paradise about the possibility of moving forward with them (with Fall Fest) pending a mutually satisfactory agreement and the outcome of the M.O.U. with Nye County.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes