Thread: Dark Carnival Circus Sideshow

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That's the theme for my party this year: dark carnival/circus sideshow. I'm going to be a shemale, one half guy, one half lady. Still working out the details of the costume. The hubsters wants to be an organ grinder. We are thinking about getting some sort of tent for the yard. I need to build some sort of oddities. Other than that I'm a little lost and could use your brains. BRAAAAIIIIINS!!

I need more ideas for decorations. I bought a plastic riding horse today and will paint it up like a creepy carousel horse. I'm not sure what kind of oddities I could pull off building. Maybe decorate fridge boxes to hold the oddities so they are more interactive and hidden? The party will be in our front yard, back yard and kitchen/livingroom. Last year no one really went upstairs so I'm not going to bother decorating it.

For food I'm thinking carnival food. Hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy... What else is carnival food like that doesn't involve a ton of deep frying and can have a creepy twist?

Any suggestions? \

Here are some ideas for a carnival outdoor theme. You could probably use some of them and give them a twist. Neither of these has the theme in the title, so many may miss these great ideas.


Outdoor party help[url]


Hi! I'm a newbie and need some ideas!


Since you have been around for awhile, you are familiar with Tempt your Fate. You could do this with the balloons hanging on a foam board and throw darts at them carnival style for a booth. You could really have fun with either fates or just do twisted prizes.

My party this year is “Carnival of Horrors” and as a twist this will be a murder mystery party as well- it’s all adults and I’m expecting about 80 people and all indoors.

I bought a few animatronic clowns for this year but I’m also going to dress my existing animatronics up in costumes. For ex: Jason & Skelton Coachman - as clowns, Headless Victorian Bride- The bearded lady (headless of course!)- Witch - as a clown but she’ll be a Knife throwing clown. I have posable skeletons that I’m going to set up as little vignettes around the house- The Snake Charmer, The Strong Man, The Fire Eater, the Bearded Lady and the Knife Thrower. I ordered a cardboard light up Ferris wheel from www.stumpsparty.com and named it the “Wheel of terror”. I made circus tent toppers out of cardboard to go over the food table as the concession stand, and for the entryways.
If you search carnival on Stump’s Party you can see all the cardboard cutouts they have pertaining to carnival/circus. That’s where I got a lot of my cardboard building ideas.

I also ordered cardboard voting booths from Election Source http://shop.shopelections.com and I’m painting them and setting them up as a row of carnival games. Also a prize booth which is a bunch of headless stuffed animals (thank God for garage sales- LOL). I searched the web and found a bunch of old black and white photos of old carnival acts. I’m attaching them to large pieces of poster board, spraying on a little fake blood, and in some instances dragging a wet tea bag or burning the poster board (be careful!) a little so that they look weathered. They’ll be hanging around on the walls.

As far as food- I’m doing sliders, mini hotdogs & French fries. I’ll have an old fashioned popcorn machine and a cotton (rotten) candy machine.

I hope this has helped! I’ve been working on this stuff since March! Happy Halloween!!!!

Siamese twins, world's smallest man/woman, world's tallest man/woman, tattooed man, fortune teller, dog boy....just a few to add to Zoemargan2's list.

There have been a number of great carnivals haunts on the forum in the last few years where people have also posted their photos or videos. A number of the carnivals have had sideshows too.

This is a recent one devils chariot and friends did last year that might give you some ideas. There have been a number of threads on it too, including the building of their carousel. Here's a link to get you started but I'd suggest searching by the member's name and also searches on carnival, sideshow, carnevil.
Rasputin's Carnival of Risk Video

I've been working on putting together a circus/carnival theme and started a thread that might be helpful: Circus props

I actually did by a Zultan - can't afford Zoltar http://www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/fr...ocks-my-world/

I wish I was big!

I wish I could weigh people!

-

I LOVE the Zultan! I don't see them for sale anywhere tho. I'll have to cross my fingers that I find something similar because it would be PERFECT!
Thanks for all the ideas and links! I'm going to spend some time checking them out!

I am hosting a "Carnival of Lost Souls". My hubby is building one for our party although, I am using a female mannequin head and torso, so she'll be a Gypsy. My husband has rigged up a "Rube Goldberg" device to disperse the fortunes. I bought those empty capsules (like the ones in gumball machines) to hold the fortunes. I'll send a photo when it's finished.
I am working on the premise that most carnival side shows are rip-offs, and that makes them kind of funny. So the hokier the displays,
the better!
I am using my dog's old crate to display "Snake Lady." If you watch any carnival snake lady videos on Youtube, you will find it is always a woman sticking her head through a hole and her hair covers the end of the snake body ( some stuffed thing). Almost too easy!

Today, I went to A.C. Moore craft store and bought a twenty four inch tall stuffed standing Dracula for 50%off. I bought him because he is wearing a black suit. I will put white gloves over his purple hands and an ugly old man mask on him. I will display him in a decorated appliance box as "The smallest man in the world"
My party will be in my backyard, garage and rather large screenhouse. This will force the guests to mill around to see everything. I have 3 tents I will set up and decorate with "sideshow" attractions. I will serve most of the food from my kitchen, but serve grilled hotdogs, cotton candy and nachos with cheese at a "concession center" set up in my screenhouse.
I am announcing to my guests that though they can wear any costume they chose, there will be a prize for the the best carnival character thus insuring I get a lot of "freaks" at my carnival.

A really cool idea to do is to make giant jack-in-the-box's. You can even have people (dressed as clowns) popping out of them. A local haunted walk i'm in does this in the clown scene and it's really cool. I'm also probably going to do it in my high schools haunted walk. (I'm running it and my scene is going to be circus themed!) Gotta love clowns!