Prepare for the Weather That Could Affect Your Particular Event
Adverse weather planning for a funfair should not begin with the assumption that bad weather simply means rain. Wind, extreme heat, cold conditions, thunderstorms, saturated ground, snow, ice and sudden changes in visibility can all influence an outdoor event in different ways.
The relevant preparations also depend on the attractions being used. A site containing Ferris wheels, Chair O Planes and other tall mechanical rides presents different considerations from an event built mainly around fairground side stalls and games or indoor fairground games.
Use Forecasts to Make Decisions, Not Just to Check Whether It Will Rain
Weather forecasts are most useful when they are connected to decisions. Organisers should think in advance about what information needs to be monitored and what action may follow if conditions deteriorate.
This might include reviewing expected wind, rainfall, temperature and thunderstorm risk in the days before the event, followed by more frequent checks as the event approaches. Conditions at the venue itself also matter, particularly when local exposure or ground conditions differ from the wider regional forecast.
Rain Can Affect Much More Than Visitor Comfort
Persistent rain can change the way an entire site functions. Grass may soften, pedestrian routes may become muddy and water can collect in areas that appeared perfectly suitable when the venue was first inspected.
These effects should be considered when deciding where to place rides, stalls, catering and queues. Rainy Weather FAQs provides further guidance specifically for wet-weather events.
It can also be useful to revisit How to Place Funfair Rides Around the Site when planning an outdoor layout because the most convenient position in dry weather may not remain the best location after prolonged rainfall.
Do Not Treat Wet Ground and Falling Rain as the Same Problem
An event can experience ground-related difficulties even after the rain has stopped. Previous rainfall may leave parts of a venue saturated long before suppliers arrive.
For that reason, organisers should consider recent site conditions as well as the forecast for the event itself. Vehicle access, installation areas and principal pedestrian routes may all need reviewing if the ground has deteriorated.
How Are Funfair Rides Transported? explains why access to the setup position forms an important part of mobile fairground planning.
Strong Wind Requires Attraction-Specific Decisions
Wind is particularly important because amusement equipment differs considerably in its design, height and exposure. Organisers should not create their own universal wind limit and apply it to every attraction.
Operators need to work according to the requirements relevant to the equipment they are operating. Taller or more exposed attractions, including some Ferris wheels and Chair O Planes, naturally require particular attention when windy conditions develop.
How to Keep Funfair Rides Safe in Windy Conditions explores this subject in substantially more detail.
Remember That Gusts Matter as Well as Average Conditions
A weather report may provide an average wind speed alongside stronger gusts. For event planning, it is important not to look at one headline number and ignore the wider forecast.
Conditions can also vary around the venue. An exposed field, waterfront location or open section of a large site may behave differently from a sheltered area between buildings.
Weather information should therefore support the decisions of the responsible operators and event team rather than replace them.
Thunderstorms Need a Separate Plan
A thunderstorm combines several potential issues at once, including strong winds, heavy rainfall and lightning. It should therefore be considered separately rather than treated as another ordinary rain shower.
An organiser's emergency and weather procedures should identify who monitors conditions, how information is communicated and what happens if normal activity needs to change.
How to Plan for Emergencies - Funfair Crisis Management provides related guidance on creating a wider response structure for unexpected situations.
Do Not Wait Until a Storm Is Overhead to Decide What Happens
Weather procedures are easier to use when roles have been established before the event. The organiser, attraction operators, venue management and other contractors should understand how significant weather information will be communicated.
This avoids trying to create a decision-making structure while conditions are already deteriorating.
If circumstances develop into an immediate incident, What to Do in a Funfair Emergency covers the response phase in more detail.
Extreme Heat Is Also Adverse Weather
Hot, sunny weather may initially appear ideal for an outdoor funfair, but high temperatures can create different welfare considerations for visitors and staff. Long queues, limited shade and hours spent outdoors can make a summer event uncomfortable.
Providing opportunities for rest, refreshments and sensible breaks can therefore form part of hot-weather planning. How to Keep Funfairs Comfortable in the Summer contains more detailed advice for warm conditions.
Think About Where People Will Queue in Strong Sunshine
The location of a queue can become much more significant during hot weather. A long waiting line in an exposed area may be less comfortable than one positioned with the conditions in mind.
Queue planning should therefore consider both capacity and visitor welfare. How to Manage Queues at Funfairs explains how waiting areas fit into the wider movement of guests around an event.
Where longer waits are anticipated, queue busters and waiting area games may provide additional entertainment, although they should not interfere with the underlying queue-management plan.
Cold Weather Changes How Visitors Use a Funfair
Low temperatures create a different visitor pattern from a warm summer event. People may spend more time around food, sheltered spaces and indoor entertainment and may be less inclined to remain stationary in long outdoor queues.
How to Keep Funfairs Comfortable in the Winter looks specifically at planning for colder events.
Seasonal activities such as Christmas parties and events, Christmas fairground rides and Christmas funfair games and stalls can therefore benefit from a layout that considers both entertainment and visitor comfort.
Use Food and Rest Areas Strategically in Cold Conditions
At winter events, catering and rest facilities can become particularly important parts of the visitor journey. Christmas winter warmers and other event catering solutions can be positioned with pedestrian routes and seating in mind.
picnic benches and suitable relax and chill out zones can also provide planned stopping points rather than leaving visitors to congregate around attraction entrances.
Snow Creates Both Operational and Visitor-Access Questions
Snow can alter road access, vehicle movement, pedestrian surfaces and visibility as well as the conditions within the venue itself. Even relatively small amounts can require the event plan to be reviewed rather than simply continuing as if conditions were dry.
Organisers should consider how suppliers will reach the venue, how guests will move around it and whether particular areas of the site remain practical.
When the event includes substantial mobile equipment, How Are Funfair Rides Transported? provides useful context on why the journey to the final setup position matters.
Ice Can Remain After Other Weather Has Improved
A clear, dry day does not necessarily remove all weather-related issues if freezing overnight temperatures have affected pedestrian areas or working surfaces.
Entrance routes, queues and other high-footfall areas should be reviewed according to the actual conditions at the venue. Event organisers should avoid assuming that the absence of current precipitation means the site has returned to normal.
Flooding Requires a Site-Level Response
Heavy or prolonged rain can sometimes create problems beyond ordinary wet ground. Low-lying sections of a venue may collect water, drainage may become overwhelmed and established pedestrian routes may no longer be practical.
The response depends on the particular venue and severity of the situation. Site plans should therefore identify alternative routes and areas that could become problematic in sustained rain where this is foreseeable.
Poor Visibility Can Affect an Event Without Stopping the Rain Gauge
Fog, heavy rain and winter darkness can affect visibility around an outdoor event. Lighting, signage, pedestrian routes and vehicle movements may therefore require additional attention when visibility is reduced.
This is especially relevant during installation and breakdown, when working vehicles and equipment may be moving through areas that are pedestrian spaces during opening hours.
How to Assemble and Dismantle Funfair Rides provides more information about these operational stages.
Weather Planning Begins Before the Attractions Arrive
The condition of the venue can influence installation, so adverse weather planning should form part of the build schedule rather than beginning when visitors arrive.
Supplier access, ground conditions and the order in which equipment is installed may all need adjustment following severe weather.
For broader installation guidance, see How to Set Up and Tear Down Funfair Rides.
Protect Important Access Routes from Becoming Blocked
Changes made because of bad weather can unintentionally create other problems. Moving a queue, shelter, catering unit or temporary activity into a drier area should not result in an important access route becoming obstructed.
crowd barrier fences can help define selected pedestrian and operational areas where appropriate, while How to Use Crowd Barrier Fencing at Events explains their role in event layouts.
Adverse Weather Can Change the Queue Plan
Visitor behaviour often changes with the weather. People may cluster beneath shelter during rain, seek shade during heat or concentrate around food and warmer areas in cold conditions.
A queueing arrangement that works perfectly in mild conditions may therefore need adjustment as people use the site differently.
Organisers should monitor the actual movement of guests rather than assuming the original site drawing will continue to describe how people behave.
Consider Attractions That Provide More Flexibility
A varied entertainment programme can give organisers more options when weather affects how different parts of the event are used. Depending on the venue, the programme might combine mechanical rides with indoor fairground games, retro arcade machines, electronic and digital games or garden games.
This does not mean that every alternative will be suitable in every weather condition. It simply prevents the event concept from depending entirely on one type of outdoor attraction.
Indoor Entertainment Can Strengthen a Mixed-Site Event
Where a venue includes both indoor and outdoor space, indoor funfair fun can form part of the original event design rather than being treated as a last-minute substitute.
Games such as Retro Table Arcade Machine, Giant Buzz Wire and Pool Table have very different venue requirements from major outdoor fairground rides and can help create a broader entertainment programme.
Do Not Move Rides Simply Because Another Area Looks More Sheltered
Relocating a large attraction is not the same as moving a table or stall. Any alternative position still needs to meet the relevant practical and operational requirements.
Ground suitability, access, surrounding clearance, power and visitor routes remain important. How to Perform a Funfair Ride Risk Assessment provides further guidance on assessing hazards within the event environment.
Power and Electrical Equipment Need Weather Consideration Too
Amusement equipment relies on operational infrastructure that may not be immediately obvious to visitors. Weather preparation therefore extends beyond the visible rides.
How Are Funfair Rides Powered? explains more about power provision, while Fairground Electrical Safety Regulations covers related electrical safety considerations.
The responsible professionals should determine how electrical equipment is managed under the actual conditions rather than visitors or organisers improvising their own modifications.
Keep Guests Informed When Conditions Change
If weather affects an attraction or part of the event, clear communication can prevent confusion. Guests may need to know that a ride is temporarily unavailable, a queue has moved or a particular route is closed.
Information should be factual and should avoid promising a reopening time before the responsible operator knows that normal operation can resume.
A Ride Stopping in Bad Weather Does Not Automatically Mean Something Has Failed
Attractions can stop operating for a number of reasons, and a pause prompted by environmental conditions can form part of responsible operation rather than indicating a mechanical failure.
What Causes a Funfair Ride to Stop? explains some of the reasons normal operation may be interrupted.
Visitors should follow instructions from the ride operator and should never attempt to leave or interfere with an attraction unless instructed to do so.
Children Can Need Additional Support When Weather Deteriorates
Young visitors may become cold, tired or unsettled more quickly when conditions worsen. Parents and carers should therefore consider clothing, rest, shelter and whether a child still wants to continue with particular activities.
How to Keep Children Safe at Fairgrounds provides broader guidance for families, while How to Help Nervous Children with Funfair Rides is useful where changing conditions make a child less comfortable about riding.
Accessibility Plans Should Work in Poor Weather Too
Accessible routes that function well in dry weather may become harder to use if surfaces deteriorate or temporary changes are made to the site layout.
Weather planning should therefore consider whether adjustments to queues, entrances or pedestrian routes could disproportionately affect some visitors.
Disabled Accessibility and Inclusivity at Funfairs & Fairgrounds covers accessibility within the wider fairground environment.
Know Who Has Authority to Make Weather-Related Decisions
One of the most useful preparations is establishing responsibility before the event. The organiser, venue and individual ride operators have different roles, and the person responsible for operating an attraction needs to make appropriate decisions concerning that equipment.
A written event plan can identify communication routes so that changes affecting the wider site are passed between the relevant people quickly.
Create Triggers for Reviewing the Event Plan
Adverse weather planning does not have to mean predicting every possible outcome in advance. It can instead establish points at which conditions should be reviewed.
- A forecast deteriorates substantially before setup.
- Heavy rainfall changes the condition of the venue.
- Wind conditions become relevant to particular attractions.
- A thunderstorm approaches the area.
- Extreme heat begins affecting queues or visitor welfare.
- Snow, ice or flooding affects access routes.
- Conditions change sufficiently that the original site plan no longer works as intended.
The action following each review will depend on the event, venue and equipment involved.
Have More Than One Outcome Available
Weather planning should not be reduced to a binary choice between running the complete event exactly as planned and cancelling everything. Depending on the circumstances, there may be occasions when individual attractions pause, opening arrangements change, queues are relocated or parts of the programme continue while others do not.
Those decisions must still be made by the appropriate people and according to the requirements of the equipment concerned.
Know When the Situation Has Become an Emergency
Most adverse weather planning is preventative and operational. Occasionally, however, conditions may contribute to a situation requiring an emergency response.
At that point the priority changes from preserving the planned event programme to following the established emergency arrangements. What to Do in a Funfair Emergency provides guidance on this distinction.
Reassess Before Returning to Normal Operation
The end of heavy rain, strong wind or another weather event does not by itself mean that everything immediately returns to its previous condition. Ground, equipment, access routes and other parts of the venue may need to be reviewed before normal activity continues.
Where an attraction has stopped, the responsible operator should determine when it can operate again.
Weather Preparation Is Part of Wider Guest Safety
Visitors experience the combined effects of the weather, site layout, queues, attractions and event management. These subjects therefore work together rather than existing as separate checklists.
How to Ensure the Safety of Your Guests at Your Funfair looks at that wider picture, while Common Factors in Funfair Injuries discusses several circumstances that event organisers should consider when developing their plans.
Build Weather Resilience into the Event from the Start
The strongest approach is to consider adverse weather while selecting the venue, attractions and layout rather than trying to retrofit a weather plan shortly before opening.
A balanced fairground and funfair hire programme can include fairground rides, games, catering and other activities suited to the scale and format of the event.
How to Choose the Right Funfair Rides & Games can help with the attraction-selection stage, while our Guides contain further information about wind, rain, seasonal comfort, safety, queues, transport and site planning.
If you are planning an outdoor event and want to discuss the practical requirements of the attractions you are considering, contact us with details of the venue, date and proposed entertainment.