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Tag: State Fair

  • Robin Thicke Concerts Get Canceled and Discounted

    Robin Thicke has been going through something of a personal crisis of late. His split with wife Paula Patton played out in bold type across gossip rag headlines. Despite his best efforts to win her back, it looks like you can stick a fork in Robin and Paula.

    Now a picture is taking shape that could make things even worse. Thicke’s latest album, called Paula, in what seems to be a shameless attempt to get her back, has been roundly panned.

    But that’s not all. There have also been concert cancellation concerns from the Thicke camp. Back in February, Thicke backed out on a gig at a casino in North Carolina “due to unforeseen circumstances”.

    Then came a concert cancellation in Indiana, the same day that Thicke was spotted on the beach with his son and a mystery woman, whom he later explained to be his nanny.

    And now there is news that a show that will presumably go on is discounting tickets. Tickets for the Illinois State Fair concert on August 17 were originally $40 for Tier 3, $45 for Tier 2, and $50 for Tier 1. They have now been discounted to $25 for a Tier 2 or Tier 3 Grandstand seat, $35 for a Tier 1 seat and $45 for a VIP ticket right up at the stage.

    Is Thicke’s stock dropping so badly that they have to discount his tickets? At a state fair?

    Recently, Robin’s dad Alan spoke out about how he raised his kids and his desire just to see them happy. He backed Robin’s play in dedicating an entire album to his estranged wife.

    “My advice to Robin is listen to your heart, do what you feel,” Alan Thicke said. “Follow your heart in love and marriage as you would in careers and you’ll be fine. Robin has a great heart. He’s a fabulous father. He obviously followed his heart in creating and devoting an entire album to Paula and I believe you can’t go wrong that way.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Robin Thicke To Perform At State Fair

    R&B singer Robin Thicke will be heading to Illinois for a special performance in August.

    Thicke will be performing during this year’s State Fair in Illinois that will run from August 7 to August 17. The performance will take place at the Grandstand on the final day of the fair.

    The tickets for the concert will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 13. They can be purchased through ticketmaster.com, or you can call 800-745-3000.

    The tickets can also be purchased at the Illinois State Fair Box Office which opens on Monday, June 9. The box office is located at the North end of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in the Grandstand, and is open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can purchase tickets here in person or by phone. The phone number is 217-782-1979.

    Robin Thicke is most well known for his songs Blurred Lines and Love After War. Blurred Lines, which features T.I. and Pharrell, was an instant hit and won the 2014 Billboard Music award for Top Hot 100 Song. However, with the song’s success came a lot of controversy from feminist groups, who called the song degrading to women.

    Thicke’s label announced in May that he would be releasing his seventh album on Tuesday, July 1. The album, which is currently untitled, will feature Thicke’s newest hit Get Her Back that he wrote for his estranged wife Paula Patton.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Five Injured on Vortex Thrill Ride at NC State Fair

    Five people were injured on Thursday night on the Vortex thrill ride at the North Carolina State Fair. According to officials, the ride started back up as riders were trying to exit. Of the five people injured, three are still hospitalized and two are in serious condition. The ages of the injured range from 14 to 39 years old.

    “The ride had stopped and they were fixing to offload when it started off again. That is preliminary report,” Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said. The police are looking for anyone who has cell phone footage of the accident to come forward so they can determine exactly what went wrong. Harrison says they are treating the investigation as a criminal investigation for the time being.

    Check out a video of a Vortex ride taken a few months ago to get an idea of how the ride works:

    Some witnesses said they saw passengers struggling to hold on while the ride started back up. “There were actually some people that were still, I think, strapped in and holding on, really hanging on for their lives,” Max Byrn, 13, told ABC News Radio. “But they were falling like raindrops. It was really crazy.”

    Witness Jonathan Stanley said that he heard the accident, which sounded like “baseballs hitting an aluminum floor.” Stanley says he ran over to the ride and saw the bodies. “I mean, I was right at the fence. There was one guy in particular; he was all the way back against the back of the ride. It looked as if he had flown out and maybe hit it and then maybe came down face first.”

    It will take some time to determine whether the ride malfunctioned or if the Vortex ride operator made a mistake. Fair officials said that the Vortex ride had some issues on Monday night. There was a report of a bad switch that locks passengers into the seat, but officials said the problem was repaired. According to Delores Quesenberry, director of communications for the state Department of Labor, all of the rides at the North Carolina State Fair are inspected three times per day.

    There are two Vortex rides at the North Carolina State Fair, and the ride that had the issue will be shut down indefinitely. The NC State Fair will remain open while the investigation continues.

    Around 2,000 people are injured on average on carnival park rides (or mobile rides) each year. Will the news of the injuries on the Vortex ride at the North Carolina State Fair keep you from riding? Respond below.

    [Images via YouTube]

  • Giant Pumpkin Ineligible for Alaskan Fair

    Giant Pumpkin Ineligible for Alaskan Fair

    This year, 2013, was going to be the year J.D. Megchelsen broke his own 2011 record for giant pumpkins in Alaska, but it seems he’ll have to wait until next year to create a new record.

    Megchelsen had himself a pumpkin that weighed over 1,400 pounds, but when the 25-pound boom truck was lifting the pumpkin, he noticed a thumb-sized hole on the underside of the pumpkin. This hole makes the pumpkin ineligible for competition at the state fair in Palmer, Alaska.

    Rules for the competition require entries to be free of chemical residues, rot, and serious soft spots. They can also not have holes or cracks that reach through to the cavity. If the hole hadn’t reached the cavity, his pumpkin might have been able to compete. Megchelsen told the Peninsula Clarion, “It’s not going to count. It’s a bummer, but it’s the rules.”

    Pumpkins and breaking records have been a part of Megchelsen’s life since 2002, when he first started growing Brobdingnagian pumpkins. His first record-breaking pumpkin came in 2004 for a 700-pound pumpkin. He continued to break his own records in 2005 and 2006, with a 942-pound pumpkin and then one weighing over 1.000 pounds. His 1,000-plus pound pumpkin in 2006 wasn’t just a new record for Megchelsen, it also became the first Alaskan pumpkin to surpass 1,000 pounds. Megchelsen’s pumpkin from 2011 holds the current record at 1,287 pounds.

    Pam Elkins, Megchelsen’s sister-in-law said, “It’s just killing him. He eats, sleeps and dreams pumpkins. All he does is pumpkins.”

    The scale on the boom truck had this year’s pumpkin weighing 1,500 pounds, but Megchelsen believes the state fair scale would have it weighing in around 1,420 pounds.

    Only once before has Megchelsen had a pumpkin with a disqualifying crack or hole.

    The Nikiski area resident said the hole in this year’s competitor was probably a result of growing too fast. At one point during the hot summer, Megchelsen was feeding the giant pumpkin 300 gallons of water a day. He believes the hole happened during it’s peak growth in early August, when the pumpkin grew 41 pounds in 24 hours, two days in a row. On June 5, the pumpkin was only the size of a cherry tomato.

    The pumpkin will still be weighed-in at the state fair, but Megchelsen doesn’t think he’ll leave it on display.

    Here’s hoping Megchelsen will have a chance to break his own record again next year.

    Image via Greg Skinner’s article in the Peninsula Clarion.