The end of the ride? Carnival operators left in limbo as COVID-19 keeps their businesses shut

A layer of dust covers the colourful machines parked inside an anonymous, nondescript yard, where pink and silver-coloured unicorns, boxy helicopters and gold-tinted pirate ships are set next to stacks of containers and trailers. 

“It’s not usually this full,” Ms Joyce Lee said as she described the rides sitting at their storage site in Penjuru. The 36-year-old is the director of traveling carnival operator Uncle Ringo, which her father, Mr Lee Woon Chiang, 67, started 36 years ago. 

It’s a similar sight on the other side of town, in a corner of Punggol. Tarps covering lacquered trains and carousels and ‘life-sized’ dragons and dinosaurs with no one to scare are packed side-by-side, looking slightly weather-beaten. 

This was the year Uncle Ringo was supposed to reinvent itself. Gone were the days of relying on pasar malams - a colloquial term for night bazaars - which have been a mainstay for the firm’s balance sheets since it started in 1984.

The permanent park at Punggol was just one of the many projects the company had to seem a bit more contemporary. There was going to be a ‘60s-themed replica of the Great World Amusement Park at Harbourfront, and a series of circus performances in the heartlands by a professional troupe from Europe, following a successful run at last year’s countdown party in Marina Bay. 

All of those plans have been struck off the calendar. Travelling carnival operators like Uncle Ringo have been stuck in limbo since March, after COVID-19 halted most entertainment activities. 

Frustrations and anguish have built up as operators have no idea when they will be allowed to restart business. And as the wait continues, financial losses pile up.