How can you describe a fairground?
What would you describe a fun fair?
At this point you may be wondering, how in the world will I come up with a description of a funfair? Descriptive writing can be difficult, whether you’re doing it for a hobby or for a class assignment. The best way to start getting those creative juices flowing is to identify the purpose of your writing.
Purpose | Description |
Creative writing | If you’re in a creative writing class, want to write a novel, want to write a play, etc. |
Promotion | If you’re promoting a carnival on social media, on a brochure, for private parties, etc. |
Professional | If you want to organize, collaborate or take part in a fun fair. |
You will most likely be writing a description of a fair ground for creative writing purposes, so let’s start with some descriptive writing examples for creative writing. Take a look at some of the qualities you should describe.
Quality | Description |
Characters | Decide who your characters will be and what their occupation is: father, fair worker, student, etc. |
Time of day | What time of day will your scenes take place? Will this change the mood or the action of the fair? |
Season | Will the fair be seasonal? If so, which season will it be? |
Type of fair | Fairs come in all different shapes and sizes: Halloween-themed, children’s fair, holiday fair, etc. |
If your carnival description will be geared towards promotional material, your description will be a lot different than that of a story. You won’t need any characters or plot - you will need informational descriptions.
Information | Description |
Fair audience | What type of audience do you want to attract? Families, teens, adults, etc? |
Times | What times does the fair operate |
Prices | What are the prices and are there any promotions? |
Dates | The dates that the carnival will take place |
Finally, if you’re interested in professional descriptions of a fair, you will need different types of descriptions as well. Take a look at some examples below.
Product | Description |
Collaboration | You may want to collaborate with fundraisers or local businesses. This will require descriptions of benefits, promotional material, etc. |
Costume design | Fairs often require uniforms or costumes. You will need a description of carnival costumes. |
Services | Fairs require a couple of different services, such as food, rides and games. In order to engage different businesses, you will need to describe a business plan, logistics and more. |
Official permits | If you’re organizing a fair, you will need to describe a detailed operational plan such as number of expected attendees, days of operation, emergency plan etc. |
What can you smell at a fairground?
If you’re interested in creative writing, this section is for you. If you find yourself having writer’s block, it might be helpful to complete some creative exercises in order to get some ideas flowing. Take inspiration from real life by thinking of your five senses:
Smell | What can you smell at a fairground? |
Sight | What can you see at a fairground? |
Taste | What do you taste at a fairground? |
Touch | What textures do you encounter at a fairground? |
Hear | What can you hear at a fairground? |
As you can see, there are plenty of ways you can start to describe a carnival just by thinking of these five senses. Let’s start with the first one: what can you usually smell at a fairground?
Food | Funnel cakes, French fries, candied apples, candy, barbeque, etc. |
Environment | The forest, the rain, car exhaust, other people, etc. |
Unexpected events | Think of an event that would cause an unexpected smell at a fairground. One example: smoke from a fire. |
What can you hear at a fair?
Let’s move on to another sense. What does one usually hear at a carnival? Let’s take a look at some of the things you might hear at a fair.
Music | You might hear the sound of carnival music, car music, music on the radio, ringtone music, etc. |
People | You can hear people’s laughter, conversations, yelling, announcements, etc. |
Machines | You can hear the creak of rides, the thumps of games, the sound of credit card machines, etc. |
Services | You might hear frying oil, ripping of paper and plastic, flapping of tarp, etc. |
What can make your story or promotional material more unique is to think of a word that describes an object, then think of another object that can have the same description using another sense. This is actually a literary device called synaesthesia.
Definition | Examples | |
Synaesthesia | Describing something with a sense that is not normally attributed to it. | The taste of pepper is loud. The sun is silent today. |
What are some descriptive words?
When you’re reaching to find some descriptive words, it can be helpful to first pick a scenario. For example, it will easier to write a description of a fairground at night after you decide that the night is the time of day you want to portray. Let’s take a look at some other scenarios. Take a look at some descriptive words for each of the above scenarios.
Scenario | Examples | Descriptive Elements |
Time of day | Night, afternoon, day, etc. | You can describe the light of the day, the heat of the sun, the freshness of the air, the coolness of the night. |
Location | Forest, parking lot, campus, etc. | You can describe the landscape, what you see or if you can’t see anything past buildings, trees, etc. You can also describe the colours. |
Activity | Playing, running, eating, etc. | You can describe how it feels to perform the action, how long it takes, etc. |