“We have many more of the roaming performances to keep people moving at the fair and not congregating around and not staying in one place for a long time,” Siobhan Olson, spokeswoman for the Carolina Classic Fair, said. “It’s all part of the COVID protocols. That helps keep crowds dispersed and all of that kind of thing.”
RoboCars
RoboCars Entertainment, based in Florida, offers a range of brightly colored, life-size, transforming robot vehicles that appear at fairs, festivals, car auctions and other events across the country. In addition to cars and trucks, the company has tractors, motorcycles and police cars. Drew Beaumier, who makes the character costumes, and Jane Rooney, are the co-owners of RoboCars Entertainment.
Rooney often surprises the operators at events and takes video and pictures.
“I love to listen to the crowds and what people are saying,” she said. “They are all ages. I mean, little, tiny, teeny children go charging up to them and hug their legs, to very elderly people in wheelchairs. They go up and shake hands. The whole family seems to enjoy seeing them, which is lovely.”
Rooney likes to have tall RoboCars operators.
At the Carolina Classic Fair, Jeremiah Trippett, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall, wears the Yellow Jacket costume, and his brother, Thaddeus Trippett, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, is in the Big Red costume.