Taking the Ferris wheel, flying swings and fried dough with it, the Kiwanis Fair will not be coming to Concord’s this spring. 

Delays with immigration visas for seasonal workers have left the amusement company that operates the rides in limbo, forcing the Concord Kiwanis Club to make the tough call to cancel the 2025 fair a month before it was scheduled to open.

The fair, typically held the weekend after Mother’s Day, has been running in Concord for decades — this would’ve been its 67th year. It took a three-year break after the 2019 fair was called off due to a similar labor shortage caused by a lack of H-2B visas. The event was put on hold the following two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For some people in Concord, this is their trip to Disney World every year,” Concord Kiwanis President Ken Georgevits said. “It is a bummer, but it's reality.”

Kiwanis clubs are non-partisan, non-denominational groups that raise money and do service work in their communities, primarily focusing on helping children.

The fair is responsible for roughly 60% of Concord Kiwanis' annual fundraising revenue — money the organization puts toward local scholarships,  high school volunteer clubs, Little League baseball team sponsorships and global youth health causes through Kiwanis International.

While the club has savings it can tap into to maintain its support until next year — when they hope the fair can happen as usual — calling off the event will leave a hole in their annual fundraising total, Georgevits said.

Amusement events like fairs, festivals and Old Home Days are operated by ride, game and concession companies that have long relied on seasonal workers, especially through the H-2B program.

The visas allow companies to bring foreign workers to the U.S. for temporary, non-agricultural and non-specialized work: they’re commonly used by employers in hospitality, landscaping, tourism and construction.

The federal government allocates these visas on a lottery system twice a year. For the summer, that approval usually comes by April.

Webster-based Miller Amusements, a family business with a 40 year history, doesn’t have an answer yet from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about whether they’ll be able to get any H-2B employees this year.

Concord Kiwanis has been working with Miller Amusements for at least the last ten years, Georgevits said, and trusts their work.

“They put on a fun fair. They put on a safe fair,” he said. “They are outstanding people to work with.”

With just a month to go until the fair’s start date, Concord’s Kiwanis chapter couldn’t afford to plan a carnival that may or may not have rides.

“We hit our no-go date,” Georgevits said.

Roughly 20 years ago, Miller Amusements owner Scott Miller started applying for laborers through the H-2B program.

All of their current staff for fair-rides are seasonal visa holders, he said, often from Mexico. Many return to the company summer after summer — some have been with him as long as 18 years.

Increasing demand for these visas alongside increasing regulation the federal government means the processing time in the last decade has grown sluggish, Miller said. This is the longest delay he’s had in a while, but it’s not just this year.

The H-2B system has always been somewhat touch-and-go for businesses: Far more applications are sent in every year than are allowed under the federal cap. Presidential administrations can release more — as both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, in his first term, did. Trump also expresses personal support for the program by using it — his Mar-a-Lago resort employs staff with H-2B visas.

This year, though, application processing times are especially lagging, posing disruptions to seasonal employment nationwide. Miller’s season usually starts April 1, but for now, he’s still “in line” for an answer about whether he’ll get staff for this year.

“I love my job. I love what I do,” Miller emphasized. “But how can you run a business like this?”

The Kiwanis Fair is typically the first carnival event of the season in the capital area.

Georgevits has been a Kiwanian for the entire 43 years he’s lived in Concord, and the fair has been running for almost his entire life. The event has changed forms over time — previously it included a home show inside the Everett Arena and a parade from Storrs Street across the river. But it’s always been a hallmark of the club’s presence in the community.

Georgevits reflected on years of watching kids yelp with joy — or other emotions — on the carnival rides, of club members bonding over working the ticket booth, of having one too many fair sausages. He’s looking forward to getting back to it next year.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.