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LANETT — Ben Jordan has been bringing carnivals to Lanett for a long time. He’s now in his 26th year of doing it. He started it in 1999 on a field between Lanett High School and Highway 50. A lot of people were calling that site the fairground until Jordan started bringing his fairs to the parking lots across from the Lanett Mill site about 12 years ago.

“I du this for the kids,” he told The Valley Times-News. “Kids everywhere love going to a carnival. I love walking along the midway, seeing all the smiling faces and hearing the laughter. I just love that.”

Jordan works with amusement companies in the Orlando, Florida, area to bring the fun rides to Lanett once in the spring and again in the fall. He brings carnival fun not just to his hometown but also to other towns in the east Alabama-west Georgia region. There’s another carnival this week in Manchester, Georgia and one soon after that in nearby Thomaston. There’s another one coming to Roanoke next week and Phenix City after that.

The big one he works with every year is the Coweta County Fair in Newnan. It’s a monster.

“When we have our carnival here in Lanett we usually have 16 rides, eight food trucks and 10 or 12 games on the midway,” Jordan said. “At the Cowerta County fair, they will have more than 40 rides.”

As late as the 1960s, Chambers County and Coweta County were about the same size population wise. Since then, Newnan and the surrounding area has been swallowed up by metro Atlanta. Newman today has more than 45,000 people and Coweta County around 160,000. That kind of growth has yet to hit Chambers County, where the population remains in the mid-30,000 range.

According to Jordan, a good carnival should have some thrill rides for adults, family rides for everyone and kiddie rides for children.

Carnivals have evolved over the years to be more participant friendly. The purchase of a wrist band allows the fun seeker to take in all the rides. It’s more time consuming to do it the old way by paying for a ticket at each stop. The rides begin at 5 p.m. each day Wednesday. Thursday and Friday. The carnival will be open from 2 to 10 p.m. on the weekend.

Jordan currently brings 10 carnivals to the east Alabama-west Georgia region each year. He does it through his business, Jordan Communications, LLC. Established in 2007, the limited liability corporation presently has four FM radio stations and a TV station. The radio stations include WVEQ 98.7 in Lanett, WZZV 100.3 in LaGrange, WQEE 99.1 in Newnan and WZEV 90.5 in Lineville. The Lanett station plays today’s hits and yesterday’s favorites, the LaGrange station airs R&B and gospel, the Lineville station has classic hits and the Newnan station has news, talk and sports. 

 WQMK is a Roku TV station. It’s on channel 18 in Auburn.

“We are committed to provide broadcast entertainment and diversity to east central Alabama and west central Georgia,” Jordan said.