FIRST PICTURE: POWER has been restored after a blackout plunged the Royal Adelaide Show into darkness, leaving showgoers trapped on rides and causing mayhem on the opening night. At about 7.45pm, the lights across the Showground failed, with only the Jubilee and Goyder pavilions, on Goodwood Rd, remaining lit. ETSA told The Advertiser that the fault was within the grounds of the Royal Adelaide Show a "There's a fault within the showgrounds," an ETSA spokesman said. "We've dispatched a crew to assist in locating the fault which is within the showgrounds. "Supply is normal to the area around Wayville. "We've offered a crew to help find the fault". Sideshow alley was in total darkness and the main arena events stalled. After about 15 minutes, the ferris wheel operators began to move the wheel to retrieve people from its carriages, and many other rides were forced to remove patrons manually. About 15 minutes behind schedule the massed pipe band entered the main arena to thunderous cheers. The audience could catch only glimpses of the band as they passed through the beam of a vehicle's headlights, directed onto them. A cause of the power failure is yet to be determined.

Additional Info From Ten News- -All stranded ride goers had their tickets refunded -Evacuation began, minutes before power returned, gates then left open to re-admit patrons. -Circuit breaker exploaded

A friend of a friend was at the show when that happened, and was ironically riding the power surge when the power went out, and was stuck on it for half an hour. Its so Adelaide though, reading other articles, there was no emergency plan, which is so reassuring.

I was always under the impression that portable rides were run from diesel generators (How could you always find a grid connection for a portable ride) and hence could still be operated.

Your friend may have been on the powersurge but definetly not for 30 min, it was one of the first rides down. There was a power outage for about 25 minutes at the most, all rides did what they were supposed to do, no one was ever in any danger. Adelaide runs most rides off town power as does Sydney, Brisbane and most a Melbourne. It got blown right out of proportion by the press but thats there job so they don't care.

I was always under the impression that portable rides were run from diesel generators (How could you always find a grid connection for a portable ride) and hence could still be operated.

Most rides do have their own generators, but for bigger showgrounds, the infrastructure is in place because the lands are purpose built for those kind of attractions. It doesn't take much for them to plug in to a three phase trunk. In the weeks leading up to a big show, the local electricity company normally trots out and makes sure the facilities can cope, and the show organisers\individual ride operators normally collaborate on their power needs, and equipment is hired, or supplied to run out three phase to where it is required, and then split out into individual GPO's for any who don't run three phase.