The Rise and Fall of World’s Fairs | Hacker News Reader

The Rise and Fall of World’s Fairs

smithsonianmag.com

"The Rise and Fall of Worlds Fairs" ... in America.

The worlds fair seems as big as it has ever been. The Dubai Expo 2020, which concluded last month saw over 20 million visitors in 6 month. This is twice of what any Disney theme park can perform.

I don't think Al Wasl dome will be the new Eiffel Tower, but I am pretty sure it will become a permanent landmark to Dubai.

The article even says so much:

> Outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe and Asia, world’s fairs remain popular. In cities like Milan, Dubai and Shanghai, host nations have used these grand expositions to express their guiding values and show off the very best of their countries to the rest of the world. Today, this mission is more vital than ever

...

> Despite their diminishing popularity in the U.S., world’s fairs continue to take place across the globe. They remain popular for the same reasons they were in 1851: Simply put, fairs act as powerful affirmations of national identity that reassure host countries and dazzle international audiences. In 2010, an expo in Shanghai welcomed over 73 million visitors to the largest world’s fairgrounds ever, spanning a staggering 2.5 square miles. Delayed due to Covid-19, Expo 2020, in Dubai, concluded less than a month ago with a spectacular closing ceremony. The fair hosted more than 24 million visitors over its six-month run.

At the Expo 2020 Dubai, I was amused to learn that the USA pavilion cost 60 million USD and it was paid for by the UAE. It’s illegal for the USA to pay for it’s own pavilion at an expo like this. [1]

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-appointed-dubai-expo-...

I'd thought that too, but the law in question only bars the State department from spending its budget on a pavilion. Nothing blocks congress from appropriating whatever it wants for that purpose.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/2452b

As the documentary I linked in another comment points out, this has been misunderstood for so long, even people in the State department think it's an outright ban on use of any public funds.

> … was speaking to reporters at the U.S. pavilion which features a replica Space X Falcon 9 rocket …

After visiting the pavilion I left with the distinct impression that they had brought a real rocket.

My little country of 5 million people spent a whopping $40 million USD on this expo. I hope we got our money's worth [1]

[1] https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128187098/ho....

Can't speak directly to ROI, but the New Zealand exhibit was pretty memorable.

Yes, but did it feature the toothbrush fence?

That's surprising to learn. The US exhibit at Expo 2020 was pretty terrible though. Literally just stand on a treadmill and watch various videos on how awesome America is (and I'm sure there's some snide jokes to be made about the only treadmill-based exhibit being America..) And then afterwards look at some of the cool space stuff we're trying to do. A lot of countries used their exhibits to jerk themselves off - China was guilty of this too. Ironically, the Russian one was pretty cool.

I remember being very impressed upon visiting the US stand in the 70s, the cold war was good in showcasing the space rivalry, moon rock box and other artifacts. The USSR pavilion was nearby, and it was the 1970 at the Damascus fair, I was a 10 year old kid then, my dream was to go to the US, but when I visited Silicone Valley in the 2000s I was depressed after meeting some former WIMAX experts who were homeless, asking me for cigarettes, in San Jose. https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/pavilion-at-the...

I'll be impressed when the USA pavilion shows how we solved affordable housing & healthcare!

To see what half of the others already have. That should get them queueing!

I was at expo 2010; in one day you saw more people than you usually see in a year amongst architecture rivaled only by Dubai.

Disney World draws almost 60 million visits a year. Which is more than that expo.

My Mom was part of the crowd that walked over the Golden Gate bridge when it opened in 1937, and she attended the '39 World's Fair on Treasure Island ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_International_Expo... ). Her father had been thrilled by the 1915 World's Fair in the Marina ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama%E2%80%93Pacific_Interna... ), partly because his uncle had been an engineer on the Panama Canal.

These events made a big impression on my Mom. It got her interested in "engineering and science". She even had a scar on her shin from where she tripped on the trolley coming back from Treasure Island.

So she brought our family to the '74 World's Fair in Spokane ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_%2774 ). I remember how awesome it was.

World's Fairs have shaped who I am.

This has really saddened me. Many of the early were insanely important events.

The cities that hosted them revere their remnants as if they were holy (Eiffel Tower, etc.)

But the world has forgotten.

There's a list of the famous ones here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World%27s_Fair_archite...

Their grandeur has largely been fulfilled by the Olympics, and one could argue that the aspects that promoted international economics are still being demonstrated in trade shows. Cybersecurity, fishing, haberdashery, toys, agriculture, weddings… there’s one for every industry and hobby.

I think it's like organizing the olympics or world championships of football; they cost a LOT of money, but with limited return on investment (these days). I feel like one reason is that the world is a smaller place, and countries no longer need big events and showpieces like eiffel towers to draw in the crowds.

I mean what kind of monument would you build nowadays to attract tourists? There are a few monuments that come to mind that have been built fairly recently, like the Statue of Unity in India.

> The cities that hosted them revere their remnants as if they were holy (Eiffel Tower, etc.) / But the world has forgotten.

The world has forgotten the Eiffel Tower?

The Eiffel Tower? No. But the Space Needle is nowhere near as iconic.

Nothing about the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, which was quite a show. There was even an ocean-going oil rig on display you could clamber over, a cable car across the Mississippi--ten stories high at least--and other attractions. A report on the Dubai World's Fair is that: it was disappointing. Several countries saved money by just showing films; you can see the same material on the Internet without having to travel to Dubai. Only some countries offered their national cuisine; the event didn't even qualify as a decent trade show.

Not every aitocrats attemots at white washing work as good as hosting the Fifa World Cup or the Olympics. Formula One seems to be polular as well.

I think it's always like that. You can mostly tell from the architecture which exhibit will be worth your time. And to be fair, they extended the subway by 15km which is much more useful than the cool but temporary or unused transit demonstrations.

As I vaguely recall, the drilling rig was the Ocean Scout which was a retired semisubmersible from the company I was working for at the time in New Orleans. Don't remember the details and it's long pre-WWW so I don't see anything online. It was probably just the drill floor and derrick or something like that.

The fair was right before I went elsewhere. As I recall it was a financial flop and not much specific remains but it did lead to a general revitalization of an area along the Mississippi that had been pretty much dilapidated warehouses.

I arrived in Australia the year of expo 88. The site is now a fantastic urban park with a sanded outdoor swimming pool complete with lifeguards and barbie, you can swim and eat a sausage watching cars on the freeway over the river. Odd, but nice. Expo was majority "meh".

The great exhibition on the other hand was most definitely not meh: the building by Joseph Paxton was a wonder in itself.

I know that you mean something else, but lifeguards and barbie means something slightly different in American English (i.e. not a food thing).

International English is breaking down

Barbie=barbecue right?

Yeah, that's not obscure in American English, because it's one of a handful of Australian words that've made it into phrases we'll say when we're trying to mimic Australian English, i.e. "throw another shrimp on the barbie".

Except we don't say shrimp: that was translated when Paul Hogan did the advert.

I’m Australian and born in 88. I’m really curious where this is. Is this the Brisbane City beach? Being born in Melbourne and participating in the inter city warfare between Melbourne and Sydney, it took me too long to realise how beautiful Brisbane is.

If you hate the cold (like I do, my physical health suffers greatly in the cold) check out Brisbane. An absolutely gorgeous city, quiet (relatively) and lots of nature.

Yep. South bank parklands was industrial wharfs (it's where my FIL parked his Kingswood to go work in the city) and then a huge urban blackspot which was rejuvenated after expo '88 into a self funded, self managed not for profit parkland. A lot of the expo sculptures dot the city, not the least of which is Stefan's lighthouse in West end: he conned a property developer into letting him park it there, it stayed so long council scheduled it as a local monument and pradella had to build around it.

"had to" is a strong term; they called the development Skyneedle and all the branding is centered around playing it up. (Also, let's be honest, Pradella were kind of running out of names otherwise.) It is very reminiscent of the 1982 Wigsphere from The Simpsons though.

I attended Expo 88 (my family drove up from Sydney) but was too young to take it all in properly. All I remember is a Rube Goldberg machine that I stared at for at least half an hour.

A machine in a glass case with cueballs going around a maze? I think I remember it too. It may be by Roland Emmet

Next world fair is the 2025 Expo in Osaka, Japan. Based on how overwhelmingly popular their pavilion was at Dubai 2020 (which only finished a couple weeks ago due to covid), I expect it to be a great experience. Also thinking about saving the date!

I went to Dubai expo 4 times, and was not able to visit the Japan expo. Early in the expo, it had very short hours. Later, they had a reservation system that sold out in minutes each time. Then again I live in Japan so I'm pretty sure I didn't miss much.

It wasn't much about Japan. I think a person who lives in Japan would find it just as interesting as a person who doesn't.

The main act was an installation by Tanaka Tatsuya[1], perhaps you can see some exhibition with his art in Japan. You will have an advantage of not being rushed out of the room in a few minutes to clear for the next group.

[1] - https://www.instagram.com/tanaka_tatsuya/

Darn, I guess I did miss out then.

I'm not sure how popular it was, rather they limited it to only a few people per day so it was very exclusive. If expo 2025 is so limiting, I expect a lot of disappointed visitors.

With the environmental and health costs of flying, I’m starting to think world wide events like this are a terrible idea.

I doubt you'll find many people on this thread concerned with the carbon footprint of flying friend. What do you mean by health costs? Mental stress, financial costs, opportunity costs, high blood pressure, potential respiratory illness?

Not sure about emissions due to these events but I'm concerned about carbon footprint. If it's significant and these fairs have little purpose then they don't really justify their impact.

I'm inclined to agree in that regard. If the economics work out, then it might be worth it. I do think we've run out of time in many ways however.

I've been concerned that's the case too. It's looking like we'll push it up by 3 degrees, which is bad but could be worse and it may be possible to bring that down with early sacrifices and new technology. There was a Kurzgesagt video recently about this which was quite good.

I'm very glad that his channel covers it. I think that the IPCC reports should be required reading at this point as well. Or at least summaries.

For sure, if it can help counter the 'it's too late anyway' narrative doing the rounds. 1st was 'there is no climate change', 2nd was 'okay there is but man isn't causing it/can't make a difference', 3rd was 'okay it's us but climate change isn't that bad anyway', and now this.

The apathy of this creates the danger of it becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Health costs is probably the rapid spread of SARS-COV2

Left over from some expo in Osaka might be the most amazing and also ugly giant thing ever created

https://www.messynessychic.com/2020/02/12/the-1970-osaka-wor...

The Tower of the Sun

https://www.google.com/search?q=Tower+of+the+Sun+osaka&tbm=i...

One Piece, one of the most popular Japanese manga/anime for the 20 years, even made fun of the artist, Tarō Okamoto, by having a character that had the power to turn other people in to "art" in the style of "Tarō Okamoto" and would spout lines about how she was an "arteest!"

On a flight to Dubai Expo I watched a surprisingly moving documentary about how America fell out of love with World's Fairs not long after the iconic ones in New York and Seattle. https://www.faceofanationmovie.com/

I still can sing the jingle for the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville. "You've got to be there!"

My sister lived in the Knoxville area and my whole family went to that Fair, the only World's Fair I've attended. We had a good time, but for Knoxville, it was a financial boondoggle. I've still never been up in the Sun Sphere, which has struggled over the years. And yes, I remember the jingle as well!

The "city" (government) often loses money on these events, but it is typically a huge influx of capital for businesses in the area. I found the numbers for Expo '86 for example...

Revenues: $491m

Expenditures : $802m

Deficit : $311m

Economic contribution :$3,700m

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_86#Facts_and_figures

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

Seems like a good thing they fell out of fashion in the US.

I wonder what the numbers look like for the Olympics.

Having attended the New Orleans World's Fair, I was also surprised to see it got so little press. But the key takeaway from that event is that it was awful. Compared to other fairs, '84 in New Orleans was pitiful. The cable car across the river was pointless and took you to a big nothing on the other side. The monorail was also sad and boring, and both were dismantled. Some of the faux architecture was preserved and used at Harvey's casino, I believe, in Reno -- but there was nothing memorable being shown in New Orleans. The most exciting thing I remember is a futuristic round phone booth with seats where you could have a (free) long distance phone call on a speakerphone.

New Orleans is the only world's fair in history to lose money and close early! It certainly couldn't compare with New York or Paris or San Francisco. As a big fan of world's fairs and having visited many sites, I think what killed them is Disney. The easy, year round availability of Epcot (which opened 2 years prior) was the final nail in the coffin for world's fairs in this country.

I would like to have gone to the New York World's Fair, I was seven or eight, but the World's Fair I really regret missing is the 1939 New York World's Fair. As a fan of Art Deco, that place is amazing! And they had Elektro, the robot! It's high on my list of places to visit when I invent a time machine.

The article has the answer inside.

The Olympics and big theme parks. E.G. from memory: EPCOT, back in the day, was supposed to be a perpetual worlds fair. It was still sort of like that even at the end of the 1990s.

Worlds Fairs also included a heaping dose of Nationalism. A combination of competing countries and major industries showed off. Today the companies prefer to either have their own events, or various industry trade shows.

I also reckon because things got so specialised, they had to be separated into their own events.

Also the companies are now highly globalized. It’s not good for business for the them to be participating in such blatantly nationalist displays.

https://youtu.be/5K8FepaAhw8

EPCOT used to be genuinely inspirational with its attractions. It’s fallen so far that people have forgotten how good it used to be.

I think the desire to "showcase the future," which was Epcot's goal, is also what killed Epcot! Nobody can keep up with what the future will look like. Tomorrowland in Disneyland was built with the 50's idea of the future. Epcot was built with the 70's.

The implicit promotion of big companies and big governments as salavator mundi turned out to be a lot of BS. People figured out that Exxon and GM weren't solving the world's problems, they were helping to create them. It's hard to have fun singing about a "great big beautiful tomorrow" when you're standing in the middle of the failures designed by the same people. Epcot has no credibility today as a predictor of the future, obviously, and nobody even likes corporate sponsors anymore (which is why most have left). Not a single country joined Epcot after it opened, despite the promises of increased tourism it would create.

The colonial aspect of world's fairs and Epcot is also still evident in its design. Originally, all of Africa was to be shoved into a single pavilion, as opposed to European countries which each had their own. In the end, Africa (The Dark Continent) -- yes, that was their actual name -- was never built which is itself a commentary. Norway originally sponsored a ride with the theme of offshore oil drilling, and Exxon built one to promote fossil fuels. These projects cost millions of dollars to build and maintain. Can you imagine anyone promoting that with a straight face today? Even progressive companies don't want to sponsor rides that might make them look bad next week. The whole idea is pretty much over. I did enjoy it while it lasted.

I still enjoy the Simpsons' take of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dREnFrwhy8g

Superb! Sums it all up nicely.

I'm old enough to remember the Century 21 exhibition in Seattle in 1962 (its 60th anniversary looks like the basis of this article). That was one of the few world's fairs to turn a profit, and we still have a lot of infrastructure left over -- the Space Needle, obviously, but also the International Fountain, the Pacific Science Center, Climate Pledge Arena, the Monorail, and many of Seattle's performing arts venues were built for or upgraded for the world's fair and are still in use.

This film made by AT&T (promoting their stuff, natch) is probably the best artifact of Century 21 I've seen. The first 4-5 minutes are great to watch if you ignore the actors, and you can skip the breathless discovery of touch-tone calling. =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAgTFd9Fo4&t=342s

Gulf countries love these things for some reason. Their exhibition halls are staggering in size and are in constant use.

There is a collective low self-esteem issue at work in their perpetual desire to be respected as modern, developed countries, not realising that the way they promote that, while largely ignoring labor, environmental and justice standards for example, often reinforces the negative perceptions of megalomania and shallowness.

>The most striking—and lasting—aspect of this (and any other) world’s fair was its architecture, which imprinted organizers’ ideals and values onto the built environment.

I have a photo book of the Chicago Columbian Exposition (1893). The buildings they put up throughouth the South Side parks (Jackson and Washington) were immense and often separated by man-made lagoons with small boat travel. However they were not designed to be permanent, yet one of the lesser buildings (Palace of Fine Arts, currently the Museum of Science and Industry) was upgraded to more permanent materials and is the only one remaining. It always astounds me to look at today's museum and realize it was one of the lesser buildings of the original fair.

There are many such landmarks in Paris: the Eiffel tower (Exposition Universelle 1889), Grand Palais and Petit Palais (1900 Expo), Chaillot palace (1937 Expo).

I stumbled on this amazing documentary, "Expo - Magic of the White City"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6HuBYiQEeM

The first 10 minutes are a little cornball but the rest is amazing. I'd never have even looked except it's narrated by Gene Wilder who hadn't done anything for decades and I got curious to know why he'd choose to do this.

Apparently Electricity was "introduced" at the the Expo, as well as the Ferris Wheel, and a bunch of other things

https://chicagoworldsfair1893.weebly.com/new-products-and-te...

It's amazing to me that 27 million people could manage to visit an expo in 1893

I do wonder what a good World's Fair of 2022 would look like. Perhaps it's a bit silly, but I think the movie Tomorrowland got at some sort fundamental change in outlook that seems to have accompanied the earlier World's Fairs. How would you avoid making it simply a trade show?

> I do wonder what a good World's Fair of 2022 would look like.

The World Fair, "Expo 2020", concluded a little over 3 weeks ago in Dubai. It was far from a trade show.

You can see some highlights here: https://virtualexpodubai.com/

They still do them from time to time. I remember seeing some of this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2012 being built and a friend's son was tapped as a translator for it.

I wonder if, as the world's product offerings have specialized so intensely, that most of this activity happens in industry specific expos.

Not many would care to see a really special, new method of refrigeration at a world fair, but the refrigeration industry would probably be enthralled.

There's no Worlds Fair because the WF was about the future. And the future of today is utterly terrifying.

"Devil in the White City" is a very fun read which covers the planning and execution of the Chicago World's fair in 1893. It also is interleaved with a tale of a psychopathic murderer who came to town at the same time.

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0...

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