The definition of Carnie is, "An informal term for a traveling carnival employee." Often it's used with high characterization, but for all 10 Cheyenne Frontier Days, we would not even think of our volunteers as carnies, much less call them that.

Traveldroppings.com is a site for actual members of  the working carnival world, and even they use self depricating humor about their life. "It's not for everybody. Carnies are not millionaires. They eat cheap or free, connected to vendors in sort of a junk-food Cosa Nostra. Please understand the stereotypes aren't always true. They're just true of the vast majority of them." Ouch.

Of course other websites, like carnytown, seem more professional. In their pics, they look like normal folks who just happen to live midway to midway, who all have teethe.

While there is a carnival area at CFD, its only a percentage of Frontier Park, and the look there is also a celebration of the west. In short, carnies don't wear cowboy hats. We like the word "volunteers". When helping jovial visitors, they're so polite, aren't they? They are just way nicer than humorless security elsewhere.

In short, we just wanted to let our Volunteers know - all 25,000 of them - that we love them, and we thank them for all they do.

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