Do they still hold the World Fair?

Looks like they still do it.

I never hear about them and I am actually kinda shocked that they still do them.

wow im also shocked they are still around. Why the hell dont we ever hear about them?

Holy Moley! I wonder what kind of carney folk work the worlds fair? Would it be a requirement to have at least 3 teeth to run those rides?

Very weird how you never ever hear of them.

Thanks, johnpowell!
When I was a child I always wanted to go to a world fair.

I think they were renamed Expo’s, but I haven’t heard of any in the past few years.

What a great question! That made me feel good about things!!!

We probably don’t really need them any more, because we can learn everything here.

It’s strange how they are spaced out. sometimes twice a year, sometimes every third year. guess they just wait until there is enough random stuff to throw together an expo.

fireside: So where and when have the last few occurred? I haven’t heard of any for quite a few years.

@jvgr – johnpowell added the link above
* 2000 – Hanover, Germany – Expo 2000
* 2001 – cancelled (planned site: Metro Manila, Philippines) [3]
* 2002 – cancelled (planned site: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia)
* 2002 – Biel, Murten, Neuchâtel and Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland – Expo.02
* 2004 – cancelled (planned site: Seine-Saint-Denis, France)
* 2005 – Aichi, Japan – Expo 2005
* 2008 – Zaragoza, Spain – Expo 2008

Thanks johnpowell, from the list it would appear that they aren’t quite as important as they once were.

Or they are as important to the rest of the world. We never hear about world news in the US, unless you habitually follow the BBC.

I think originally, their main draw (at least for the English ones) had a lot to do with seeing the world through the eyes of a world power—that is, an empire, and they were showing off their conquests. Obviously (or maybe we can argue this!), that’s not so much a thing any more, and I have a feeling (without doing more research), that these have probably tended to turn to the style of, say, the French Expositions Universelles, which were very into technology (Eiffel Tower, any one? not that there wasn’t technology in England- the Crystal Palace and the machine halls- nor cultural displays in France, which there better have been since I wrote a paper on them; just that they weren’t an empire anywhere on the scale of England in the 19th century, so often the technology seems to have been more important there, among the elite of society at least. But it’s actually quite complicated, and I’ve run out of knowledge, so I’ll stop now; feel free to correct me). Technology is as cool these days (unless we’re getting jaded, which is quite possible) as it was then—but the difference is, all that’s much more accessible to the modern public. Not only do those who can afford it tend to own all these gadgets, but if we’re talking about more general scientific/technological principles, that’s what science museums are for! Things like the Science & Industry Museum in Chicago, or the London Science Museum, are actually offshoots of that branch of the Fairs, and really aren’t exceptional to most of us any more—so why go travel to see it? As for any cultural displays they might have, well, there are also plenty of anthropological museums with the full range of cultures for your perusal—so if the modern Fairs are following this track, they’ve simply got too much competition from local or semi-local museums, I expect.

But if they’ve totally switched tracks—I just don’t know. Without checking into it, just throwing out thoughts of why they might no longer draw the public (or the funds, perhaps, with all those cancelled shows!), as they used to.

Do they still have a World’s Fair? If so where and when do they have them?