All the fun of the fair
On his property in Reikorangi, David Dilks wheels the fairground organ he made out of his shed into the garden and commands it to strike up a tune. There’s something nostalgic about the jolly, roundabout sound of the melody. Even if you can’t see them, the music evokes images of brightly painted carousels and children astride highly coloured horses going round and round, up and down.
The 320-pipe fairground organ that David made from scratch is visually and acoustically impressive. The array of beautifully crafted pipes, different shapes and sizes, the accordion-playing monkey, and the drums make quite the show. It’s hard to resist jiggling — but then David and wife Joy, both ballroom dancers, kick up their heels and show their form. Music is a big part of their life.
Captured by the sound
David’s interest in building a fairground organ began 40 years ago when he and his family were living in the USA.
“I was biking up the Potomac River in Washington DC with my kids and I heard this music coming through the trees — we tracked it down and found an old disused fairground called Glen Echo Park. Now, it’s been restored but one thing that was working then was a huge carousel and they had a Wurlitzer 165 organ playing. We visited quite often because I was quite taken with the sound of it and decided then I’d like to build one like that.”
David had to wait 35 years before making one as he was working in the air force at the time and not living in a suitable place for sheddie activities. But he and his workshop have been stable, in one place, for the past 23 years and he began building the organ three years ago, initially working on a much smaller
