Owners of Columbiana traveling carnival company celebrating ten years of fun
A family-owned and operated traveling carnival company based in Columbiana is celebrating their tenth summer festival season.
Tim Bortner is the owner and CEO of Bortner Shows Midway which he started in 2016 with the purchase of his first Ferris wheel.
“I’ve always loved carnivals; loved being involved and going to them. It’s always been a dream of mine to own my own carnival,” he said.
Bortner’s carnival company travels throughout Ohio and into western Pennsylvania, bringing along carnival attractions and games as well as serving festival favorites from their food trailer like walking tacos, homemade onion rings and funnel cakes.
“Ninety percent of our employees are local to the Mahoning Valley,” Bortner said. ”We’re locally-owned and very thankful to our customers that have supported us over the last 10 years, and to our fairs and our festivals that have supported us. We wouldn’t be where we are now without their support.”
Frank Amato joined Bortner Shows Midway in 2022.
“None of this would be possible without Tim’s passion,” Amato said. “He loves this industry, he loves what he does. It’s infectious to all of us. We really are lucky to have our employees; they’re very passionate people. Companies don’t have employees that have been with them for years and years and years, so we’re very lucky to have that.”
Safety has remained a top priority for the two owners at Bortner Shows Midway as their team brings fun to communities across Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“We want our customers to walk away feeling happy and excited that they had a good experience,” Amato said. “Our employees are trained very well to be all about fun and be polite, how to work with different diversities and work with different disabilities. We also drug test every employee that comes through, including the same employees that have been with us for nine years. Everyone is drug tested, background checked and goes through a training every year to make sure that they know what they’re doing.”
Bortner Shows Midway is licensed under both the Ohio and Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture Amusement Ride Safety Division.
“All of our rides are inspected by them every week, and then our employees do daily checks and inspections of every piece of equipment,” Bortner said “For our food, we are also licensed to the Ohio Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Health as well, and we’re insured.”
The owners’ favorite festivals to attend each summer are ones that end with fireworks shows.
“Instead of starting tear down, we always stop to sit and watch the fireworks as a family,” Bortner said. “Once the fireworks are over, then we start to tear down. We’re like a family. We are very lucky to have a team that has been with us for so long that knows the ins and outs of everything. They have the passion to stay on every year and continuing to do it.”
Bortner Shows Midway travels for events across northeast Ohio and into Pennsylvania as far as Pittsburgh where they’ve built up relationships with carnival regulars along the way.
“It’s so awesome we go to the same towns every year, like at Cambridge Springs Fireman’s Festival there’s a safety inspector who always comes out to hang out with us in our camp," Bortner said. “Then when we go to another town, we’ll see some of the same families. We get to see these kids grow up every year which is really nice.”
Over the last decade, Bortner has expanded by adding more inflatables, slides, carnival games and food. In 2024, he added a patriotic bounce house in preparation for America’s 250th anniversary.
“In 2026, we purchased a 36-by-36 kiddie train ride,” he said. “The original owner can’t tell us when exactly it was built, but he believes that it was in the 1940s or 50s that it was built, but it looks great.”
The original Ferris wheel that started it all for Bortner broke down in 2019 but is back in operation.
“Then in 2023, we had the Ferris wheel converted it from gas to electric, and we brought it back on our midway. It got completely taken down to the bare metal and just completely repainted high gloss paint with it, and then new lights put on it,” Bortner said.
