Riding High: Glasgow Carnival still going strong after 90 years

• Clockwise from main: children enjoying the Irn Bru Carnival at the SECC

AS A WEE GIRL growing up in Glasgow's East End, comic Janey Godley became "hysterical with excitement" every Christmas at the prospect of going to the Glasgow Carnival, then held in the Kelvin Hall. "It was magical; it marked Christmas. We all got on the buses at Shettleston and we'd get off at the Kelvin Hall – such a big landmark! I just couldn't wait to throw myself down a wooden helter-skelter and then go on the dodgems. You had never seen anything like that as a kid in the East End of Glasgow – it was literally like Disneyland or Mars that came to your city. All those flashing lights and the music, it was fantastic. And, of course, the circus came with it. But I used to feel so bad for the animals. Even as kids we knew you shouldn't be making a donkey jump on top of a lion's back; there's something clearly wrong with it!"

Actor Bill Paterson says he also retains vivid memories of that circus. "I will have been many times in the 1950s with the Life Boys or Boys Brigade. A gang of us would cruise the carnival part of the hall then head into the arena for the circus. First impression was the smell as you came into the Kelvin Hall: the reek of the elephants and lions mixing with the candy floss and chips. The air probably didn't freshen up until April!

"Because it was indoors, the noise was incredible and something like the helter-skelter seemed much bigger because of reaching up to the roof. (There were] machines to punch out your name on to a thin metal strip, and I always hunted for ancient slot machines that had spooky mechanical scenes which came alive when you put in an old penny – bodies coming up from graves, ghastly murders in haunted houses. I'd love to have one of these nowadays. The ghost train was literally a scream. I don't know what created the screeches as you went round; it sounded like a giant kazoo. Nowadays health and safety would close it in the first ten minutes. The circus was a bit of a rammy, but really we just wanted to get back out to the carnival."

Television celebrity Carol Smillie also has fond memories of the carnival. She says: "I remember it being the most exciting event, and I remember it being massive. The lights all flashing, that smell of candyfloss, always. I went with my mum and dad because kids did things with their mum and dad in those days, didn't they? Kids are so independent now! I had to convince my mum and dad to go because it wasn't their thing at all, really, and I knew the cost implications of going at the time, but to be allowed to go was a massive treat. I never thought it would happen because we lived in a different age then where if you got it you were lucky, and if you didn't, well you just didn't. Now kids just assume it'll be fine to go or that I'll say no, we can't afford it.

"As far as rides, I'm not really good with motion sickness. Things like the waltzers, you'd always get some guy – and I know they still exist today – who'd see a bunch of girls and go, 'Oh great, I'm going to spin them 'til they puke.' So I was terrified of things like that. But I liked the ghost train and I loved spending money on the stalls, convinced I was going to win the most enormous prize, and I never did. But I never felt in any way cheated, or that it was anything other than a fantastic Christmas experience."

All the fun of the fair, indeed! This year the Irn Bru Carnival, which moved to the SECC in 1985 and is now the largest indoor funfair in Europe, celebrates its 90th birthday. Back in 1920, it was launched by the then equivalent of the council, explains Fran McIntyre, managing director of QD Events Ltd, the exhibition company in charge of running the Carnival.

"They started it as an annual feel-good gathering," she says. "It was the first of its kind in the UK, and also the start of positioning Glasgow as a great day out, so it was a bit of a PR exercise. And they had a circus running alongside it – elephants, the whole shebang. That stopped when it moved to the SECC because the demand was then for rides and attractions rather than the circus."

In an effort to cater to the widest possible age range, this year's visitors will find everything from trampolines for tots, to bingo for their grannies.

McIntyre continues: "It is such a West of Scotland phenomenon, but having said that, I was brought up in Fife and every year I used to go to the Kelvin Hall with my parents. But I think it's more of an institution in the West of Scotland, and institution isn't too strong a description: on Christmas Day we all get together as a family, on Boxing Day we all go to the carnival." Godley's family traditionally made their pilgrimage on a Saturday. "That was when my dad went off work and we got money. We were poor in the 1960s. Dad didn't go, Mom took us, but it was after wages day."

McIntyre says there's really no fixed demographic. "We have the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy. I think in years gone by it was perhaps known as a less expensive day out, but in recent years it's been known as a family day out. When the recession kicked in, that retro feel to everything came back and people were harking after family days out that weren't expensive. In the last two years we've seen a bigger increase in people coming across from Edinburgh. That may be to do with the link to Irn Bru as well. Everybody drinks Irn Bru. So the two brands sit very well together."

After studying the crowds for 25 years, she says, they've made a few discoveries. "There are certain days that, say, the Chinese or the Asian community from Glasgow will all come, certain days that people from the East of Glasgow will come, and others when people from the West of Glasgow will come. It's because they know they're all going to see each other every year."

Every year, staff comb the crowds, asking questions and noting sales figures for the all-important post-carnival debriefing session when they assess which rides and attractions proved the most popular, data that's used when it's time to evaluate bids for the next year's fair.

They've also started using social networking to extend their reach – and two sample posts from their Facebook wall suggest this strategy is working. Jackie Ball writes: "Exciting!! – How far do people travel to go to the carnival – I've went every year since I was tiny, living in Glasgow its a family tradition … even after moving to Southampton a number of years ago … my flights are booked for this year to go to the carnival … we will be there on 30 December :)" Nicola Niki Mcgowan Mclaren posted: "Waitd aw year 4 ths :) x"

If past attendance records are anything to go by – and snow doesn't paralyse transport – they're expecting roughly 140,000 people through the doors over the three-week period. "We're freezing the entry fee," says McIntyre. "In the current circumstances, particular in Glasgow, with public sector jobs, it also works for us. We drive a good family audience here, which means that it's a healthy carnival with a good buzz about it."

• The Irn Bru Carnival is on until 16 January, 2011