Mama Duck, world’s largest rubber duck, will splash down at Missouri State Fair
Everything is just a little weirder at state fairs.
The food — pork chops on sticks, python kebabs, fried beer.
The contests — grocery bagging, outhouse races, llamas dressed in costumes.
This year, the Missouri State Fair, which begins Thursday and runs through Aug. 17 in Sedalia, is ready to quack you up with a giant bath toy.
The fair is hosting the world’s largest rubber duck, a bright yellow, six-story waterfowl affectionately known as “Mama Duck.”
Since she debuted in the United States at the Port of Los Angeles in August 2014, Mama Duck has starred in thousands of selfies and photographs as she’s traveled the country.
Her measurements are bodacious — 61 feet tall, 64 feet wide, 74 feet long. She’s too large for your average tub.
“The world is her bathtub,” say her keepers.
The giant inflatable duck was originally conceived by Dutch conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman who has said he creates sculptures to cause commotion and surprise, and to make people smile.
He has produced other larger-than-life art installations of everyday objects displayed around the world — massive paper boats, toy rabbits and a wooden hippo that floated on London’s River Thames.
“The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation,” Hofman said once. “The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: It can relieve the world’s tensions as well as define them.”
The folks at the Missouri state fair echo the sentiment, describing on their website how the rubber duck’s mission “is to spread happiness and love wherever she goes and a gentle reminder to enjoy our outdoor spaces wisely, preserving them for many generations to come.”
Mama Duck has appeared across the country from L.A. to Philadelphia, all over the Great Lakes region and throughout Canada. Since last year she has lived with her wrangler in South Carolina.
After her Sedalia stint she floats away to more fairs, a tall ships event in Pennsylvania, an air show in Virginia Beach and a duck derby in Georgia.
Sometimes, she makes appearances with her 10-foot-tall sidekick, a baby duck named Timmy, but the state fair didn’t mention that he’s coming.
Mama Duck has her own social media accounts and even limited edition merch. The T-shirts declare “Big Duck Love.”
She is a people magnet wherever she appears, looming large on both land and water, from casino parking lots to city harbors.
People have taken pictures of their kids and dogs with her, and who knows how many selfies are floating around out there.
A video posted in May showing YouTuber Handyman Hal helping to inflate the duck at an event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has more than a half-million views.
It showed Mama Duck, deflated and lying on the ground like a sad popped balloon, come to life as nearly 140,000 cubic feet of air was pumped into her through four air snorkels attached to air blowers. The process takes about an hour and a half.
Heavy-duty tethers attached to 4,000-pound concrete barriers kept her grounded.
Handyman Hal and his sidekick, Awesome Alex, got to go inside the giant duck once it was inflated, a rare perk also given to NASCAR driver Todd Gilliland last month when Mama Duck appeared at the Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware.
Hal and Alex kinda glowed yellow as they stood inside the duck towering six stories over their heads.
She is made of tough PVC, but mishaps do happen. In fact, she was scheduled to make her first stop in the Kansas City area two years ago. But her appearance at the Overland Park Convention Center was scuttled when she got damaged at an event in Chicago, leaving local fans deflated.
Such is the life of an inflatable.
Once, Mama Duck got what media described as “sleepy” and deflated during an appearance in Hong Kong.
In Santiago, Chile, she burst after she accidentally crashed into a sign. (Oh, the horror.)
In Myrtle Beach in May, high winds tore her body and she had to go home early. She’s had to pack it in, too, when temperatures get too hot.
In Sedalia, Mama Duck will hold court east of the Mathewson Exhibitor Center on the fairgrounds.
And before you get your feathers ruffled, no, she doesn’t squeak.
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