Carnival erupts in chaos after kids unleash ‘fart spray’

A beachside carnival in Connecticut devolved into chaos after a few young pranksters set off some ‘fart spray’ as a practical joke, sending attendees fleeing from the stench.

What was intended to be a harmless prank soon devolved into a chaotic scene as bystanders saw carnival-goers sprinting away from the McKinley Carnival festivities on the night of April 27, 2025.

Held on Jennings Beach in Fairfield, Connecticut, rumors swiftly sparked that something awful must have taken place at the funfair, but law enforcement quickly shut down this speculation.

According to police, folks were running away from the scene because children had set off some foul-smelling ‘fart spray’ multiple times in the area near the carnival exit.

Fart spray prank sends carnival-goers fleeing

In fact, these kids had pulled this prank numerous times during the night. The concoction smelled so bad that it triggered a bigger reaction later in the evening, sending large crowds fleeing without knowing the reason why in what police called a ‘ripple effect.’

“This prank, repeated several times throughout the night, led to confusion and caused small groups to scream and run,” officers said in a statement. “Toward the end of the evening, a larger reaction occurred, triggering a ripple effect as others began running without knowing the cause.”

Facebook: Fairfield Police Department – Connecticut

Luckily, no one was harmed in the aftermath of the children’s stinky scheme — but it could have ended in a far worse way.

Panicked ripple effects, like the one reported at the McKinley Carnival, can result in a crowd surge. Crowd surges are defined as a “mass movement of people that occurs when a dense crowd is tightly packed together.”

These surges can cause ‘crowd crush,’ when a group of people are so densely packed together that life-threatening injuries and even asphyxiation (lack of oxygen) can occur.

Perhaps one of the most famous examples of ‘crowd crush’ occurred at rapper Travis Scott’s performance at Astroworld on November 5, 2021, where ten people were killed in the 50,000-strong throng of concert-goers.

Thankfully, things weren’t as densely packed at the Connecticut carnival, and no reports have come forward about any action taken against the pranksters responsible for the incident.

However, two Texas teens were arrested in 2023 after setting off fart spray in their school, causing the facility to be evacuated.