Ring Riders

The Ring Riding Event is the crowning contest that concludes seven days of celebrating. Colorful sports pagodas are built, and spectators are lifted to their lofty perches by giraffe-necked Brachiosauruses. "Pairs of bold teenage riders, each representing a different quadrant of the island, ride Deinocheiruses, large members of the ostrich-dinosaur family - known to modern paleontologists only by their massive arms," Gurney says. "The riders' goal is to steer beneath a banner of the correct color and collect as many rings as possible."