The Ferris wheel and cotton candy vendors will have to share the summer limelight this weekend as students of all ages take the stage to showcase their talents for the crowd. The main event at the big top will be song-and-dance, catapulting the winner to new heights of stardom, a chance to compete on the Bill Riley stage at the Iowa State Fair.

Rose Rumohr, ISU senior in music education, wants a spot on that stage and will play flute at the Ankeny Summerfest talent show this weekend.

“It would be nice to go to the state fair, but I mostly do it for fun and to perform,” Rumohr says.

Rumohr says the talents of the participants in the shows vary, but the shows always revolve around music.

“Usually there are not too many instrumentalists,” Rumohr says. “There are a lot of dancers and singers. Baton twirlers are popular in central Iowa, too.”

The 38th annual Ankeny Summerfest will host one of more than 150 talent shows across Iowa throughout the year. Each show qualifies entrants for the Bill Riley Talent Search at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 12-22.

Nancy Huber, Summerfest talent show chairwoman, says that there are only enough spots for 10 or 11 people in each of the shows’ two age divisions — the sprout division for ages 2-12 and the senior division for ages 13-21. Huber says she has had an overabundance of applicants each year.

“I get tons and tons of calls,” Huber says. “Some of these kids go from show to show across the state, trying to get into the Bill Riley show in the fair.”

Tim Barker, a junior in chemistry and music at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., is in Ames this summer for a chemistry internship at Iowa State. Barker also has a space in the Summerfest talent show, playing violin.

“I played in the Bill Riley contest once before,” Barker says. “Two years ago, I made it to the final round on TV.”

Barker says he qualified for that spot by winning a talent show in his hometown of Le Mars. He plans to enter that talent show again this year if Summerfest does not get him that crucial spot in the fair.

The Summerfest shows takes place at 7:30 p.m. Friday outdoors at the Northview Stadium, and the cost of admission is $1. Most other Summerfest activities are free. They include a carnival with food vendors, live music every night in the Jaycee Leisure Garden, a parade at 10 a.m. Saturday and fireworks at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Rumohr will play “Sonata in A Minor” by C.P. Bach as a flute solo at Summerfest.

“I’ve actually played once this summer and got third place, so I thought I’d try again,” Rumohr says. “It’s my last year to make it, because I’m 21.”