Fiesta Texas Takes Home Two Honors in This Year's Golden Ticket Awards
Golden Ticket Awards, Amusement Today | September 9, 2021
Six Flags Fiesta Texas Rocks Out with the Best New Show of 2021
When the global pandemic stopped the industry in its tracks in 2020, one of the first things sacrificed for the parks lucky enough to open was indoor theaters. Outdoor venues had a sprinkling of offerings. While certainly not back to normal, theme parks provided more entertainment this year. As one would expect, using the advantages of outdoor spaces was still the most common approach.
In the spring, Amusement Today invited the amusement industry to nominate shows for consideration of Best New Show of 2021. The five finalists boasted a diverse set of strengths — from live musical performances to nighttime extravaganzas to a parade. AT doubled the size of its voting panel, and dedicated participants watched all nominees before sending in their choices for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. From those, points were tabulated, and a clear winner came out on top.
“Rock The Night” was a new nighttime finale show at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. In partnership with Magic In The Sky, the park thrilled guests with a multi-sensory spectacular with an overload of aerial fireworks. The hard rock show took the Golden Ticket.
“Rock The Night was a culmination of what we’ve done best with our closing night show,” said Ben McTyre, director of entertainment. “Lasers, fireworks, fountains, flames and more — all added to a pulse-pounding rocking soundtrack. It was such a high-energy finale to close out our guests’ visits. People have come to expect big things from our closing show, and we couldn’t have been prouder of the end result. It was so much fun. Our team loved it as much as our visitors.”
Using the park’s signature quarry walls, the visual pop from projections synched energetically to rocking hit songs, accented by numerous effects, including an abundance of pyrotechnics.
“Down By The Riverside” at Silver Dollar City featured a mix of country, pop and gospel performed by live singers, dancers and musicians. The toe-tapping performance took second place. The Branson theme park is known worldwide for a wide range of live shows.
Best seen from the park’s Wildwood Grove, visitors to Dollywood were treated to “Sweet Summer Nights.” The aerial show was balanced between fireworks and lighted drones to work in conjunction with broadcast music within the area. The night show came in at the No. 3 position.
Texas summers are hot, but that didn’t stop live singers, dancers and band members from boot skootin’ and belting out country hits in “Deep In The Heart” over the summer months. Despite the show being outdoors, longtime fans commented that it was one of the strongest productions Six Flags Over Texas had put on in years. It placed at No. 4.
Completing the finalists is Cedar Point’s “Celebrate 150 Parade.” As showcased in AT’s August issue, the parade wowed guests with a dozen elaborate floats, more than a hundred live performers, a signature soundtrack and lots of action. The parade capitalized on the park’s celebration of 150 years, and it was considered a perfect evening finale to close out visitors’ Cedar Point experience.
A note to amusement industry facilities, nominations will open next spring for Best New Show of 2022. Amusement Today encourages parks to submit their best show for consideration by the Golden Ticket Awards’ elite panel.
Fiesta Texas Takes Home ‘Best Halloween Event’ Honor with Hallowfest
Even after a year has passed, it is not too difficult to remember the challenging aspects of 2020. Many parks weren’t even able to open that year. Those that could welcome guests may have closed earlier in the fall. Understandably, the emotional climate of the world was drastically different last season.
Some parks didn’t offer Halloween events, but those that did put in major efforts to make it appropriate for the times. It was a wide-open playing field like never before. Amusement Today applauds those efforts and kept the Best Halloween Event of 2020 award intact.
The majority of Six Flags parks reimagined the normal Fright Fest events into HallowFest during the pandemic, and they were huge successes.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas takes the Golden Ticket for 2020’s events. With indoor venues closed, shows and haunts had to be reworked. Outdoor entertainment and scare zones filled the need for spooky holiday fare.
“The industry understood that 2020 was a completely different time. Halloween events needed a rethink to be sensitive to what was going on,” said Park President Jeffrey Siebert. “Our team reimagined everything! HallowFest was immensely popular. Focusing on outdoor entertainment and scare zones proved very successful. Our Frightful Finale was such a spectacular hit — using projections on the park’s quarry walls, pyro, the witches from Hocus Pocus and even the chandelier from Phantom of the Opera swinging down from the cliff — we want to keep it for 2021 as we return to our Fright Fest event.”
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay rose to second place. Not holding back on offering Halloween scares, the Central Florida park is recognized on the chart for the first time.
“Halloween has always been one of my favorite events through my years in the industry,” said Busch Gardens Park President Neal Thurman. “The Entertainment team at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is among the best in the business. From creative story telling at our haunted attractions to the humorous script writing to the planning and installation of the park décor, the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay team has Howl-O-Scream covered. If you thought the previous Howl-O-Screams were great events, wait until you experience Howl-O-Scream 2021.”
The Busch team works tirelessly throughout the year to develop new haunt themes and creative stories and bring them to life. At Busch Gardens the entire park is re-themed with a Halloween overlay — from haunted houses and scare zones to the shows, food, and merchandise available, the event encompasses every department. Three new incredibly creepy haunted houses and new scare zones await guests in 2021.
Six Flags Great Adventure (No. 3) also provided startling screams in 2020 with its rendition of HallowFest. Europe had its own restrictions in place, which canceled many Christmas events, but for Halloween, Europa-Park came in fourth, and Toverland rounded out the top five finalists.