Canada’s Wonderland has held Oktoberfest for many years on the weekends (Friday-Sunday) after Labour Day before Haunt starts. It is probably the most popular festival of the year. I’m surprised the other parks haven’t had that too.
Blue Skyline racer vs Red Coke racer for chili weekend. As an employee I really enjoyed the Big Bash event they had for us in 2009. That was the most fun event at any job I've ever had to spend time with my coworkers at work!
And they still do Big Bash during the last week of daily operations! They do a different theme every year for it too! I've been to 3 of them and they were all very fun!
Or here's an idea: Pull a page out of Dollywood/Busch Gardens and do a "Summer Celebration" running from Memorial Day Weekend until Labor Day. Decorate the park with cool overhead displays over walkways like kites, umbrellas, pool noodles anything you can think of Summer wise. Also do some special limited time events/entertainment that run during that like a bre/bbq festival, or carnivale, or even a weekend free concert series like what Busch Gardens does. Also they should bring back the Area 72 launch party!
You should do an episode on the ASA Action Sports World Tour in 2009 when they stopped at KI over Memorial Day Weekend that year. That looked like a really cool event and I don't see very many people talking about it as much as the Kneivel jumps and Wallenda Tight rope walks.
Talking about Oktoberfest brings back memories of Oktoberfest at Geauga Lake. It was held the weekend before the Halloween event would begin. They would have a keg tapping ceremony at the start of each day. There would be outside vendors selling food, live entertainment at various stages, beer slides, and the best part was rides till midnight. It was something we looked forward to every year.
I think they need to have adults only HAUNT nights where HAUNT is like it was 10 years ago. Darkness, tons of fog, scary horror movie music, no boo necklaces banned, etc.. It would also be nice if they had twice as many haunted houses like they used to but I won't hold my breathe on that.
I think ppl would definitely want to do the tour behind the beast, thats a good idea!... free drinks for 1 day would get ppl in the park... have taylor swift or morgan wallen perform lol ppl will definitely show up for that!!
How about a local, multi genre music festival? I would love to see them hire local musicians to play 2 or 3 stages around the park. Hi-Fi Honey or other tribute act gets the big stage w/ production (choose Fest or Intl stage). Put a local rock band in action zone, a pop act on the other main stage and then possibly folk / country in Rivertown. Have each band sell discounted park tickets as well as give them a special "gold pass" link to get their fans to sign up for a pass. Reward the bands based on a tier system, possibly tie in a charity angle for the band who sells the most X money goes to their favorite charity. I REALLY hope park goers find their way back to craving LIVE ENTERTAINMENT. Show KI you want shows & random entertainment. It's part of what makes theme parks special. I feel the same for roaming characters. A mascot night / Sunday seems ripe for KI, plus there is the space within that for ad trade. An Oktoberfest would be fantastic and sell itself. You have two, HUGE, German groups who you can sell tix to. Invite them out to perform on Intl Street and the fest house. You could have buskers around the park, such as an accordion player. Add special food vendors in the walkway areas outside the Fest house as well as offer a few themed entrees inside Fest.
So much to digest on the episode (pun intended) first just a little critique: your last episode had a lot of interesting comments from your audience on YT, FB, etc. maybe review some of last show and spill into the comments section to create some more discussion about the subject then lead into the new episode. I digress now to the episode that people would love to have a Octoberfest event or Chili event or a food truck festival from the past. I would like also to see anything to lure more people into the park during these last few weeks before the private event blackouts. Always a great job on the cast and best idea of Octoberfest with sponsorship of local beer company such as Sonder brewery as they have an existing relationship already. Also maybe revisit some podcast episodes especially with haunt starting and McNair Netflix show and the controversy surrounding KI and having national headlines.
When thinking of Oktoberfest, you'll notice Cedar Point doesn't have it either. Which begs the question, does Ohio have particularly strict alcohol laws?
KI literally just did a Food and Wine festival. Ohio doesn't have any law that would prevent an event like this and KI already sells beer at many places in the park. Also there are lots of beer/alcohol based events around the state.
@@bigblueamusementproductions OK then.. I was just pointing out that Cedar Point doesn't have Oktoberfest either.. both are Ohio parks. so must be something else.
While i love the idea of Octoberfest (huge fan of Octoberfest in general) - KI draws VERY well from the Sept. Reopen through October. I wouldn't add more HERE unless ypu are expanding hours/days. KI crowds are good April/May and great fall/Winter. They need a boost during the summer and in particular week days. So, I'm all in if they open more in September... But... I'd emphasize things that bring in vendors that pay rather than get paid: May Rib fest - follow the format. Put it in the picknick area. Invite restaurants and the rib circuit folks and make a big deal out of it. May/June high school days - invite local to HS bands and drama clubs to put on concerts and plays. (Usually HS have plays in March/April so they could reprise their play). June - Keep trying w/Food and wine. Add in local wineries. July - Keep trying w/Carnivale. I'd add in bringing in local HS bands to March here as well. HS practice during the summer so you can get them. August - Beer fest - invite local breweries. Aug - do an "America's got talent" type show with amateur performers. Could do one each weekend. Sept - Octoberfest. Particularly push labor day weekend and be open as much as possivle. Sept - band sundays - bring in local one or more HS marching bands to match around a few times. Maybe even a local college if they can. Oct - Dec are doing great.
Food and Wine would be better off in April/May as that is more of a spring time event. I think June would be better for a Brew/BBQ/Rib fest. I personally feel like Carnivale has run its course and it is time for something new in peak summer. I think a Summer Nights event like what Knott's and Cedar Point do and what Dorney/WOF introduced this year would work well at KI if they did it right. Or they could keep experimenting with a weekend concert series and make the concerts free with park admission like what Carowinds did this year.
@@bigblueamusementproductions sure, you could flip that. My reasoning for F/W June is continuity. My reason for Ribfest May is that the water park isn't open so you can use the walkway for vendors. But either way could work. Definitely want Beer Fest in the "fall" to play/lead into Octoberfest.
