I think the old stage worked well, and it certainly had the 'wow factor' thing going. The Festhaus is a beerhall, and I'm not sure the existing stage took that into consideration at all. It was built for Entwined. I think they should (at the least) give it some kind of 'Festhaus treatment'. As far as the old stage being in the way, I though BGW did quite well at CT...combining it with the extensions on either side. It just worked. It may have gotten in the way, but not nearly as much as a huge stage that takes up many times more square footage (the Festhaus can get quite cramped as it is), and that splits the Festhaus in two. The original stage was incredibly unique...and that's been lost now. Look at the pictures of the Festhaus with the old stage. 'Nuff said. I'd love to see a mock-up of what your thinking about, CastleOSullivan. Honestly, it's been so many years since we've been to the park that I'm not entirely sure how the new stage looks (we weren't able to travel after the new stage/Entwined started...so I never saw it in person).
Lord Robert said "I always thought that if "This is Oktoberfest!" returned I always imagined that the stage could be redesigned to look like an "authentic beer hall stage" and a bigger band can be on both sides of the stage while the dancers/singers will be in the center like they always did."
I'd be up for a re-imagining of the new stage to theme it properly to be a beer-hall centerpiece/stage. Something proper, and true to what 'real' Oktoberfest festival stages look like in Germany (as long as it's traditional). With the right touches, I think it would be a huge improvement, and I'm thinking it wouldn't cost an astronomical amount of dollars to theme it correctly. Last time I saw a video from anyone of a German show in the Festhaus on the Entwined stage, it looked like the singers/band were forced to use 'someone elses' stage. It looked 'forced' and 'awkward'. Shouldn't be like that. It should look like THEIR stage. It's supposed to be a German festival theme, after all.
All that being said: the old stage was a seriously heavy loss. Now I feel like a broken record, lol.
CastleOSullivan said:
My idea for the stage would allow both to exist together without even having the beams in the way. That's the one for which I want to make a mockup. However, it would be so expensive. There is room for the beams under the stage, but even if it's possible from an engineering perspective, that doesn't mean it would work without fail. I don't think the old stage had many technical issues because they used it consistently for so long.
Unfortunately, I think the old stage was only good for a traditional German show. Aside from that it was more of an obstacle. Then again, I would also argue that traditional German music is the only kind of music that is meant to play in Das Festhaus because the entire sub-genre was made to fight bad acoustics.
If Busch Gardens Williamsburg operated for just one season, I would say Das Festhaus needs to keep the same show all the time. However we also have Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town. Therefore, I think they removed an icon, but decided that it would be impractical to replace it.
