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Sep 29, 2009
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While Busch Gardens hasn't officially posted their show lineup for 2017, that doesn't mean it's too early to get the rumor mill going.

All I know so far is that Celtic Fyre will be returning. This year they will go back to husband and wife American guests of the bride. Also from what I have heard, the show in Das Festhaus might be different.

I haven't heard any word yet about London Rocks, but it seems like they were trying to decide last year if they should redo the show again. I find it highly unlikely that we will see the 2016 variation if any show at all.

So, let's get the ball rolling! Does anybody have any rumors or ideas?
 
[tweet=https://twitter.com/BuschDominion/status/820296258313142272]


Update: Although Busch Dominion wasn't aware of CastleOSullivan's above speculation about the 2017 entertainment lineup when we broke this news, his similar findings definitely help corroborate our conclusions.
 
Some part of me wants London Rocks to be replaced with a 30-minute musical adaptation of a Shakespeare play, along the lines of what Scrooge No More did with Dickens.

"Macbeth No More," anyone? :p
 
^That might actually work! The main reason why they don't want to invest in a new show in the Globe Theatre is because of the set. For one thing, it cost a lot of money. The other thing is that some people in entertainment originally wanted to transform the entire theater along with the rest of the village. This means they had no room in their itinerary for the show to fail.

Aside from the set in The Globe, one of the biggest roadblocks is the 30 minute limit. The higher-ups at the park are very vehement that no show is to go over 30 minutes. This probably means that we won't see a revival of Ghosts of the Globe anytime soon, as that show was 50+ minutes.

Also, while the return of This is Oktoberfest sounds like a good idea, it's really not the same without the rising stage. If they would somehow incorporate both stages into one, that would make me just about as excited as a revival of The Enchanted Laboratory or Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan.

One of these days I want to make a mock up of how I would want them to pull that off. I'm just having enough trouble figuring out how to make the original mechanism work on a mock up.
 
Please BGW, let "This Is Oktoberfest" come back for 2017 I will be overjoyed if that happens. I'm so glad that London Rocks has come to an end but sightly sad that it ended like that last year; hopefully in 2018 the Globe will get a much better show in there for the spring/summer season.
 
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CastleOSullivan said:
^That might actually work!  The main reason why they don't want to invest in a new show in the Globe Theatre is because of the set. For one thing, it cost a lot of money.  The other thing is that some people in entertainment originally wanted to transform the entire theater along with the rest of the village. This means they had no room in their itinerary for the show to fail.

Aside from the set in The Globe, one of the biggest roadblocks is the 30 minute limit. The higher-ups at the park are very vehement that no show is to go over 30 minutes. This probably means that we won't see a revival of Ghosts of the Globe anytime soon, as that show was 50+ minutes.

 Also, while the return of This is Oktoberfest sounds like a good idea, it's really not the same without the rising stage. If they would somehow incorporate both stages into one, that would make me just about as excited as a revival of The Enchanted Laboratory or Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan.

One of these days I want to make a mock up of how I would want them to pull that off. I'm just having enough trouble figuring out how to make the original mechanism work on a mock up.

TIO wouldn't be the same without the old stage, or at least something similar. The 'cool factor' was notched WAY high when that stage rose up to the top with the band on top and dancers below! Never saw anything like that, and still love to see pictures/video of it. I'm not sure they'd even need to take down the existing stage. Add the round elevating stage in the middle, and add a set of stairs on each side of the new stage. Doesn't hurt to dream, right? I'd be SO happy if they brought the old stage back. It was 'the heart' of the Festhaus...which for my family was 'the heart' of the park. Whenever we visited, the Festhaus was our first stop. Until we got there, we hadn't officially 'arrived' ;)
 
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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.
 
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. As for what will replace "London Rocks" in the Globe is anybody's guess (but maybe a fun 30 minute musical based on Shakespeare's career could be both entertaining and fitting towards the European theme like "Celtic Fyre" and "All For One" does).

It sure is interesting that Scott Gasparich's last two shows he made during his run as Entertainment VP are getting the ax this year being replaced by new shows by Pete Dunklee and Phil Raybourn in the future. Honestly, this is one change I'm optimistic for.
 
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The Hessian said:
Do we know if there has been anything about All For One cause that show is one that has a lot of potential that I would like to see be nutured. It was as well a show that I enjoyed quite a bit

Take this with a grain of salt but I did hear that they are making some slight changes to the show but nothing major. They could be revising the fight choreography to make it easier to follow.
 
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I hope they don't dumb it down with dialogue that directly spells out what is happening. While it's true that most people today are not trained/ not smart enough to follow what is happening in a play, there are so many alternatives to cheap dialogue.

My biggest priority for the show is for them to make both shows of the night equal, but equally awesome. For example: find a way to allow the banners to fall during both performances. For the rest of it, lighting was the biggest issue once they fixed the sound. During the big explosion if the lighting cue isn't just on time, you see the men dangling from their rigging harnesses and that confuses people.

They still have a lot to do, but thankfully most of the bigger work was already done by the end of last season.
 
I don't think it's dialogue but the changes might be staging and set/tech based changes. But again, this is just a rumor I heard.

Speaking of "All For One", did you finish your 2016 video yet or are you going to wait until this year's version comes?
 
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Without straying too far off topic; I have what I have as far as audio/video, but I have indefinitely shelved putting together a full video. I will try to upload the footage and post an unlisted video link in the All For One Thread.
 
Great, thanks! :D

I hope the park will post their 2017 line-up soon, because it would be great if they can confirm this rumor.
 
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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.
 
I'm not a fan of London Rocks but it could be a big hit in terms of empty space if they cancel it without a suitable back up or at least something in the works for next year.
 
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If this rumor does turn out to be true, I can't for the theories as to what the new show at the Globe is going to be like. :)
 
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