I've been sitting on this idea for many years now—long before the Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger was a thing—but, given the immanent closure of Six Flags America and the fact that SFA reportedly still has their recently-removed, cow-themed Huss Breakdance in storage, I want to finally put this attraction concept out there into the ether as I honestly do believe that it's a very, very strong, pretty low-budget pitch for a potential, uniquely-Kings Dominion attraction without much in the way of regional comparison.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
From my understanding of the internal layout of the Action Theater building, I believe this model fits in just a single of the building's theaters with minimal/no structural modifications to the structure. Plus, Old Virginia currently only houses a single flat ride and it's all the way on the other side of the land. Giving this side of Old Virginia another attraction—especially a weather-resistant, family flat—seems like a major win.
A to-scale diagram showing the model within the Action Theater building can be found below.
The other theater in the building could be continue to be utilized as space for a Haunt attraction or be converted into fully-indoor queue space for this proposed Huss Breakdance. The current covering in the front of the building can either be used as queue space for the attraction or be dedicated in large part to another use such as a walk-up food and beverage location such as a bar, a farm-themed, covered children's play area, a simple, nice, themed covered seating area, retail space, or nearly anything else. Potential examples for area-use are included below.
These aren't meant to depict all the potential options, just to show some broad ideas about how the area could be utilized.
While an enclosed Breakdance cloaked in darkness by itself is a fun enough time and, frankly, would be a welcome addition to Old Virginia even in its most basic form, I think this pitch can be elevated dramatically with a little creativity and just a small bit of thematic investment. We can take this concept from a family flat ride people would enjoy in passing to a real, marketable, story-driven attraction that would help continue to push Kings Dominion from its amusement park days deeper into true theme park territory—all while offering an attraction experience unlike anything that can be found elsewhere in the region.
Instead of taking a more clinical approach and describing in-detail all of the exact elements I'm imagining in each location, I want to run-through the general experience sequentially to give an idea of the full guest experience I'm imagining from start to finish.
No matter the specific queue layout we're envisioning, guests would approach the ride and encounter a large barn-themed facade. Upon entering the barn under the Cow Tippin' logo, there's a queue made up of switchbacks formed from tall, livestock corral panels. Surrounding the perimeter of the queue space are various bits of livestock farming equipment—food troughs, large, stainless steel milk cans, etc—you get the idea.
At one corner of the queue space, there's a stack of crates and barrels. Intermittently, some rustling can be heard coming from the corner behind the stack of storage containers and, every couple minute or so, the queue hears one of an array of dialog cues delivered by unseen teens with thick, rural Virginian accents. Here's an example of one such bit of audio:
And another:
At the end of the queue, there's a large, closed, sliding barn door. Every handful of minutes, a ride op, dressed as a farmer, slides the door open to allow the next group of riders out of the barn queuing space and into the ride area.
Exiting the barn, into the ride area, riders encounter a fully-enclosed Huss Breakdance with cow-themed ride vehicles. Looking back, the barn door you entered through is part of a large barn facade painted on one wall of the space. Surrounding the rest of the ride area are wooden fences with fake greenery or corn stalks behind them. Right behind those 3D thematic elements are large, 2D, pastural murals of the Virginia countryside at sunset.
I generated this graphic with Gemini to give an idea of the simple 3D elements in front of a 2D facade that I imagine around the ride area. The mural work wouldn't need to be anywhere near this detailed—just some fields that continue off into the distance get the message across plenty fine.
The lighting in the ride area during load is orange-tinted to enhance the Virginian countryside twilight vibe.
After the ride op goes around and checks all the ride's restraints, he goes into a ride op booth in the corner next to the barn. The booth is themed to an 3D extension of the 2D painted barn facade.
Immediately once the ride cycle begins, the orange light of twilight from the overhead ride-area lights fades as a single, narrow spotlight (positioned like a flashlight at waist-level) darts around the ride area as rustling is heard and an audio queue plays as the ride begins to spin up:
At this point all hell breaks loose. There's sounds of teenagers running around, shouting about tippin' more cows, comically over-exaggerated cow noises, the beams of flashlights darting all over, etc.
At the mid-point of the ride cycle, over the sound of all the commotion, you hear a booming voice of an old man yell:
Seconds later, sirens can be heard approaching—joining the still ongoing cacophony of auditory chaos—causing all of the kids to turn off their flashlights and shout at one another to hide—all while the cow noises continue as the cows stampede around trying to get away from the teens. Bright red, blue, and white lights fade in on the perimeter of the ride area accompanied by a pair of headlights. A much brighter, almost blinding searchlight appears in the ride area from the same direction as the headlights.
As the bright searchlight scans all around the field for the teens, an authoritative policeman on a loudspeaker announces:
You hear the voices of the teens trying to get away fade into the surrounding fields as the chaos begins to subside and the ride cycle spins down. Like the teens, the cop car lights vanish into the night. A rooster crows as the ride comes to a stop and the orange, twilight house lights come up—this time signifying morning on the farm.
The goal here was to keep cost way, way down, and I think what's presented above can be accomplished while doing exactly that. You'd have to record some audio cues, and bring in someone with lighting design and show programming experience to get the sequence all nailed down, but the actual equipment required to pull off all of this would really only consist of a handful of programmable spotlights, some sirens, some color-changing house lights, a pair of headlights and a handful of large, directional speakers around the ride area.
The lights can all be hidden amongst the fake greenery on the perimeter of the ride area with the speakers disguised as crates along the fence line.
All of the attraction's required physical theming can be accomplished very cheaply—wooden fences, fake plants, used farm equipment, wooden crates and barrels to disguise speakers, etc—all cheap and widely available for purchase. Basic murals for the backdrops on the ride area walls would be more expensive, but if Kennywood can do it for their newest family flat, Kings Dominion certainly can too.
In totality, it's a super low-budget way to deliver a fully immersive, story-driven, darkride-like experience on a flat ride budget. Oh, and there is precedent for this. This attraction concept is HEAVILY inspired by the absolutely fantastic Cyclone Sam's at Worlds of Fun. That flat ride has stuck with me as a prime example of what a little money and a lot of creativity can do for an otherwise super basic attraction.
That said, if Kings Dominion wanted to spend a little more and do a mini area refresh for the entrance to Old Virginia, I did draw up a more expensive version of the ride area that would, instead of adding a themed facade to the existing Action Theater shelter, demo the covered shelter area, build a new barn for queuing, hide the main ride building and haunt space with new plantings, and give the entrance a bit more flare with a tractor photo op and more.
Whatever the exact scale, I think there's some very serious potential here. We know one of these cow-themed Breakdances is available thanks to the demise of Six Flags America. This would be an absolutely killer way to utilize that asset and deliver an incredible, unique attraction to Kings Dominion on a nearly shoestring budget.
Though this is the first time I've drawn up something like this for Kings Dominion, if you liked this concept, consider checking out some of my previous attraction concepts for Busch Gardens Williamsburg such as Das Spinnrad, ZeitMaschine or Da Vinci's Dirigibles!
Huss Breakdance in Action Theater
The basic concept here is to utilize one of the two theater spaces within the existing Action Theater building in Old Virginia to house a fully-indoor Huss Breakdance. An example of the ride-type in question can be found below.Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
From my understanding of the internal layout of the Action Theater building, I believe this model fits in just a single of the building's theaters with minimal/no structural modifications to the structure. Plus, Old Virginia currently only houses a single flat ride and it's all the way on the other side of the land. Giving this side of Old Virginia another attraction—especially a weather-resistant, family flat—seems like a major win.
A to-scale diagram showing the model within the Action Theater building can be found below.
The other theater in the building could be continue to be utilized as space for a Haunt attraction or be converted into fully-indoor queue space for this proposed Huss Breakdance. The current covering in the front of the building can either be used as queue space for the attraction or be dedicated in large part to another use such as a walk-up food and beverage location such as a bar, a farm-themed, covered children's play area, a simple, nice, themed covered seating area, retail space, or nearly anything else. Potential examples for area-use are included below.
These aren't meant to depict all the potential options, just to show some broad ideas about how the area could be utilized.
While an enclosed Breakdance cloaked in darkness by itself is a fun enough time and, frankly, would be a welcome addition to Old Virginia even in its most basic form, I think this pitch can be elevated dramatically with a little creativity and just a small bit of thematic investment. We can take this concept from a family flat ride people would enjoy in passing to a real, marketable, story-driven attraction that would help continue to push Kings Dominion from its amusement park days deeper into true theme park territory—all while offering an attraction experience unlike anything that can be found elsewhere in the region.
Cow Tippin'
Theming a Huss Breakdance with cow-themed ride vehicles to the urban legends surrounding the supposed rural, drunk, young-adult past-time of cow tipping seems like the most obvious idea in the world to me—it's literally a ride comprised of cows tipping back and forth! Despite this, as far as I know, no amusement park ride has ever been themed to cow tipping. Thankfully, Kings Dominion is primed to pick this low-hanging fruit. Old Virginia, an area themed to nostalgic, idealized, often rural, historic Virginian life, is a perfect location for a ride themed to cow tipping.Instead of taking a more clinical approach and describing in-detail all of the exact elements I'm imagining in each location, I want to run-through the general experience sequentially to give an idea of the full guest experience I'm imagining from start to finish.
No matter the specific queue layout we're envisioning, guests would approach the ride and encounter a large barn-themed facade. Upon entering the barn under the Cow Tippin' logo, there's a queue made up of switchbacks formed from tall, livestock corral panels. Surrounding the perimeter of the queue space are various bits of livestock farming equipment—food troughs, large, stainless steel milk cans, etc—you get the idea.
At one corner of the queue space, there's a stack of crates and barrels. Intermittently, some rustling can be heard coming from the corner behind the stack of storage containers and, every couple minute or so, the queue hears one of an array of dialog cues delivered by unseen teens with thick, rural Virginian accents. Here's an example of one such bit of audio:
And another:
At the end of the queue, there's a large, closed, sliding barn door. Every handful of minutes, a ride op, dressed as a farmer, slides the door open to allow the next group of riders out of the barn queuing space and into the ride area.
Exiting the barn, into the ride area, riders encounter a fully-enclosed Huss Breakdance with cow-themed ride vehicles. Looking back, the barn door you entered through is part of a large barn facade painted on one wall of the space. Surrounding the rest of the ride area are wooden fences with fake greenery or corn stalks behind them. Right behind those 3D thematic elements are large, 2D, pastural murals of the Virginia countryside at sunset.
I generated this graphic with Gemini to give an idea of the simple 3D elements in front of a 2D facade that I imagine around the ride area. The mural work wouldn't need to be anywhere near this detailed—just some fields that continue off into the distance get the message across plenty fine.
The lighting in the ride area during load is orange-tinted to enhance the Virginian countryside twilight vibe.
After the ride op goes around and checks all the ride's restraints, he goes into a ride op booth in the corner next to the barn. The booth is themed to an 3D extension of the 2D painted barn facade.
Immediately once the ride cycle begins, the orange light of twilight from the overhead ride-area lights fades as a single, narrow spotlight (positioned like a flashlight at waist-level) darts around the ride area as rustling is heard and an audio queue plays as the ride begins to spin up:
At this point all hell breaks loose. There's sounds of teenagers running around, shouting about tippin' more cows, comically over-exaggerated cow noises, the beams of flashlights darting all over, etc.
At the mid-point of the ride cycle, over the sound of all the commotion, you hear a booming voice of an old man yell:
Seconds later, sirens can be heard approaching—joining the still ongoing cacophony of auditory chaos—causing all of the kids to turn off their flashlights and shout at one another to hide—all while the cow noises continue as the cows stampede around trying to get away from the teens. Bright red, blue, and white lights fade in on the perimeter of the ride area accompanied by a pair of headlights. A much brighter, almost blinding searchlight appears in the ride area from the same direction as the headlights.
As the bright searchlight scans all around the field for the teens, an authoritative policeman on a loudspeaker announces:
You hear the voices of the teens trying to get away fade into the surrounding fields as the chaos begins to subside and the ride cycle spins down. Like the teens, the cop car lights vanish into the night. A rooster crows as the ride comes to a stop and the orange, twilight house lights come up—this time signifying morning on the farm.
The goal here was to keep cost way, way down, and I think what's presented above can be accomplished while doing exactly that. You'd have to record some audio cues, and bring in someone with lighting design and show programming experience to get the sequence all nailed down, but the actual equipment required to pull off all of this would really only consist of a handful of programmable spotlights, some sirens, some color-changing house lights, a pair of headlights and a handful of large, directional speakers around the ride area.
The lights can all be hidden amongst the fake greenery on the perimeter of the ride area with the speakers disguised as crates along the fence line.
All of the attraction's required physical theming can be accomplished very cheaply—wooden fences, fake plants, used farm equipment, wooden crates and barrels to disguise speakers, etc—all cheap and widely available for purchase. Basic murals for the backdrops on the ride area walls would be more expensive, but if Kennywood can do it for their newest family flat, Kings Dominion certainly can too.
In totality, it's a super low-budget way to deliver a fully immersive, story-driven, darkride-like experience on a flat ride budget. Oh, and there is precedent for this. This attraction concept is HEAVILY inspired by the absolutely fantastic Cyclone Sam's at Worlds of Fun. That flat ride has stuck with me as a prime example of what a little money and a lot of creativity can do for an otherwise super basic attraction.
That said, if Kings Dominion wanted to spend a little more and do a mini area refresh for the entrance to Old Virginia, I did draw up a more expensive version of the ride area that would, instead of adding a themed facade to the existing Action Theater shelter, demo the covered shelter area, build a new barn for queuing, hide the main ride building and haunt space with new plantings, and give the entrance a bit more flare with a tractor photo op and more.
Whatever the exact scale, I think there's some very serious potential here. We know one of these cow-themed Breakdances is available thanks to the demise of Six Flags America. This would be an absolutely killer way to utilize that asset and deliver an incredible, unique attraction to Kings Dominion on a nearly shoestring budget.
Though this is the first time I've drawn up something like this for Kings Dominion, if you liked this concept, consider checking out some of my previous attraction concepts for Busch Gardens Williamsburg such as Das Spinnrad, ZeitMaschine or Da Vinci's Dirigibles!
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