Festa Italia (Italy)
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
I’m still looking forward to its rebrand to “Electric Eel Texas.”
That's the Festa Field Howl-O-Scream house location currently occupied by our cheap knock-off version of Death Water Bayou.
That's Circo Sinestro I think. It was a howloscream house
edit: op and zachary got to it before me apparently lol
Moving my response over here because it feels much more appropriate.
I think @Nicole got 90% of it right in that it feels like their junk drawer - but 10% of it is that Festa is based thematically on such a weak concept. I feel like every other hamlet has strong ties to a specific event (Oktoberfest) or geographic region of a country, but festa is based on....celebrating Marco Polo's return from his trade with the West? Even at that most of what they do in there isn't even necessarily themed to Italy or a specific part. It's very vague.
There are so many stronger themes that they could have used. DaVinci's Garden could have been that entire hamlet as far as I'm concerned, and you could still do a festival theme with it being a 'celebration of Davinci's inventions". They could have done an Italian Alps hamlet with Apollo being skiing themed (yes, I know Alpengeist), Roman Rapids being a tour of the under side of Venice, and so on. They could have done Rome, they could have done an actual Pantheon with the rides themed to the Roman gods, hell they could have done a Greek themed hamlet and called it Mount Olympus (not sure if there would be copyright issues with the actual full on park.
But Festa is just so weak when it comes to the ties and the story of what is there.
I really wish SEAS would see this and commit themselves to a change to the area. Give it a new name, new theme, and new look. Rename rides to fit. Shit call it SPQR (Senatus PopulusQue Romanus) and have some historical fun with it. This lets you ditch the weak festival tent like look to the area and build actual place setting looks to everything. They've shown they aren't against freshening area's up and this is the place that badly badly needs it at this point of time.
I think the purpose of Festa’s initial concept was to give the park an excuse to represent some non-European cultures in the park. At face value, it’s smart — just of like how Marco Polo’s Marketplace opens up a clever thematically appropriate opportunity to serve different international cuisines at the park.
But, it seems like it was poorly executed from the get-go, relying on a cheap carnival style theme from the start. It’s no wonder that over time, Festa has lost most of its Marco Polo subtleties and degraded into just a generic carnival theme. Plus, as has been discussed before, even AB seemed to have bailed on the Marco Polo theme after just a few years with additions like Roman Rapids, Gladiator’s Gauntlet, and Apollo all fitting a more ancient Italian theme more than anything from Marco Polo’s time.
So in my opinion, Festa was a clever concept in theory, but even its original execution seems like a complete outlier in the park’s hamlets.
But, it seems like it was poorly executed from the get-go, relying on a cheap carnival style theme from the start. It’s no wonder that over time, Festa has lost most of its Marco Polo subtleties and degraded into just a generic carnival theme. Plus, as has been discussed before, even AB seemed to have bailed on the Marco Polo theme after just a few years with additions like Roman Rapids, Gladiator’s Gauntlet, and Apollo all fitting a more ancient Italian theme more than anything from Marco Polo’s time.
So in my opinion, Festa was a clever concept in theory, but even its original execution seems like a complete outlier in the park’s hamlets.
Looks like it was completely redone, the lights are gone
That is post-world war II reconstruction grey. Its thematically correct and they just might leave that way.
Personally this is my downside to no ‘off-season’ to BGW. They have to be open as things like this go through and happen. I think something I took away from last year (with the first season of year-round operations) that you need to give these things until the start of summer to see what happens.
They have three days a week to get this stuff done. That right there is the strip, prep, and prime. Not to mention if any weather hits your work is pushed back. So you have at least one weekend of doing something like this where the project would be at best half done.
I know it’s a lot to ask of some people to ‘cut them a break’ but we should be thinking some of this when we see projects hall done.
They have three days a week to get this stuff done. That right there is the strip, prep, and prime. Not to mention if any weather hits your work is pushed back. So you have at least one weekend of doing something like this where the project would be at best half done.
I know it’s a lot to ask of some people to ‘cut them a break’ but we should be thinking some of this when we see projects hall done.
Maybe I missed something, but I didn't think anyone was criticizing the current state of the bridge. The conversation seemed to be focused on how it will look, once completed.
Do the same work you'd do in the offseason during those winter months with people there. Sure, there are going to be extra headaches because of pathing, guest safety, etc., but if you set the expectations to "pardon our dust" during late Jan through mid March, I'd assume that plenty of the typical offseason work can easily be completed. Rotate rides, work around the significantly smaller crowd, and be able to have your cake and eat it too.
That said, I've shot from the hip one or two times recently and missed something glaring, so am I missing anything with this take?
Some of this stuff requires a temp range that would prevent that Jan-March work.
My take - its more too long on going shots at stuff that turn out not ending up how they look. It’s not one person, it’s more about the overall pessimism I see. I could go into it much more elsewhere if you really want me to, but my feelings on it seem to be really unpopular so I rather not go through a lot of it again. Feel free to ask in a PM though.