According to what data? KD was specifically cited in earnings calls as a park that responded positively to its capital investments last year.
General Updates for 2026
- Thread starter mtorange
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It did. We asked if it was usable and they said it is. However that’s about as far as that went in the conversation.
I think they do still use the Kingswood Ampitheater for the school music days and religious music events and things like that. Honestly its too far separated from the park when they still have plenty of show venues available in the park itself.
I've only ever seen a concert once in my life at a park (Alice Cooper at SFGAdv in 1999), and it wasn't even in the Northern Star Arena, it was in some grassy area that used to be near the Garden of Eatin'. And wow did that sentence make me feel old LOL.
I've only ever seen a concert once in my life at a park (Alice Cooper at SFGAdv in 1999), and it wasn't even in the Northern Star Arena, it was in some grassy area that used to be near the Garden of Eatin'. And wow did that sentence make me feel old LOL.
I am not sure if they use it for the School music days but they haven't had Kings Fest which was the religious music event since Covid if not longer.
Closest I’ve gotten was GnR/Mammoth at Hersheypark Stadium, and while it obviously wasn’t IN the park, it was easily the coolest backdrop I’ve ever seen for a concert. Any time there was a show at Great Adventure in the years I went, it was either something I had no interest in or I had other plans that day (worked out that I couldn’t make it to the Falling in Reverse show, yikes).
Not to detract too much, but Alice Cooper still kicks ass, especially for being 78. Wish he was coming closer to Charleston than Spartanburg on this tour, last time I saw him was on Mötley Crüe’s
Anyway, it really does feel like the era of large draw concerts at parks is unfortunately over for the most part, barring true destination parks. So many of these venues have been torn out, abandoned, or otherwise made irrelevant by standalone venues in the area with much higher capacity.
Can’t really blame artists for not wanting to play at, for example, Great/Northern Star Arena with a capacity of 6000, when you have Freedom Mortgage Pavilion (25000) and PNC Bank Arts Center (17500) both less than an hour away and closer to major cities, not to mention larger venues in each area as well.
Yeah, he can still totally put on a great stage show (I saw him a second time in 2022). It's a shame about his views on people like me though (PM me if you need details, I don't want the thread to turn political).
Every time I think about a concert at a park all that runs through my mind is this:
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I've actually never seen the amphitheatre over the many seasons I've visited the park - tbh I forget it exists at all if it weren't for this forum sometimes.
Since it has a separate gate to the park, it can likely function as a standalone venue - it supposedly has all the necessary infrastructure.
However, I also happen to know the promoter for a popular local summer concert series. In my mind, if they're not interested in attempting to use the facilities it's because either it's too small, too outdated, or too expensive (or some combination of all these issues) as they'd rather have used the Meadow Event Park instead thus location isn't really much of an issue.
Then there's the new amphitheatre near VCU by the river (technically not downtown but in a quasi no-man's-land on the river side of the downtown expressway) that is competing against other more regularly used venues including the RIR amphitheatre (I guess had a resurgence a few years ago, Primus played there).
Therefore, I give KD's amphitheatre no reasonable hope for being used for non-park operators.
Given that, is there any expectation by park management to do anything other than abandon it to save on the maintenance and upkeep costs? Or are they using it for backstage facilities, such as storage or staging?
Since it has a separate gate to the park, it can likely function as a standalone venue - it supposedly has all the necessary infrastructure.
However, I also happen to know the promoter for a popular local summer concert series. In my mind, if they're not interested in attempting to use the facilities it's because either it's too small, too outdated, or too expensive (or some combination of all these issues) as they'd rather have used the Meadow Event Park instead thus location isn't really much of an issue.
Then there's the new amphitheatre near VCU by the river (technically not downtown but in a quasi no-man's-land on the river side of the downtown expressway) that is competing against other more regularly used venues including the RIR amphitheatre (I guess had a resurgence a few years ago, Primus played there).
Therefore, I give KD's amphitheatre no reasonable hope for being used for non-park operators.
Given that, is there any expectation by park management to do anything other than abandon it to save on the maintenance and upkeep costs? Or are they using it for backstage facilities, such as storage or staging?
The Amphitheater is currently tied into there group rental pavilions which surround it. It has also been used in recent years for storage, and prep and staging most notably the Winterfest decorations could be seen being unpacked snd repacked on the stage. It's also been used for rehearsal space for the in park entertainment likr Let's Get Wild.
For the school music events the performance is typically in KDT or Action Theater and awards are done at Peanuts Showplace. The Kingswood Amphitheatre was definitely used last season, to my knowledge it was only a single time for a cheer competition.
My 1st concert was at Kings Dominion! I saw The Jets with Stacey Q as the opening act. Some of my friends saw New Kids on the Block there. The park was so crowded you had to wait in line and wait for someone to leave before you could be let in. Since the parking lot was full, they parked people in the fields surrounding the park.
I was at that NKOTB show! Of course, I watched Tiffany as the opening act, then left!
I always like when the park invests in small TLC projects that never even get noticed by most guests. In this case Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (a classic KD kiddie attraction) is having its planes repainted:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
I like it when the park ADVERTISES small TLC projects like this. Parks engage in this sort of scheduled teardown and renovation work all the time and few use it to generate positive goodwill through their social channels—not because it isn't effective or people don't care, but because many park marketing departments are lazy and disengaged from the happenings within departments like maintenance, park services, landscaping, etc.
Hope to see more content like this from KD and the rest of the chain moving forward. I legitimately believe it makes a difference.
Hope to see more content like this from KD and the rest of the chain moving forward. I legitimately believe it makes a difference.
Per a comment on Facebook citing an email response from guest services, there will not be a passholder preview night this year.
Unpopular opinion I'm sure but I don't see the big deal of not having a pass member preview when there really isn't new being added this year.
Honestly have been betting on this since they moved park opening up a week. passholder night has always been a chore to staff with most people's spring availability as sat/sun only. combine that with a week less of training time and it'd be a staffing nightmare.
I see this as giving up 5 hours of park opening in exchange for 16 hours of open time.
I see this as giving up 5 hours of park opening in exchange for 16 hours of open time.
Carowinds is having one, on 3/13.
I completely understand this, but to my knowledge (unless there’s something I’m forgetting and disregarding COVID) there’s been one every year since before the opening of Twisted Timbers. Truthfully, I’m not surprised by its absence this year, but I am a little disappointed as it truly is a fun night. I’m optimistic that it’ll return in the future though.
The flip side of that is preview nights have been extremely helpful in smoothing out wrinkles in operations snd training with live guests but a group that on average both know their way around the park and tend to be in less of a rush then the genetal public.