Get this random, cringe jingoism out of my European-themed, theme park immediately.
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Heatherdowns (Scotland)
- Thread starter Zachary
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My understanding is the reasoning behind it was that they were getting complaints about no flag being visible when the National Anthem was played at gate opening.
I’d imagine it’s for the national anthem?
Edit: I just saw @horsesboy’s comment and have to admit - it was a bit odd that the anthem was playing without a visible flag.
Maybe they could have placed it somewhere else, but I don’t find it particularly distracting.
A reasonable compromise might be to swap out the flags after the national anthem, no?
Edit: I just saw @horsesboy’s comment and have to admit - it was a bit odd that the anthem was playing without a visible flag.
Maybe they could have placed it somewhere else, but I don’t find it particularly distracting.
A reasonable compromise might be to swap out the flags after the national anthem, no?
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Yep, I'd be totally fine with that.
The problem is that maybe like, what, 0.2% of guests see the flag while the national anthem is playing while the other 99.8% of guests just see an American flag flying over a Scottish-themed hamlet.
The park has played the national anthem with guests in the park in the morning for as long as I can remember and it has never been a problem that needed to be solved. If the park has decided that a solution is needed now, whatever, but this isn't an acceptable one.
The holding point in the morning is at the Scotland crossroads. The flag was most likely put there so people would have a flag to salute when the anthem is playing in the morning. I absolutely love it, this is a very Anheuser-Busch like decision. I mean, are we just gonna act like the Italy Bridge wasn’t a huge salute to the military during the AB era?
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It very much isn't.
The park was explicitly designed to be an escape from the Americana found throughout Williamsburg.
Completely ignoring the military (San Marco) bridge that was around many years during the AB era… Anheuser-Busch was always crazy patriotic
I don’t agree with the comparison. The bridge is largely removed from the rest of San Marco, so the “Here’s To The Heroes” branding didn’t detract from the hamlet in the same way. There’s plenty of precedent in the park’s history for giving the bridge a separate thematic overlay from San Marco. By contrast, the American flag here ruins the sense of Heatherdowns being part of Scotland.
The bridge also felt deliberate. Flags galore, tasteful signage calling out the branches of service, a specially chosen soundtrack of military marches. By contrast, the addition of this flagpole feels lazy — like they just stuck an American flag somewhere convenient and called it a day. Because that’s exactly what they did.
AB found a way to tastefully integrate their patriotism in a way that complemented the theme and tone of the park. This flagpole isn’t that.
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I wish they did what CP does and just open the gate and we can choose to walk to coasters or stand there for it. I loved getting stared at CP because I wanted to get to sirens vs salute a cloth. Would be even more hilarious at BG with all the right wings lol
While I don't disagree with the overall sentiment, as I also feel there to be zero reason for the US flag to be in an area themed to another country, I respectfully disagree about AB's patriotism integrations.
Specifically, post 9/11 era they had a massive flag hanging from AC and IIRC made several temporary changes to put US references over the countries the park is themed to.
I sure hope the flag of Scotland is put there in the future because oh boy, I'm getting some Star-Spangled Nights flashbacks. And that's not a good thing... 
In a way I can somewhat understand it being put there but in reality it should be up at the very entrance to the park up by the kiosks and old ticket building somewhere. Then they should illuminate it so it can be left flying 24/7. Playing the National Anthem at opening would still be fine but anyone who would want to salute the flag could just turn toward the entrance and salute. That's what happens on military bases. If you're outside at 8am and the Anthem starts playing you stop, turn toward where the flag is located and salute. I had to to this often.
A student of mine pointed this out but: Only in the USA do we play the national anthem at sporting events, theme parks, lunch at a chain restaurant, or basically anytime you want to ride a bald eagle.
A cheaper and easier solution would have been someone carry a flag out, play the anthem, walk away and put the flag away until tomorrow.
It's BGW they would manage to drop it.
They have one there but it's not visible from down the hill.
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Saw this on Twitter before seeing it here and my first thought in reading comments was "wow they still play the anthem?" and that's coming from smbd that logged 20+ visits last year. If I saw this in the park I'd immediately go "why's that here?" this going to feel out of place and weird to 99.5% of guests just to appeal to the tiny portion of people who are there before park open and beyond that the fraction of that already small group that actually cares about facing a flag.
My trip to gadv in 2024 was the last time I saw an anthem at a park and of that already small group there pre opening maybe half of people were saluting at all and maybe 10-15 of the ~200 person crowd actually looked engaged with process.
Overall just feels weird to mess with ur theming that every single guest will see to appeal maybe 20 people a day.
My trip to gadv in 2024 was the last time I saw an anthem at a park and of that already small group there pre opening maybe half of people were saluting at all and maybe 10-15 of the ~200 person crowd actually looked engaged with process.
Overall just feels weird to mess with ur theming that every single guest will see to appeal maybe 20 people a day.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is with putting the flag up here. It sounds like there was a problem of guests not being able to see a flag for the anthem, and the park solved it with a flag in a relatively un-invasive area. It’s not like they stuck a pole right in front of Big Ben. The optics of taking down the flag right after the anthem would be wildly bad too.
It’s also a bit of a stretch to frame Busch as a company that was trying to protect guests from American influence within the park. It’s a European themed park, sure, but AB didn’t try to actively hide USA influence when appropriate. This whole thing feels like a bit of a nothing burger.
It’s also a bit of a stretch to frame Busch as a company that was trying to protect guests from American influence within the park. It’s a European themed park, sure, but AB didn’t try to actively hide USA influence when appropriate. This whole thing feels like a bit of a nothing burger.
It's the first non-Banbury visual reveal of the park and now there's an American flag flying front and center in that view.
This wasn't a problem for 50 years.
No, they stuck it in front of the entire hamlet of Heatherdowns.
Remember when they strung American flags up in front of Big Ben for a summer event and everyone hated it? I do. This is worse. This isn't a two month summer event. This is a permanent addition.
I started to write out a full dissertation on the artistry and importance of the initial visual reveals of Busch Gardens Williamsburg (and why the crossroads in front of Heatherdowns is one of the single most important vistas in the entirety of park property), but frankly after three paragraphs I figured out I was probably about a fourth of the way in and my fingers couldn't take that abuse this morning. Just know that I have basically an entire podcast's-worth of a rant about why flying an American flag here worse than flying an American flag in front of Banbury's clock tower.
Why?
It's actually not though. I'm not going to dig up all the documentation, but the park was SPECIFICALLY FOUNDED to be a contrast and antidote to Colonial Williamsburg and the American historical tourism offered throughout the Historic Triangle area.
Thankfully no, because the iTunes review bombing that would follow a two hour episode of my absolutely laying into the desecration of the park's sophisticated artistry wrought by a single American flag may be enough to get said podcast delisted.
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