Winter Event Returning to Kings Dominion in 2026?

[AmyUD06]

So, my SFEC Gold Pass+App was renewed through KD, and was the year before too. I just got an e-mail containing a survey that was all about a "winter event" at Kings Dominion.

Here are what the questions were:
1. Have you ever attended WinterFest at Kings Dominion?
2. In what years did you attend (options of "2024," "2023 or earlier," or "never have")
3. Free-Text fields asking what you did and did not like about the previous WinterFest events.
4. An "A-or-B" choice between "Immersive holiday-themed event with limited ride operation" or "Closer to normal park operations with limited shows/decorations"
5. 1-to-5 scale questions for "How Likely are you to visit a winter event at Kings Dominion" and "How likely are you to buy a season pass to visit a winter event at Kings Dominion."
6. A free-text field asking what you think the "must haves" are for a winter event at Kings Dominion.

It would seem that they're actually listening to all of the push-back they got for cancelling last year's event and are considering reinstating it.

Edit: Thanks for the forum move. It's my first post on ParkFans and I wasn't quite sure where to put it.

 

[Zachary]

The killing of WinterFest feels like it's gonna go down as one of the all-time great Kings Dominion blunders. The amount of cash and reputation they've lit on fire is truly astounding. The event obviously needs to return (and in the long arc of history, I definitely think it will eventually), but that just makes its murder all the stupider.

Also, the idea that they're surveying to figure out whether they should restore WinterFest or just essentially open the park in the winter with a light overlay is astounding given the enormous failure of year-round operations in Doswell and the seemingly-incredibly-poor reception of Carowinds' gutted event last season. Obviously if you're running a park in December in Virginia, you need a selection of non-main-season, more-weather-resilient, more-full-family-oriented, specialty attractions. How is that even a question? Truly boggles the mind.

 

[YachtyLogs]

I got a Kings Island WinterFest survey, they focused heavily on a name change. Wondering if they're trying to standardized the name of the event or trying to figure out how important the WinterFest name is. They asked about these four names:

WinterFest
Christmas In The Park
ChristmasFest
Holiday in the Park

 

[Zachary]

Moving forward, assuming some parks keep light overlays and some keep full events, it seems to make sense to me to brand high-budget, comprehensive Christmas events as WinterFests and more surface-level, "we put up lights everywhere, come ride our rides" offerings as Holidays in the Parks.

Christmas in the Park and ChristmasFest are both bad but also call into question why on earth the chain would want to make these events more Christmas-centric in the year 2026. The less-single-holiday, more secular approach to the winter holidays was a BENEFIT of WinterFest and its branding—backpeddling on that seems incredibly foolish to me—especially when basically all of their competitors are already using Christmas. They've already invested years of marketing dollars and reputation-building into WinterFest—why on earth would they abandon that? Wild.

WinterFest never had a branding problem—it had a "we give away year-round admission, drinks, and food for way less cash than we should and thus, we can't meaningfully profit from increased pass holder visitation in the way all of our competitors can" problem. My guess is they still don't have a solution to that.

 

[mtorange]

My honest thoughts:

I’m simply elated at the fact that WinterFest may come back in some fashion. However, they really have kicked themselves in the foot by getting rid of most of the decor last season. It’s going to cost a lot of money to buy all new stuff.

And I 100% agree with @Zachary when he says that the event should remain as close to the original product as possible (including the name). Having ChristmasTown so close by will make ChristmasFest seem like they’re trying to copy Busch’s event.

I’m gonna be a bit of a Scrooge for a second, but people have to realize that they can come to the park any other time of year to ride rides. WinterFest should prioritize entertainment and experiences over the rides. That’s what is going to bring people out.

I really, REALLY want this survey in my inbox. I have so many thoughts. Could we actually see WinterFest come back this season?

Edit: Here is the wording of the A and B question @AmyUD06 mentioned, in case anyone wants to read more into what they’re considering.

 

[AmyUD06]

My honest thoughts:

I’m simply elated at the fact that WinterFest may come back in some fashion. However, they really have kicked themselves in the foot by getting rid of most of the decor last season. It’s going to cost a lot of money to buy all new stuff.

And I 100% agree with @Zachary when he says that the event should remain as close to the original product as possible (including the name). Having ChristmasTown so close by will make ChristmasFest seem like they’re trying to copy Busch’s event.

I’m gonna be a bit of a Scrooge for a second, but people have to realize that they can't come to the park and ride rides all year round. They should prioritize entertainment and experiences over the rides. That’s what is going to bring people out.

I really, REALLY want this survey in my inbox. I have so many thoughts. Could we actually see WinterFest come back this season?

Agreed. But note that the KD survey did not ask about a name....that was the KI survey (and apparently Canada's Wonderland's too?). I too am 100% on board for keeping the same name.

If it helps, I used those free text fields to comment on the importance of a diverse range of live entertainment, a diverse range of food/beverage/merchandise options, and the the importance of a variety of quality decorations/lighting. The only thing I said about rides was that I "didn't like" the amount of coasters that operated. Unfortunately, I completely forgot about the ice skating, and didn't mention anything either way about it.

PS - You had a typo.

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

I just want to ride coasters in December I don't care if its fully elaborate or nothing

 

[AmyUD06]

I just want to ride coasters in December I don't care if its fully elaborate or nothing

Might I suggest BGW or Hershey for your December coaster needs.

 

[mtorange]

Agreed. But note that the KD survey did not ask about a name....that was the KI survey (and apparently Canada's Wonderland's too?). I too am 100% on board for keeping the same name.

If it helps, I used those free text fields to comment on the importance of a diverse range of live entertainment, a diverse range of food/beverage/merchandise options, and the the importance of a variety of quality decorations/lighting. The only thing I said about rides was that I "didn't like" the amount of coasters that operated. Unfortunately, I completely forgot about the ice skating, and didn't mention anything either way about it.

PS - You had a typo.

Thanks, however it wasn’t a typo, but just a poorly-worded point. I did fix it in my original post, but here’s what I meant.

“I’m gonna be a bit of a Scrooge for a second, but people have to realize that they can come to the park any other time of year to ride rides. WinterFest should prioritize entertainment and experiences over the rides. That’s what is going to bring people out.”

Also, thanks so much for sharing your opinion! I agree with all of that.

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

Might I suggest BGW or Hershey for your December coaster needs.

I would love to since Hershey is only 4 hours away and BGW is half of that, but I am a minor, and not even old enough to have a learners permit yet. I will probably visit them in the winter when I have a drivers license, but until then no beuno. Also I have skiing

 

[mtorange]

Another thought.

There’s a good chance that this could be a quick turnaround sort of situation. Remember, there is an earnings call on Thursday, and they’ll likely mention the survey (and maybe even its results by park) on this call when they talk about the future of the company.

I expect Thursday to be full of interesting tidbits.

 

[AmyUD06]

Thanks, however it wasn’t a typo, but just a poorly-worded point. I did fix it in my original post, but here’s what I meant.

“I’m gonna be a bit of a Scrooge for a second, but people have to realize that they can come to the park any other time of year to ride rides. WinterFest should prioritize entertainment and experiences over the rides. That’s what is going to bring people out.”

Yeah that makes more sense. The way I read the original post was more like "people should think they can come to the park any time and ride everything."

Edit: Thank you for posting the screenshot. I clicked on the "immersive event" one expecting to have to click a "next" button before it just auto-advanced to the next screen.

 

[Zachary]

I just want to ride coasters in December I don't care if its fully elaborate or nothing

Yeah, but they already get your money. You park "for free," you enter "for free," and you probably eat "for free" too.

These non-core-season events have to bring in guests that wouldn't normally visit (and hence, guests who haven't already been sold a pass on the back of main season offerings). If the park just offers a worse version of the main season experience, there's no market expansion and hence, no notable increase in profits—and all at the cost of running the park for substantially longer.

 

[Mushroom]

However, they really have kicked themselves in the foot by getting rid of most of the decor last season. It’s going to cost a lot of money to buy all new stuff.

Something I've been wondering - do we know how much stuff they threw away? I've seen it reported that lights and some props were spotted in dumpsters, but it's never been clear to me how much of all the park's decorations they represented. A quick Google search shows that even the best commercial-grade Christmas lights have a lifespan of about 6-8 years, and 2024 was Winterfest's sixth season (counting Taste of the Season in 2020). It's possible that some of these decorations were on their last legs anyway, and with the event being cancelled, they figured it would be cheaper/easier to just ditch them. Heck, maybe the decision to chuck some of them was made even before the final decision was made to cancel the event.

Plus, while it was a little heart-wrenching to see some of KD's decorations at other parks, I don't remember seeing that much. I remember seeing pictures of the giant bear from KD's Santa workshop, and the reindeer that were displayed over the front gate, shipped to other parks. But that's just a small handful of decorations, and they're hardly irreplaceable.

So while the way the Winterfest decor was handled was certainly sloppy and obviously not strategic, I don't think it really does much to put a damper on the return of Winterfest if Six Flags sees a business case for it.

 

[mtorange]

Something I've been wondering - do we know how much stuff they threw away? I've seen it reported that lights and some props were spotted in dumpsters, but it's never been clear to me how much of all the park's decorations they represented. A quick Google search shows that even the best commercial-grade Christmas lights have a lifespan of about 6-8 years, and 2024 was Winterfest's sixth season (counting Taste of the Season in 2020). It's possible that some of these decorations were on their last legs anyway, and with the event being cancelled, they figured it would be cheaper/easier to just ditch them. Heck, maybe the decision to chuck some of them was made even before the final decision was made to cancel the event.

Plus, while it was a little heart-wrenching to see some of KD's decorations at other parks, I don't remember seeing that much. I remember seeing pictures of the giant bear from KD's Santa workshop, and the reindeer that were displayed over the front gate, shipped to other parks. But that's just a small handful of decorations, and they're hardly irreplaceable.

So while the way the Winterfest decor was handled was certainly sloppy and obviously not strategic, I don't think it really does much to put a damper on the return of Winterfest if Six Flags sees a business case for it.

This is a good point.

In addition to what you said, I do remember seeing all of the penguins from Jack Frost’s Zone at one of the Texas parks. It’s honestly mostly the fiberglass decor I’m most worried about since I know that stuff is pricey. I’m sure the garland and many of the trees were on their last legs.

I had heard an unconfirmed report that the warehouse was completely emptied out sometime last October, but I am taking that with a grain of salt.

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

Maybe Six Flags has decided that parks like SFGAdv and KD are going to be rebranded (or get their old name back) no matter what?

Welcome back Paramount's Kings Dominion!

 

[mtorange]

Welcome back Paramount's Kings Dominion!

Totally meant to say the Christmas events at these parks, not the park names themselves!

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

Totally meant to say the Christmas events at these parks, not the park names themselves!

That makes more sense, thanks for clarifying.

 

[mtorange]

Does anyone know if Carowinds got this survey? I know there have been rumors of the event being cut at that park (though now I’m doubting that will happen since they may bring it back to KD).

 

[JohnKell]

I just received the survey from KD.