Winter Event Returning to Kings Dominion in 2027?

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TheCoasterNerd said:
This feels to me like, again, despite the great entertainment, they might be willing to sell off this park by winter
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Yeah. Sorta think this is a big part of it. Contracted summer entertainment is quick to deploy and quick to pull back and move elsewhere if need be. A huge reinvestment into park specific thematic and lighting packages for resurrecting a Christmas event is a much larger, much less-flexible investment. If there are serious conversations internally about offloading KD in the short-term (which I do believe there likely are right now), not bringing back a Christmas event this season just, unfortunately, makes sense. 😔
 
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mtorange said:
I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Six Flags continues to just give the winter season to its direct competitor in BGW. Do the other two parks even have direct competition as close to them like KD does?
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I think that's all the more reason KD needs to be extra strategic with it's return of Winterfest (if ever). Great Adventure and Over Georgia's return of Holiday in the park is a quote "multi-year investment" and can bring their full vision to fruition over time. If there's ever a chance of KD getting theirs back, everything about the offering has to be strategic, intentional, and cost-effective because one half-hearted year in an attempt to reopen it and it doesn't make a profit or compete with BG in content OR in price-point then it'll just be cut all over again, this time for good.

Just take the half-hearted attempt at full-year operations, where they gave KD no real chance of it being sustainable. If they had fleshed out some small additional food/entertainment offerings that made those slower winter months make sense, we could have been in a much different place.

Heck, I always argue that KD and Carowind's failed year-round operations is the reason the entire CF/Six Flags merger happened in the first place! CF had always wanted parks in the Texas market where they could be open longer, and with those two failures, I think they were much more open to a merger when Six Flags approached them (who were in a way worse place financially than CF was). That's all total conjecture, but it's amazing how that one half-hearted investment and seemingly small mistake could have changed the entire industry forever.
 
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I agree with all that has been said but I think it's also about growing revenue AND attendance. They will lose 4.5 million attendance this year, I believe it what was quoted, from the sold parks. They need to make it up somewhere. Adding a longer season is one way to do that. Perhaps KD time will be 2027, as others have said. They (corporate) seem to like to take learnings from one park and scale them. Also many the designer they hired can only handle two installations at a time. I don't agree that this "snub" means the park is due for imminent sale, but I do think not being in the top 10 may, and that they see where summer and Haunt go this year and plan to extend next season with a longer on ramp.
 
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Jazma said:
They will lose 4.5 million attendance this year, I believe it what was quoted, from the sold parks. They need to make it up somewhere.
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I was wondering this too, but others can attest to how this actually makes sense. If the goal of SF and the value of shareholder shares was purely by a "highest profit possible" then they would not be selling parks left and right correct, especially when most or even all of the parks sold were bringing in profit (even if marginal at best). I assume their bottom line now is focused on spending per customer and per park. They will never be able to make up attendance numbers after closing one park and selling at least 7 no matter what they do, but they can keep a consistent or growing attendance path per park and grow their per spending on those people right?
 
Another thing I just thought about is… I don’t really like that Six Flags gave us false hope by putting out surveys and then deciding not to bring it back anyway, despite it being the largest thing people wanted back.

I’d rather have them just flat-out say its not coming back.
 
michaellynn4 said:
I mean, in fairness, that's the purpose of the survey, right? To gauge interest? We can't completely rule out the the results told them not bringing it back was the better option, at least for now.
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True, but if the survey results matched what’s been seen on social media, I feel like there should have been an attempt made to bring back the event, even if it was just in three sections of the park. I just wish the chain cared about KD as much as they care about the other two parks that got an event back today.

I don’t know… I’m just sad about it. It was such a good event and I feel like if they hadn’t carelessly cut it last year, it would for sure still be around. I know employing full timers is also a huge barrier it has to overcome, as previously mentioned.
 
mtorange said:
True, but if the survey results matched what’s been seen on social media, I feel like there should have been an attempt made to bring back the event, even if it was just in three sections of the park. I just wish the chain cared about KD as much as they care about the other two parks that got an event back today.
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In all fairness, the answer could be "Yes it's clear we need to work on this, but the amount of adjustments to make it profitable and competitive takes time and 2026 is too soon to be reimplemented. Let's see what works with the changes at Great Adventure and Over Georgia and use those lessons."

The answer could also be "Yes we saw great interest, but the most vocal people complaining about it are people who still largely have season passes, and we're not sure yet if it will really bring back the people who cancelled passes, or bring in new passholders."
 
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maybe kings dominion should announce the return of the event either this month or next month, it would happen between today and fiesta Texas announmcent of the new coaster on may 30th
 
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mtorange said:
I just wish the chain cared about KD as much as they care about the other two parks that got an event back today.
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I mean, I understand that it sucks, but KD is just objectively on the bottom tier of the new post-Enchanted Six Flags chain right now. The only parks lower are probably the forgone conclusion soon-to-be-jettisoned contract properties, Discovery Kingdom, Dorney, and maybe Mexico and/or New England (jury is out).

It really sucks, but KD is to Six Flags today what the likes of ValleyFair was to Cedar Fair a few years ago. The chain has much bigger fish to fry and KD is just not a priority at all for the company right now.

The fact that we received the "we're sorry about WinterFest" Summer entertainment lineup is better than I would have expected, frankly.
 
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I can very much see the logistical issues of pulling off WinterFest at Kings Dominion rendering the profits from hosting it marginal at best, making it incredibly difficult to justify for a chain that has become even more concerned with their bottom line. If it was a significant portion of the annual revenue for the park, I've got no doubt the chain would have brought it back, but it sounds like they instead feel they can increase attendance throughout the rest of the year enough to make up for that lost by not holding the event at what is likely a lower cost. Also, as mentioned previously, if KD is indeed a park that Six Flags is optioning for a potential sale in the next couple years, a major investment in event infrastructure is not something that would be a wise move at present.
 
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Guys, If I remember correctly, Winterfest opened at CGA in 2016. One park. Then, in 2017, Carowinds and Kings Island got Winterfest. Kings Dominion got Winterfest in 2018 (can't remember when it opened at WOF). I thought Canada's Wonderland got Winterfest in 2019.

The SF announcement, from less that a week ago, stated a Holiday event was returning to SFOG and SFAD. This is supposed to be a new, from the ground up, event. Three main themed areas to start with. Future expansion is supposed to occur. I assume the legacy CF parks, that are hanging on to a Holiday event, CW, KI and CanWon will continue. In what form, the old Winterfest or the new SF format I don't know.
 
mwhinva said:
Guys, If I remember correctly, Winterfest opened at CGA in 2016. One park. Then, in 2017, Carowinds and Kings Island got Winterfest. Kings Dominion got Winterfest in 2018 (can't remember when it opened at WOF). I thought Canada's Wonderland got Winterfest in 2019.

The SF announcement, from less that a week ago, stated a Holiday event was returning to SFOG and SFAD. This is supposed to be a new, from the ground up, event. Three main themed areas to start with. Future expansion is supposed to occur. I assume the legacy CF parks, that are hanging on to a Holiday event, CW, KI and CanWon will continue. In what form, the old Winterfest or the new SF format I don't know.
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Kings Island had Winterfest in the '80s. Just saying.
 
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Guys the return of Winterfest is confirmed in fact look they are already setting up for it. Or maybe those are just lights they haven't taken down in a year and a half.
 

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