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In Hollywood it works pretty much as Diamondback described in the earlier post—there’s the main “pipe” entrance, then there’s another tunnel beside it that’s designed as an exit (I had forgotten about that). I was there on a Sunday in September and the park was busy but not extremely so (it was one of their first nights of HHN so was closing early). When I was there, they weren’t really regulating the in/out tunnels—in fact in my first time in the land I went back out the pipe the same way I came in because I didn’t notice the exit tunnel. However, I’m sure they do a much more regimented forced traffic when attendance warrants it.

Plus SIX can benefit this. As you just said, you just stopped to listen for a few minutes. That statistic is important to SIX. Only Food and Beverage will know the amount of revenue they make with and without a live performer. Spoiler alert, it’s a lot of money.

100% Live music is a lot better than something off of a playlist that you can hear when you swing back through the area 3-4 hours later. It's truly something that adds value.

It sounds like a great program! Live performances like that are a lot more intimate. Plus soloists get a freedom to break out of the venue show norms. No big light's, fog or lasers needed. Just a catchy song and a singer to keep the good jive going as you head to the next ride.

The "artist-in-residence" thing works at CP because that's the biggest entertainment destination in that part of the state. KI is within 2 hours of Cincinnati, Columbus, Indy, Lexington and Louisville (and probably other big cities as well) and there's a lot to do in this area during the summer months - including free live concerts by local/regional acts.

The ad is constantly taking up half of my mobile screen and I have a Pixel 9 XL Pro, so that's a pretty big ad! @IndyGuy4KI I know kic has bills to pay, but is there a way to make this less intrusive?

Live entertainment and Kings Island have had a very long and committed relationship. Through each era we had a very different style of stage shows. Large cast and broadways style, ice skating, and whatever Half Pint Brawlers was… I loved most of the entertainment the park had throughout my memory going back to 2005. I never saw a show before that. Up til then parks have and still stick to the ‘review show’ trope. Find a musical subject and stick with it for 20-30 minutes. Shows are great, but they bring no revenue in the sense of; Those 500-1000 guests during those 20-30 minutes is valuable to the guests and even more so to Six Flags. I don’t need I need to speak to this community about how important a half hour at a park can be. From Six Flags perspective, that time at a show is also time you could be getting food, getting a caricature portrait, buying on ride photos. All things that get you to use your wallet. So parks attach experiences like culinary and theatre (festhaus). in this day and age of live entertainment I think Kings Island needs more investment in live band/soloists like they have done during Winterfest. Marty’s Party is still hands down the best dang show Kings Island ever had

I can understand that @disco2000. I also think they could take the page of planning from Cedar Point who continues to expand the offering. Cedar Point has added stages (not necessarily fully permanent but also not completely temporary) near food venues such as Farm House and Back Beat Que. They’ve also added a stage that gets used in Frontier Town across from Miss Keat’s that has themed seating added. Even though it’s in the kids area, I could see a food venue stage near Pig Pen’s Mess Hall. Festhaus obviously would work. A stage could be added near Coney BBQ, replacing the Skyline patio (maybe a rework). And there could maybe a seating area with a stage added near The Beast entrance where the soccer game/ax throwing game is. It could be done, creatively if the park wanted to put an effort into it. Will they? Probably not, lol, but it would be nice. This is a description from 2024 of Cedar Point looking for bands:

Site is working for me. I just haven`t updated it since the rides were removed at the end of the 2019 season. The former owners sold out to Riverbend, and I have felt kind of indifferent about the whole thing. Such a waste of a wonderful Cincinnati asset, and where I spent 20 summers of my life. I miss working the rides there so much, and am sad my kids will not be able to work there like I did.

A week ago Cincinnati's Coney Island held a memorabilia sale and sold off a lot of the former amusement park's old pictures, artwork, ride vehicles, signage, etc. There wasn't too much posted about the sale ahead of time, but I recognized an old Kings Island map in one of the pictures shared on their Facebook about a week before the sale. After a little consideration, I booked a flight up to Cincinnati for a long weekend to visit family and hopefully score that map. And after an early Saturday morning (and a lot of stressing about getting to the sale early enough and finding the map before someone else got to it), I found myself the new owner of this cool vintage piece. It's a little faded and worn, but it's also nearly five decades old. I believe that it would've been displayed in the preview center for Kings Island at the old park (hence why it was being sold at the Coney Island memorabilia sale and didn't end up at the new park). The map was created by Ron Riegler, who would later serve as the chief art director for Kings Productions. It was one of several park maps created ahead of the new park's opening to show future visitors what Kings Island would look like. Whereas other maps had a lot of differences compared to what was ultimately built, this one seems to have been one of the final iterations and matches up with the as-built Kings Island really well. There's a few minor discrepancies between the artwork and what was actually built... I assume some were just artistic liberties, whereas others may have been actual adjustments. I think one of the most fun parts of Kings Island history is sharing it with others, so I took some pictures of the map's details to share here... with a sprinkling of commentary (especially with regards to what was painted and what was actually built). Description of the five themed areas and Ron's signature... note number five is the "Happy Kingdom of Hanna-Barbera", whereas the real section was known as the Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera. It also refers to the "Happy Kingdom Ride", which I assume would ultimately become Enchanted Voyage. The entrance plaza is one of the biggest changes between concept art and real life. The tram circle in the drawing is skewed to the side, whereas the real life variation was directly in front of the park entrance. There was also a line of flags here that I don't believe ever existed in real life, plus the International Restaurant appears to be included (in reality it didn't open until 1973). The concept of International Street here appears very similar to what was built, pardon a few small things. There is a floral clock and date in front of the tower, whereas the real life floral clock was behind it to the right (before being relocated to directly behind the tower in 1977) and the floral date wasn't added until 1973 to the left. Note that there's also flags on top of the carousel, which I don't believe were ever a thing. Oktoberfest and Coney Island. I'm not sure what's depicted between Sky Ride and Rotor (bottom left of the "2"), but I don't believe anything was ever built there. The Racer station and lift hill also show some flags that were never a real thing. Top of the map, with Racer, the antique car rides, and Rivertown. I think that Rivertown ended up being the most accurate to what was actually built. I can't pinpoint any changes. The railroad and picnic grove. It looks like a series of teepees at the railroad's turn-around... there were teepees in the real ride, but I think that specific location was home to the Fort McHale show scene. And finally, the Happy Kingdom of Hanna-Barbera... pretty close to the as-built, sans the big canvas tent structure over the center and the huge compass atop Enchanted Voyage's building (though the real one wasn't added till mid-1972). The map is a cool piece and I'm sure it made a lot of Coney Island visitors excited for the new park opening in 1972. It's cool to compare it to what was built, and I'm excited to (hopefully soon) get it hung up to properly display. If anyone has any additional comments on the history of the map or its contents (or if you think I erred anything), please feel free to share!