Six Flags Seasonal Events Discussion

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Out of all of the combined Six Flags seasonal events, which would you like to see shared between parks? 

From what I've found, the new Six Flags has about 17 seasonal/annual events at two or more parks (not including some park-specific events like those at Knott's). They are described as follows:

• Spring Break
  • "School’s out and thrills are in. There’s no place like Six Flags for Spring Break."
• Scream Break
  • "When darkness falls at Six Flags Spring Break…it’s time for Scream Break!"
• Viva La Fiesta
  • "Join us for an exhilarating celebration of cultural richness and spirited traditions. Immerse yourself in a vibrant atmosphere filled with captivating sights, lively sounds, and mouthwatering flavors that the whole family can enjoy. Delight in exciting live entertainment, savor authentic dishes and beverages, and engage in special activities, all while experiencing your favorite rides and attractions. Viva La Fiesta promises an unforgettable experience for everyone, so come and join the celebration!"
• Grad Nite
  • "Dance, ride and celebrate! Grad Nite gives graduating seniors a once-in-a-lifetime bash. Even school chaperones have a blast!"
• Grand Carnivale
  • "Myth and magic come together as you experience cultures worldwide through a dazzling parade and interactive street party filled with performers and dancing, international cuisine, and more."
• July Fireworks (+ Star Spangled Nights, 4th of July Celebration, Light Up The Point)
  • "Enjoy the holiday with family and friends as fireworks light up the sky over Six Flags on July 4th Weekend."
  • "One of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest will ignite the night at Cedar Point® for two nights, July 4 & 5. Set to an electric summertime soundtrack with patriotic melodies and today’s hits, the display will overtake the skies above the famous Cedar Point Beach near the front of the park. Special exclusive VIP viewing experiences will also be available."
• Summerbration
  • "Join us for Summerbration at Six Flags Great Adventure, the ultimate summer celebration filled with exclusive, limited-time entertainment!"
• Boardwalk Nights (+ Dorney Park Summer Nights, Knott's Summer Nights)
  • "When the sun goes down, the Cedar Point Beach and The Boardwalk at Cedar Point electrify with larger-than-life entertainment, over-the-top food & drink, games for the entire family, music & dancing, lights & sounds that inspire the best summertime dance moves and more. From kids to adults, all will enjoy Boardwalk Nights – the perfect addition to a day at Cedar Point, right in the heart of the summer."
  • "Celebrate the best of Caribbean and Latin American culture at Dorney Park’s Summer Nights, the hottest summer activity in the Lehigh Valley. Let yourself be transported to tropical shores with live entertainment, authentic Caribbean and Latin American food and drinks, and family-friendly activities. "
• Oktoberfest (Legacy Cedar Fair)
  • "Experience Germany’s world-famous Oktoberfest at Carowinds. As Carowinds' latest addition to its outstanding lineup of fall events, Oktoberfest offers authentic German food, beverages, music and family-friendly entertainment. Plus, the park’s most popular rides are open, making Oktoberfest a must-do event for the whole family."
• Oktoberfest (Legacy Six Flags)
  • "Oktoberfest boasts craft and seasonal beers, mouth-watering German-style meals, specialty desserts, oompah music and of course the Chicken Dance!"
• Halloween Haunt (+ SCarowinds, ValleyScare, Knott's Scary Farm)
  • "Halloween Haunt is the most immersive and haunting Halloween attraction in Greater Cincinnati, with a combination of unimaginable scares, chills and thrills that can’t be found anywhere else. The fully transformed amusement park features bone-chilling scare mazes and scare zones, sinister live entertainment and hundreds of horrifying creatures lurking in the fog and hiding in every corner of the park waiting for you. Haunting Halloween activities plus some of the most exhilarating night rides in the country, including The Beast, Orion, Diamondback, Mystic Timbers and Banshee make this one of the best things to do for Halloween in the Cincinnati area."
• Fright Fest
  • "It’s thrills by day and fright by night with haunted houses, scare zones, spine-chilling shows and your favorite rides."
• Tricks and Treats (+ Tricks and Treats Fall Fest, Knott's Spooky Farm)
  • "Experience Dorney Park like never before at Tricks and Treats, our all-new, family-friendly Halloween event. Celebrate the season with mischievous tricks, tasty treats, and so much more. Everyone in the family is sure to have a boo-last with our spooky, kooky Halloween activities for kids and adults. Come dressed in your finest Halloween attire for our Halloween costume contest. Plus, we’ve got skeleTONS of delicious seasonal treats, drinks and, of course, candy!  If that’s not fang-tastic enough, enjoy your favorite family rides delivering the amazing thrills and chills found only at Dorney Park."
• Kids Boo Fest
  • "You’ll find tons of fun for your little monsters with treat-or-treating and family-friendly Halloween activities."
• Veterans Weekend
  • "Join us for Veterans Day Weekend as we honor those who have served and sacrificed for our country."
• Winterfest (+ Knott's Merry Farm)
  • "Returning in November is WinterFest for the park's most magical event of the year. See Canada's Wonderland transform into a holiday spectacle with millions of sparkling lights, festive foods, and amazing entertainment."
• Holiday in the Park (+ Christmas in the Park)
  • "It’s the most wonderful time of the year with millions of twinkling lights, festive shows, holiday shopping and delicious treats."
• Other Events
  • Other events are seen at specific parks, such as Knott's Peanuts Celebration, Knott's Boysenberry Festival, Ghost Town Alive (at Knott's Berry Farm), and Celebration Canada (at Canada's Wonderland). Similar versions of these could be formed at any park in the chain.

 

Some of these events are somewhat equal (such as the 4th of July celebrations) while others have notable differences (Fright Fest requires a separate pass to enter mazes while Halloween Haunt does not). 

Which would you like to see go to which parks? What would they look like? Share your thoughts below!

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

(Double-posting so I can separate my thoughts from the prompt)

Some of these events can be combined/standardized with others taking place at the same time at different parks. 

I would like to see a Spring Break/Scream Break at Kings Island as a very small event open to Prestige Passholders. It would add value to that pass option and could let some seasonal employees get trained earlier. Additional bonus: use it as a time to have a job fair booth. Grad Nite would also be fun, especially as an exclusive school groups event — the downside being that it would probably require part of an operating day or two to be taken from the public operating calendar.

Oktoberfest should (and probably will) be combined into one event with the same offerings across the board. It should also come to Kings Island, because it's an obvious fit! 

 

There could also be room to bring back some former events/seasonal offerings as a "new" event, name change, or rebranding opportunity. Imagine a HalloTween at Six Flags Great Adventure (where they had FrightFest Extreme in 2024) or a Scream Break at Carowinds (a potentially higher ROI on some SCarowinds items). 

Finally, my favorite idea I'd bring back: A fresh, new FearFest could even find its way back to Kings Island if the circumstances were right! 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I think Carnivale should get axed mainly bc I don't think KD is doing it bc of their 50th and CGA cut Carnivale at Orleans Place. I think 2025 would be a good year to introduce a new peak summer event at KI (ie Summer Nights/Summerbration). Oktoberfest I would love to see come, but idk if it would work as well as we think bc it would basically be competing with the Cincinnati Oktoberfest. Grad Nites I could get beind (even though part of me would be a bit jealous of those attending bc I never got an event like that when I graduated High School, Dang Covid!) 

[Orion-XL200]

It seems to me like Viva La Fiesta and Grand Carnivale could be combined into one. Would be good to see a refresh at KI, as the past couple of ones have been lackluster. Boardwalk Nights at CP is great, but would love to see another summer season event..

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Just realized that I forgot to put the Food and Wine Festival on the topic list, whoopsie! Also, I feel the need to clarify that Dorney Park's Summer Nights is a Latin festival— more like Viva La Fiesta than the similarly-named events at Knott's and Cedar Point. It was a really cool event and I hope it returns to Dorney next season!

I'd also like to see Grand Carnivale and Viva La Fiesta combined into the same event on paper, but I think they should keep their names. Keeping the names/branding would help keep the overall cost per park down and would probably save the chain from over-extending their brand recognition. Haunt and FrightFest would be good for this treatment as well! Share some of the mazes (including some of the IP ones), move the events around between parks that might need a rebrand, and maybe spice it up a little so there would be less kids and strollers clogging up the pathways (sorry to people who bring their young kids). 

 

It looks like 2019 was a really good year for events at Kings Island. There were more than a few special events advertised, Grand Carnivale was brand new, and Haunt had received five new and original attractions — each with nice theming and dedicated signage IIRC.

Kings Island had an event called Island Nights in July 2019, but from what little I could find about it, it only happened on Friday nights in July in Soak City. I could've sworn there were ads in the dry park for it being a big coming-in-2020 summer event, but I've only found two July 2019 Facebook posts with bit.ly links that now redirect to the park's homepage. The WaybackMachine has nothing on it either. It would be nice to see it be a big dry park event in the near future!

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

7 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

Just realized that I forgot to put the Food and Wine Festival on the topic list, whoopsie! Also, I feel the need to clarify that Dorney Park's Summer Nights is a Latin festival— more like Viva La Fiesta than the similarly-named events at Knott's and Cedar Point. It was a really cool event and I hope it returns to Dorney next season!

I'd also like to see Grand Carnivale and Viva La Fiesta combined into the same event on paper, but I think they should keep their names. Keeping the names/branding would help keep the overall cost per park down and would probably save the chain from over-extending their brand recognition. Haunt and FrightFest would be good for this treatment as well! Share some of the mazes (including some of the IP ones), move the events around between parks that might need a rebrand, and maybe spice it up a little so there would be less kids and strollers clogging up the pathways (sorry to people who bring their young kids). 

 

It looks like 2019 was a really good year for events at Kings Island. There were more than a few special events advertised, Grand Carnivale was brand new, and Haunt had received five new and original attractions — each with nice theming and dedicated signage IIRC.

Kings Island had an event called Island Nights in July 2019, but from what little I could find about it, it only happened on Friday nights in July in Soak City. I could've sworn there were ads in the dry park for it being a big coming-in-2020 summer event, but I've only found two July 2019 Facebook posts with bit.ly links that now redirect to the park's homepage. The WaybackMachine has nothing on it either. It would be nice to see it be a big dry park event in the near future!

There was a plan to hold a summer nights event in 2020. I believe it was going to be in Action Zone. Carowinds did a similar event in 2019 in their Thrill Zone area. However, Covid messed that up and it was originally planned to debut in 2021 instead, it seems as if the park/corporate decided to go in a different direction. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Carowinds released their events schedule this morning with some notable differences. They now have the Legacy Six Flags Spring Break daily operations for two weeks in April, a new Summerbration event (dates not yet listed), and Star-Spangled Nights and Viva La Fiesta are coming in July. As of now, neither Grand Carnivale or the Summer Music Fest are returning in 2025. The Legacy Cedar Fair SCarowinds, Oktoberfest, Tricks and Treats, and WinterFest (+ NYE at WinterFest) are all returning. 

Now that we have confirmation that events are being shared between parks across the whole chain, I'm eager and a little worried about what we will see at all of the parks who have yet to announce their events. 

[Timchat2]

It appears Food & Wine isn't returning at Kings Dominion for 2025, so it might not be returning at Kings Island either.

[PKIDelirium]

That might be due to KD's 50th event.