BONUS REVIEWS
#4: CALIFORNIA'S GREAT AMERICA
BONUS #4 ENTRY
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AMERICA'S TRIMUMPH!
A night time water show celebrating America playing classic American Pride songs with lights and colorful water jets shooting out streams of red, white, and blue water for all to see with fireworks!
This would be appropriate and charming for this park. Knowing their layout and water features, this "Trimumph" (sic) would most likely occupy that iconic entrance fountain. That would make this a lovely atmospheric/ambiance show like Tree of Life Awakenings.
A musical ice skating show featuring the Peanuts gang, about Charlie Brown facing his fears of being embarrassed to figure skate in front of the Little Red Haired girl.
These Cedar Fair prompts always inspire Peanuts ideas, which...I get it, that's the Cedar Fair IP, and Disney has taught us that theme parks are exclusively a venue for preexisting ideas. Let's move past that! With smaller parks like these, there's untapped potential. They can be blank canvases for original ideas you cannot do at Disney!
That said, a "Snoopy on Ice" idea has merit and an established history. I recall seeing shows just like this down at Knott's.
BONUS 4:
BAY AREA BAND BATTLE
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The Bay area’s thriving local music scene will descend on California’s Great America for a summer long battle of the bands, featuring five different bands performing half hour sets every Friday all summer long.
Great idea tying your show into the local culture. This is 100% realistic. It's just the sort of summertime concert thing venues like Great America sometimes do. I could see this event spreading to the larger convention center / sport arena area surrounding the park.
WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER: THE BONUS: THE MUSICAL
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California’s Great America has decided to create a musical dedicated to honor the diverse voices that have helped shape the United States of America.
Seizing on the idea of America, which is the closest thing this amusement park has to a theme, is a good starting point. I am intrigued by this, and would like to know a little more about the creative forces behind the musical.
An exciting show dedicated to all of Snoopy's different alter egos - a World War I flying ace, a Beagle Scout, Joe Cool etc. - with Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and the rest of his
Peanuts pals dragged into the fun!
This works as a smaller show in the Snoopy area, something at the scale of Disneyland's Fantasy Faire Theater. It would be really fun to get some audience interactivity, which would especially appeal to younger audiences.
CALIFORNIA'S GREAT ADVENTURE PROMPT
SNOOPY AND THE PEANUTS SQUADRON
Join the Peanuts gang on a high flying stunt show where they have to support Snoopy on his quest to fight that dreadful Red Baron!
Again with the Peanuts!
Stunt shows are always crowd pleasers. There are other ways you could theme this. I mean, of course there's a western section in the park, every regional park has a western section, so it didn't have to be Snoopy once again.
Side Trip #4: County Fair Concert Showcase
It wouldn't be a county fair without some good music among the rides and games, so this new show brings a great mix of country and bluegrass music to the festivities!
Ooh, I like this! Like a more homespun version of Tegan's rock concerts, activating an old timey Americana which this park could potentially capitalize upon. Very, very doable, like a show borrowed from Knott's.
THE MAGIC CAROUSEL
A nighttime show themed to a magical carousel whose figures come to life and engage in acrobatics and dance, covered in led costumes.
This is an extremely intriguing proposal, like a regional park Cirque du Soleil. I like how you've taken the park's fairly standard icon (its carousel), and spun something magical out of it!
California's Great Adventure: Lantern of Freedom
Paul Revere's iconic lantern burns brightly, summoning a spectacular fireworks festival that embodies the freedom and liberty that America adopted during its days of revolution.
Capitalizing nicely on the American theme! While it's not clear if fireworks would be technically allowable in the area - probably yes, thanks to the stadium nearly - I like this boldness. Very few parks at this scale do fireworks.
Dance of Apollo and Selene
An serene, orchestral nighttime spectacular about the fascination of outer space.
I like it! This has the potential for transcendent beauty, similar to the carousel show. Outer space is a timeless topic.
BONUS REVIEWS
#5: GILROY GARDENS
BONUS #5
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DRINK OF GARLIC FESTIVAL
Forget the food this one is all about the drinks baby, every type of garlic drink you can come up with including beer and wine!!!!
Doing a drinkable garlic festival perhaps isn't especially out-of-the-box, since the prompt cited the local Gilroy Garlic Festival as its inspiration, but...I'd still visit. Garlic beer both tempts me and terrifies me.
Come and see lumberjack and woodcarvers show off their craft in this late summer festival, make sure to buy an authentic home made souvenir before you leave!
Oh, this would be so much fun! And between the park's water features and under-utilized amphitheaters, it's easy to see them doing this. Gilroy Gardens is less a true theme park than it is a local arboretum with some ride, so charming little ideas like this suit it very nicely.
BONUS 5:
GILROY GARDENS CITRUS FESTIVAL
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Celebrate California’s incredible citrus industry at this county fair style tasting event, featuring a plethora of dishes from independent Californian citrus growers.
Mmm, citrus...
BONUS 2: THE GREAT ORANGE FESTIVAL
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Come to Gilroy Gardens and enjoy the most delicious orange based products that the state of California has to offer.
Mmm, citrus...
The smelliest event of the year, Gil's Garlic Festival celebrates the fact that Gilroy Gardens' mascot is a garlic clove with all sorts of garlicy foods, live musicians singing about garlic, and the scent of garlic being pumped through the whole park!
Mmm, garlic...
Hmm, it seems this was maybe kind of a restricting prompt? No matter. I love your inclusion of Gil; that shows you did your research. (Or you've been to Gilroy Gardens, and if anyone here has it would honestly surprise me.)
GILROY GARDENS PROMPT
GILROY GARDEN'S FARMER'S FESTIVAL
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Fusing the normal idea of a theme park food and wine festival with the locavore mentality of Californians, this will showcase not just local foods, but local fresh produce, small-batch goods, crafts like blacksmithing and woodworking, and live entertainment local to the area.
Equal parts farmer's market and Ren Faire, totally befitting the region's agricultural root and its do-it-yourself verve. Yeah, this sort of simple small town celebration is perfect for GG.
Side Trip #5: Three-Ring Circus Tree Festival
Step right up for this astounding festival of fun, bringing together colorful circus sights like clowns and acrobats with the wonders of nature, like Gilroy Garden's iconic Circus Trees!
Those Circus Trees really are something. They're otherworldly and adorable and oh so iconoclastic. I love the notion of framing a whole big top event around them.
APPLE PIE AND MORE FESTIVAL
Here you'll discover that there are many ways you can eat an apple
Mmm, apples...
Gilroy Gardens: Vegie Vamps!
A Halloween festival where the monsters of the dark, unable to manifest in their true, terrifying visages, are forced to materialise as frightening plants and vegetables!
This is probably the most creative festival idea. Good call thinking beyond the basic harvest festival setup and settling on Halloween. Great call making your spook-tacular distinctly "Gilroy."
Gilroy Gardens Friends from the Farm
The animals and the people who help raise them have come down to Gilroy Gardens in a festival where guests can get a firsthand experience of raising and caring for livestock, as well as getting locally sourced food and products.
Another good festival idea which finds a new way to incorporate the local farming culture. This would be very child-friendly, which is just where this park excels.
