A makeover in the making?
Social distancing guidelines may mean big changes for theme parks.
LOS ANGELES— Knott’s Berry Farm recently felt more like a national park than a theme park. Reopening for a Knott’sdesigned food event dubbed Taste of Calico, the Southern California park’s famed ghost town was clear for roaming on an early Friday afternoon. And though there was an air of trepidation among the guests seeking boysenberry-fuelled delectables, maintaining at least10 or 15 feet distance from another human was relatively easy — just the way this pandemicwary mind likes it.
Western characters traversed the second storey of the ghost town’s frontier buildings, keeping alive from a distance the theme park’s pre-pandemic tomfoolery — including the shock and concern expressed at the very sight of any piece of modern technology held by a guest.
In Florida, theme parks from Disney and Universal have reopened to much debate and health-related concerns amid still raging COVID-19 numbers, while parks in Los Angeles and Orange County in California, remain on pause. Knott’s, unable to offer any rides, attractions or shows during its 100th year, has essentially shapeshifted into a large alfresco dining locale. The carved rocks and perfectly centred waterfalls of the Calico Mine Ride provided, at long last, a bit of nature to this dweller of downtown Los Angeles, where my surrounding streets are still overcrowded with the unmasked.
When Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World parks reopened in recent weeks, much of the focus, as it was when international parks returned to business, was on social distancing markers, Plexiglas, temperature checks and even some creative use of characters — where they are seen amid the park’s surroundings rather than mingling with guests.
Health, right now, is the primary concern, but it seems increasingly apparent that the effects of 2020 will be with us for some time to come.
In turn, the near future of theme parks experiences could begin to look very different. There is already a very real financial toll with the constant threat of furloughs and layoffs, and upcoming projects are being delayed and re-evaluated, with some no doubt at risk of being cancelled altogether. With uncertainties surrounding travel and the long-term spending power of consumers, large investments in infrastructure will have to wait.
But this is also a chance to reimagine the theme park space, to view the entire grounds as something akin to a game board. Those who have been to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom or used the
Play Disney Parks app at Galaxy’s Edge have seen how games such as “Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom” and the Star Wars: Datapad can keep crowds moving and get people to interact with areas of the park beyond a ride or a shop.
Expect the coronavirus era, say theme park experts, to accelerate a play-driven evolution that has steadily been increasing in parks — in part because they naturally lead to exploration, but also because they appeal to locals and regular parkgoers, a demographic that’s more vital than ever if plane travel continues to dip.
At long last, says Susan Bonds, aformer creative with Walt Disney Imagineering and the chief executive officer of 42 Entertainment, which has specialized in branded augmented-reality experiences, such gamelike ideas will probably meet with a more receptive executive audience.
Bonds, for instance, is bullish on augmented reality, and a 65year-old institution such as Disneyland offers opportunities for digital overlays that are both game-focused or historical. I tell her I’ve long dreamed of a “Pokemon Go”-style game that had vastly different interactions in a Universal or Disney park than it did at home.
“There is a lot of low-hanging fruit, and there hasn’t been an impetus,” Bonds says. “Now, this is that moment.
“Gaming,” she adds, “is the DNA of life now.”
It’s already starting to happen. Experiential design firm Meow Wolf, for instance, home to the popular House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, N.M., and soon a space in Las Vegas, is working on a full augmented reality app that will provide interactions beyond the company’s physical spaces.
First, however, will be some more immediate changes to Meow Wolf’s themed Santa Fe environment. Story elements that were previously found in high-touch books or proprietary newspapers will be transferred to an app, and the art collective turned themed entertainment business is developing its own branded hand sanitizer, Liquid Gauntlet Germ Ghoster. Expect, too, an increase in live performers, who will be utilized to entertain and prod socially distant groups through the space in a way that alleviates bottlenecks.
This is our new reality, so it’s time, says Meow Wolf cofounder Emily Montoya, to accept that health and safety procedures should be a part of our fantasy worlds rather than an intrusion in them.
“Our question is how do we maintain those types of safety and sanitation practices without taking people out of the other world, out of the experience,” she says. “How do we fully integrate an automatic hand sanitizer? It’s transformed into an art object.”