Event Notice: Sept. 19

Does Cedar Point turn into a satanic park during HalloWeekends? I think some of you guys are really stretching here.

Yes, and those evil conservative christians are going to ruin all of their satanic fun.

Like I said earlier, some of the notions about all these "conservative Christians" ruining Halloweekends are way off the mark, considering the "conservative Christians" are also the ones decrying groups like TobyMac or FF5.

I'm really interested in how they pull this off, because there are two places I can see it being held, the Aquatic Stadium, or the Hot Summer Lights Midway. I find the Hot Summer Lights Midway the more likely of the two, although if weather is supposed to be not so clear, the Stadium could be a good option. Also, the stadium would provide them with opportunity to keep the concert a mostly separate ticket event, like I've seen them do at KI. You essentially get a starlight ticket as a part of the concert ticket. Its also a bit of an effective crowd control method as well, I guess.

It will be interesting to see how Cedar Point handles a big concert like this, and if this could prompt a Timberwolf-like area (goodbye Camper Village!) for future events.

Why does it have to be held in the park? The can have it in the Soak City parking lot where there is plenty of space for the stage and audience.

I myself being a born again christian dont have a problem with halloweekends or think anyone from my church does either. No matter what your talking about in the world there are always extremists but not they arent even close to the majority.

Walt, in the mind of a lot of fundamentalists, any kind of celebration or even recognition of Halloween is by definition satanic. So in the eyes of many of that persuasion, your sarcastic comment would be correct, in fact. Whether or not that sub-group is mutually exclusive of the sub-group of Christians that like those kinds of bands, I have no idea.

How about a beach concert? They could set up a grandstand with plenty of room for a large audience.

The SC lot idea could be possible, IF they don't plan on having to use that lot for parking. However, I'm willing to bet that with the crowd for the concert in addition to the regular (although admittedly not that large compared to other weekends) crowd, they will need at least some of the Soak City lot. Another potential problem I see is how you park the guests who are only there for the concert if they keep it a truly separate "gate" event. I still find the setup in front of the big screen the most likely option at this point, with the Aquatic Stadium close behind. There is one negative I see to the Stadium, though, and that is its limited seating for an event like this. Of course, space is limited out on the midway, but it is open to come and go, so there technically isn't a restriction on how many concert admissions you sell, whereas you would more than likely have a cap on concert tickets with the Stadium. I see the midway show as more beneficial for the park in terms of selling the gate.

Just an idea that popped in my head, but what about having it in Soak City. The waterpark is closed by that time, and i am sure there are areas in the park that are large enough for a stage and crowd, heck they could probably do something around the wave pool even.

And of course they could use the seperate gate, heck they even have it all set up to sell the tickets there with the booths for Challenge Park. Just an idea

You're buying into a stereotype, Mike. The people you're imagining in your mind are fringe at best. Like the other Mike said, there are extreme people in every group. They don't represent the group at large.

It's the similar to the stupidity we see in the Gay Day threads. Some people have a problem with [insert group], so their view of [insert group] is skewed greatly beyond the reality. Soon, everyone in the group is fringe, in their minds.

The wave pool is the only option that could really work in Soak City, and even then, I don't know if it would work all that well. You have the wall on both sides once you go far enough down, and that could definitely be a safety issue (good luck keeping an aisle-way open) with as small an area as it is down there. The midway ore Aquatic Stadium are both really ideal setups for such an event, though both have their drawbacks, which I've mentioned.

Walt, I indicated I was talking about a sub-group of Christians, not the entire population. I don't know how many or what percentage would be reflected by my description, but they sure as hell aren't imagined in my mind. I personally know a number of people that would fit that bill, and I'm not a fundamentalist -- or even a Christian. So this certainly isn't about stereotyping.

I think 20-30k is a big overestimate on number of people. Remember that KI has Spirit Song every year which has folks like Casting Crowns, TobyMac as headliners and that Timberwolf only holds about 6,000.

If they do have a concert, the stage on the Iron Dragon midway would work fine. It might be crowded, but not overly so.

I was putting that number out there as what I've seen happen for large venues like arenas. I don't expect the concert to draw that much for this particular event, but he has the drawing power.

I think they should correlate this concert with Gay Day so that Jesus and Satan can finally have it out...South Park style. Now that would be good people-watching.

poiuyt said:

Jordawg From Area 2 said:

I think they will put them on the stage on the Iron Dragon midway where they have the haloweekends concert.

I think they may hold it in the ballroom above the arcade on the main midway.

And they can't do that because that's the area that employees become scary monsters!

The ballroom is too small, IMO! I think they will close off part of the main lot or use the SC lot for the concert. I don't plan on going to the park when it's said to be that crowded anyway, but I'm just glad it's a christian concert rather than other things...

Christian institutions have a PR problem, there's no question about that. Unfortunately, that's not good for the religion itself. The institutions, except for maybe the United Church of Christ, aren't doing much to combat that.

The formula for busy Halloweekends is pretty simple. Good weather == crowds.

Just an idea that popped in my head, but what about having it in Soak City.

A great idea. Especially if they correlated it with Gay Day. They could have a "forgiveness" slide where an evil homosexual could go up the stairs a sinner, and be baptized in the waters below. Wash that evil out!

*sarcasm implied

Jeff, you're absolutely right that there's a PR problem, but there is also no good way to try and reverse that on a large scale, because then everyone just cries "Fundamentalists! Extremists! Liars!" The PR issue is battled back on a very small size, practically person by person, and that's why it simply hasn't been very effective. Until the people that tell the fundamentalists to have open minds on a mass scale actually care to open up and look past a stereotype, there is no widespread chance at reversing the PR situation. So it continues at a very low volume, personal level. But that is neither here nor there.

Now, I imagine you or Walt would know the answer to my original question, which has yet to be directly answered. Is my thought that this is the first large scale modern day concert event that the park has held correct?

I'm still also interested in the idea of turning Camper Village into a dedicated concert area at some point. This event certainly could turn into an annual event like SpiritSong and others, and momentum for more concerts could build, giving them reason for such a facility.

Nothing comes to mind in terms of concerts since the Big Band days. There were large scale marching band events, but I don't think that's the same thing.