Festival Park

Along with all the other Centres in the park, Talbot Centre was renamed in 1984 becoming known as Festival Park and as part of Project Octoberfest became the park’s original thrill area.

As part of the area’s transformation into Festival Park, the large Adventureland Playground was removed to make way for the area’s new thrilling line-up which included Wave Swinger, Enterprise and Magic Carpet. Over the following few seasons the ride line up changed quite regularly, with the Magic Carpet leaving, 1001 Nights and Spider arriving and the Ferris Wheel both arriving and departing all in the 1985 and 1986 season.

1987 was a turning point for the area as this was the year it annexed the neighbouring courtyard, which became home to an Open Air Theatre, providing Festival Park with a prime entertainment venue, a move which coincided with Rupert Bear leaving the park. This was also the year the Skyride opened, with its gondolas cutting a striking line across the centre of the area.

Once Tussauds took over the park, it soon became clear that Festival Park’s days were numbered, as its ride line-up often looked very transitory, as several rides passed through the area, either on the way out of the park, or on their way to another more permanent home in the park.

The Spider left the park in 1991 and was replaced by Tri-Star, which itself was removed the next year, as the Junior Flyer (most recently known as the Bouncing Bugs) arrived in the area for the 1992 season.

1001 Nights was the next ride to depart the park, being replaced in 1995 by the Energizer, a ride which only stayed in Festival Park briefly as it was moved, along with the Enterprise, to X Sector for the 1998 season. The development of X Sector also had another impact on Festival Park as 1997 saw the arrival of AstroDancer in the area, relocated from its former home in Fantasy World.

The Festival Park Dome (the Open Air Theatre had received the iconic dome of Fountain Square back in 1989 to give the stage some shelter from the elements) had its last season as an entertainment venue in 1998. This left the line up of Festival Park consisting of the Corkscrew, Junior Flyer, Wave Swinger and AstroDancer, and it was with this line up of rides that it was transformed into the prehistoric playground that was Ug Land.