Kidsfest: Stay or Go?

[Joy]

I like the idea of calling it FamFest. And I had another idea for a kiddie activity: putting together wooden toys. Having all the pieces together for things like rolling duckies and stuff, and maybe even let the kids paint them, then they can put them together themselves. It's a hands on experience, the kids get to customize their own toy, and they learn something valuable (you get what you work for) in the meantime.

Joy

[Swoosh]

Maybe time to team up with Hasbro and get some of the same "Make Your Own" stuff that Disney sells at it's parks -- "Make Your Own: Mr. Potato Head, Lightsaber, etc"

Team back up with Lego to bring in displays (better yet have Celebration City converted to a Legoland )

[StaceySue]

Joy, I did paint a duck years ago in the Carousel Barn.  I was around 11 years old.  I also pounded my initials into a leather bookmark.  That was back when the carousel was in the barn, and the crafts we up on the stage.  The crafts weren't too expensive either.  It was fun!

The circus idea reminds me of a circus I went to in Dallas about 10 years ago.  It was Victorian-themed.  There was a pre-show outside of the main tent.  They had people on unicycles and people doing little acts here and there.  They also sold popcorn from a cart.  The main tent featured a one-ring circus.  All of the costumes were based on Victorian-era clothing.  There were animal acts and acrobat acts, but nothing modern like motorcycles. The front row VIP seating was actually red velvet sofas.  The whole thing engaged the senses.  Something like that would be a cool show.

[Joy]

That's exactly what would work for a summer show at SDC.

And like I said previously in another thread, they should put some carnies as characters in GE to "sell" their inventions (the AMAZING Electro-Spin! etc.). Instead of having airbrushed T-shirts, have a couple guys walking around selling balloons as well as making balloon animals and stuff...

Joy

[Firstvisit1967]

As late as 2005 our boys were making their own wooden toys at SDC.  We went looking for this activity this summer and it was no where to be found. 

[themeparkguy]

I like the circus just not the "moscow" circus again

[U Smell Smoke]

Anyone know where Johnny Lonestar is?  I always enjoyed his trick roping.

[KBCraig]

Magicians?  Only if they dress appropriately - maybe closeup on the street instead of strobed sequins.

An old-fashioned medicine show magician would be great. I remember (or, at least I think I do!) those types of shows at SDC in the '70s-'80s. The rainmaker fell into that category, and I enjoyed that.

There was a knife-throwing/whip-cracking act at one time, but the guy just wasn't very good.

[Joy]

YES! They need to do a revival of several of their older shows. The medicine wagon show, the Rainmaker, the kids court, all that stuff. And it would be REALLY cool if they did that next year, to kick off another great 50 years of Making Memories Worth Repeating.

Johnny Lonestar was awesome; I believe he was on America's Got Talent a couple years back.

Yeah, whip-cracking, trick roping, there's all sorts of neat stuff they could do... Just wish that they WOULD.

More ideas for kids:

decorate your own wooden spinning top
hoop rolling
learn how to do cat's cradle and other frontier kid games (Button Button; Hide the thimble; Tug of war)

Maybe they should send a couple PR people up to Missouri Town 1855 to get some ideas; that's where several of the above ideas come from.

Joy

[themeparkguy]

For the 50th it would be nice to have a "best-of" line-up.

[saloongal]

I haven't noticed anything special about kidsfest and I have kids.  The carousel barn is nothing more than a store.  What happened to hands on activities that were meaningful.  I still have the leather keychain that I stamped 20 years ago.  And the neckalce that I painted the beads myself. 
We don't go to the shows because my kids find them boring.  So other than some flowers (which I do think are really pretty) stuck around all the trees, what makes it kidsfest?

Also, whoever said they should have balloons, you are right on.  We had offers of over 20.00 to buy the balloon from my daughter on Saturday. 

[Swoosh]

The Carousel Barn was supposed to be a queue this year, but when the new ride did not go in then it was sort of "uh what do we do with this place now"

[History Buff]

^I doubt it was a total last-minute consideration - they just repeated what they've been doing for a while.

^^That's really a core problem with KidsFest - the idea that it is really a non-fest.