I’ll be honest. The only reason I dragged myself down to Thorpe Park on an August weekend (my first time braving the summer holiday crowds) was mimes. Having been a little uninspired by the park’s Mardi Gras season earlier in the year I wasn’t super hyped for Carnival – until I saw the mimes. They just seemed like such a wacky addition that I absolutely had to go and check it out for myself.
So, thank you mimes. Because of you, I got to experience what felt, to me, like the most complete and impressive season that I’ve seen Thorpe Park produce outside of Fright Nights.
There’s just so much to talk about!
Entertainment
At the heart of this event is the entertainment. The Carnival hub is located in the Lost City – tucked just behind Rush – and is home to a large stage (for performances in the round), as well as a few food and drink vendors and a handful of tents.
The stage offers a packed schedule with frequent performances of five different shows, which is – in my opinion – ridiculously impressive! Having such a large roster of shows meant that the carnival stage was somewhere we were continuously returning to throughout the day for different acts, and really made the area feel like the core of our day.
During our visit, we were able to catch Circus Acts (we saw a pair of acrobats), the Fire Performer and the Mime Dance Troupe and honestly, I had a blast watching all of them. The acrobats and fire performer were super talented individuals who I would be impressed by had I seen them at a paid circus – and this was included with admission! The only downside was that the sets were short – between 5-10 minutes each – but it kept things fresh at least. Oh and maybe I thought the mimes would integrate their mime characters into their dance routine, but I didn’t mind too much that they didn’t. It was fun nonetheless. But happily, these mimes who had gotten me down to the park in the first place were the highlight of my day. Even when no show was being performed, they roamed the area interacting with guests and just generally being silly and I simply cannot praise them enough. I didn’t see any of them break character once, instead remaining utterly ridiculous at all times. You. Love. To. See. It.
In the tents surrounding the stage, there were yet more entertainment offerings being provided by the same incredible team, with both a card trick booth and a tarot card tent available (for free)! I started at the card trick booth and watched the mime silently guess our cards correctly 5 times in a row, guessing silently through either charade or pointing at cards around the room. I love this stuff man. I have no idea how magic tricks work and honestly, I’m perfectly happy to keep things that way – they always bring me so much joy!
But in the next tent was my absolute favourite thing of the day, the tarot card reading. Because here they threw in a little easter egg for us nerds. For regular day guests may not have immediately understood my third and final tarot card, but it immediately made me squeal in delight. My card was: 236. The exact number of feet into the sky that Exodus, the park’s upcoming coaster, is destined to reach. Not only that but I was informed that my future ‘may involve climbing up to 236 feet, but beware for I also see you falling back down’. Okay, please remember that you are currently reading a blog post about how I drove over 100 miles to go see a mime in a theme park when I say that I lost my shit, immediately shouting THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER. Thanks to all the mystics in the tent for humoring me, we’ve been waiting for this for so long. And Thorpe, pls keep throwing in easter eggs to fuel that hype train because I am all aboard.
There was also a second entertainment stage located opposite Derren Brown’s Ghost Train, where smaller acts performed. For us, these were the sort of shows that we really enjoyed catching snippets of in passing rather than staying for the whole set, but they did add a lot to the atmosphere – the park was so full of life!
Trailers: Breakout at Bozos
Not only was there a packed line-up of free entertainment, but also available was an altered (and tamed) version of last year’s Fright Nights stand-out, Trailers. This was the other major draw of the season, I mean how often do you get the chance to do a scare maze in August?! I’ll tell you what, stepping inside and breathing in that spooky season smell left me so, so happy. And honestly? So did the maze! I’ve seen some mixed reviews of Bozos, but I was in there with two people who had never done a scare maze before so this pretty mild maze was the perfect introduction. As we were told when we went in, it’s a blend of scares and laughter – it really was! We screamed, we ducked, we bunched up to get away from actors but we also laughed all the way around. I honestly thought that this was a pitch-perfect addition to the summer season and I really hope we see it again!
Food and Drink
Yes, yes, yes, the carnival had multiple food trucks supplying on-theme snacks but lets talk about the really important thing here: there was a Carnival Freestyle drink!!!!
Upon seeing the logo, this was of course an instant pour. But, has anyone else tried it? Was it meant to just be cherry coke? Are my taste buds just not sensitive enough to the candy floss flavour? I don’t know. It just sure tasted like cherry coke to me!
As for food, seeing corn dogs available in a UK park is always cause for celebration (even if there was no veggie alternative </3) but I found myself not really wanting to pay £7 for loaded fries with one topping when a quick walk over to Wilderness Bar gets you three toppings on a massive box of waffle fries for £5.95 (plus passholder discount is accepted!) There was also an ‘American’ pancake truck, but seeing a few pancakes get grabbed from a packet and popped in a toaster made me not super excited to try them out.
There was yet more seasonal food available opposite the second stage, in the Junkyard area. Here there were more corn dogs, nachos and additionally some mac and cheese. So kudos for offering a pretty wide range of options, even if I still just went to Wilderness!
Other Seasonal Goodness
This event really did feel like it was encompassing the entire park with small details and changes to be found all across the island! On the bridge, you can find carnival-style attraction posters including one for the one and only Flying Fish! I’m always going to be a fan of anything that lays some respect on the fins of the true king of Thorpe Park.
But in addition to this artwork there was also the fantastic Stealth range from Rob Yeo available over in the Carnival retail tent. As a fan of Rob’s work for a while, it’s really special to see such a great theme park artist’s work appear in one of my home parks, and in such a major way too! I just had to get the pin.
In a little detail that made me incredibly happy, this Stealth art was actually tied into the ride experience itself, with a new launch audio that informed us we were momentarily about to experience life as a human cannonball! I do love a good overlay.
And finally, if you fancy being in the art yourself? Why not hop into one of the multiple photo-ops! I bloody loved getting to become a Zoltar machine. What a cool nod to classic vaudeville!
I have to end by giving the biggest shout-out and thanks to the Thorpe Park Entertainment Team. This season belongs to them. Throughout the park, and inside Bozos, everyone we interacted with – or watched – was spectacular. They brought the park to life in a way I haven’t seen outside of October, and cannot be applauded enough.
When I booked to go to this event, it wasn’t even something I really considered blogging about. Just a fun trip to a park I’d visited countless times before. But honestly, I had the most wonderful time at Carnival that I couldn’t help but spill all my thoughts out on (virtual) paper. So, if you do find yourself having any spare time between now and the end of the month – and you happen to love both theme parks and theatricality like me – really do consider a visit. I’m already crossing all my fingers for a second season!
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 