Volume 1, No. 9. June 1, 2001
It's
an Irish village!
Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia announces
the arrival of Ireland, May 18, 2001. Measurements: two acres, one ride, two
shows, two eateries, three retail outlets, one animatronic leprechaun. Corkscrew
Hill 4-D motion theater delivered by Kleiser Walczak and BA Systems.
Busch themers selected the name Killarney
for its new Ireland neighborhood in large part because the name is so elegantly
Irish. (Perhaps not coincidentally, Anheuser-Busch is producing a new Irish
malt lager called Killarney, too). It also happens to be the name of a tourism-besotted
city in Ireland that is arguably the most hospitable in all the world. That
is why Busch Gardens researchers on visits to the real Killarney ended up meeting
the town's mayor, Sean Counihan, and from the relationship they formed invited
him to help open the faux-Killarney version in Virginia.
On an overcast Friday—what Counihan described as "a soft day" typical of
his homeland—the mayor and park General Manager Dan Brown presided over
the media unveiling in a ceremony that featured third grade students from D.J.
Montague Primary School, whose class had been studying Ireland. "(School officials)
called us early in the school year because once they started studying Ireland,
they knew we were building Ireland and wanted us to do a presentation on our
research," said Diane Centeno, Busch Gardens public relations specialist. The
students attended the media day dressed as Irish characters, like farmers, bakers,
and lacemakers.
The public descended on the new area the next day and, caught up in an Irish
spell, lingered in the themed town. Despite the high-tech motion theater ride
Corkscrew Hill, the emerging favorite attraction was the 30-minute step
dancing show "Irish Thunder"" which prompted standing ovations, evidence again
that super technology can't topple pure Irish soul.
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
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