Knott's brings magic to the park this summer

I love a good theme park magic show, which appears to be slowly going extinct in the US.

Saw Brad at Carrowinds in 2023. My son does magic, so we always have to stay after the show so he can talk shop (and they always know the guy my son works for). Brad seems a good guy; should be a fun show for Knotts.

Yes, has has been at Carowinds for the past two summers. ...an enjoyable show.

HOWEVER, my problem is that he performed in the main Carowinds Theater, basically supplanting a longer-run live show. The Carowinds Theater used to host a production show opening in March and it would continue until fall. Now the theater is only used for high school band competitions in the spring. The magic show was only in the summer months and then the theater sat dark again.

This year (in June), Carowinds opened, "Snoopy's Legendary Rooftop Concert." I sat through it a few days ago and there were only 72 people in the audience (I heard an usher tell another employee). What a complete waste of a theatre and money!!! Is the show designed for kids since it's called "Snoopy????" The show features rock references to the Beatles, Led Zepplin, Queen, Elton John, Prince and more-- not exactly the simple melody songs for a child's ear. If the show is designed for adults, then why in the world is it billed as a "Snoopy" show?? Adults are going to bypass this. Of course if they went inside, they'd see a bunch of peanut heads doing movements to the adult songs. This show appeals to nobody! Whoever gave the greenlight to this concept for this theater should be fired in my opinion.

What worries me most, is the bean counters will look at the attendance numbers and say, "we are not funding live shows because nobody goes."

By the way, there is already a silly "peanuts" related show in the Harmony Hall (Food court).

Totally agree there is a place for a kids show (with peanuts characters)... my problem is there is NOTHING for adults.

The adult problem is very real at Carowinds. The number of adults sitting on walls and benches looking totally miserable is very telling. They seem to have forgotten adults (parents and grandparents) are the ones who bring kids for the day, and often pay full price. The "adult" friendly rides have been removed and there is really no quality live show offerings (no big production show, no country show, no pop (not rock) show, no gospel/contemporary christian music show like in the past).

Theme park operators used to realize that balance was needed.

@formeryogi - Kings Dominion has the same problem. They have a decent indoor live theater along with the old Action Theater where they could host live productions, but both sit mostly dark outside of local band and cheerleading performances. They are running something called "Gazillion Bubble Show" inside the Kings Dominion Theater (main indoor theater), but it sounds like a complete mess of a production both literally and figuratively. The only other live performances this summer are the Clown Band, Street Party, and Charlie Brown's Hoedown in addition to the nighttime fireworks/light shows. That's it in a year where the park is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

I do think in general Cedar Fair was pulling back on the live entertainment (Cedar Point removed their main indoor theater when they built Valravn) long before the SF merger, but it does seem like they've been pulling back even more in the past year or 2. I really enjoyed it when Cedar Fair hired a bunch of acts (many from AGT and various traveling acts) to perform on rotational schedules throughout the summer at parks around the country. However, I do think the cost for good talent has gotten out of control since the pandemic and the wages needed to pay live actors and specialized talent has become cost prohibitive for many theme parks. When Disney and Universal are pulling back on live performances, it shouldn't be surprising to see regional parks also reducing the live entertainment schedules.