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"Night of Fire"
I live in Columbus, Ohio, a city where, due to a complicated series of political maneuvers, Independence Day comes a little bit early. We get a spectacular fireworks show billed as one of the largest in the midwest on July 3. Then on July 4, the neighborhoods and suburbs get into the act. And this year, because Independence Day fell on a Thursday, Kings Island opted to do their "Nights of Fire" events on both Thursday and Friday nights. So after work on Friday night, I jumped in the car and headed South.
It was hot, so I initially spent an hour or so in the waterpark. That was before I learned that the coasters in Rivertown and Coney Mall would be closing at 9pm and not re-opening. So I didn't manage to get rides on The Beast or on Vortex. I did get to ride Top Gun and Adventure Express. The park had set up portable railings along International Street in order to provide walkways among the areas where people were camping out to see the show. I made it back to Coney Mall and got a ride on the Racer which may well be my last for this season thanks to the amazing self-stapling lap bars. I still say there is no reason the bar needs to be able to touch the seat cushion; if you are that skinny you don't belong on the ride! Such a shame, as I really do like that coaster.
From the Racer I headed to Rivertown, just missing a chance to ride the Flying Scooter. Rivertown was starting to close, but there was absolutely no indication of that at International Street/Coney Mall. I knew the area was closing, and I planned to cut through Rivertown to get over to Nickelodeon Central. I was just a few minutes too late. Security guards had erected a rope across the path between Rivertown and Nickelodeon Central, and were not allowing anybody through. Huh? Kings Island usually does a great job with special events, but somebody dropped the ball on crowd control at this point. With no mechanism in place to warn people that they were heading down a dead-end path the end of Rivertown was simply shut off. I did point out to the guard how little sense this made when I doubled back to the Tower, then approached the Nick Central side of the barricade from the other side. What those guys should have done was to close off most of that opening and allow people to move freely from Rivertown to Nick Central, but NOT allow people to move from Nick Central to Rivertown. It would not have been difficult, and it probably would have helped clear the area faster. This really surprised me, as crowd control is usually something that Kings Island handles very well, especially up near the front gate.
And indeed they did handle it well. I took a ride on the Beastie but decided I didn't have time for the Rugrats Runaway Reptar Roller Coaster before the show started. I went back to the end of International Street where an enormous crowd was gathered, sitting on the pavement at the end of the Royal Fountains. Traffic lanes were maintained around all of these seated people, and in an obstructed view area alongside the fountain. Foolishly failing to find a spot to stand in, I returned to the Nick Central plaza which had been designated by the park as a good viewing area.
Finally, the show began. The park piped in a music track on the usual background music system, but also on a few large speakers that had been brought in to the PA-light areas of the park. It was a pretty spectacular show; they ran two simultaneous non-identical aerial shows, one over the end of Coney Mall and one well behind Rivertown. I was standing in front of Atom Ant's Airways so my viewing angle was a little off, but clearly the intent was to put the two aerial stages on either side of the tower and about the same distance back, for a nice symmetry when viewed from the parking lot end of the Royal Fountains. Added to these two shows, at strategic moments during the show, Roman candles and other pyrotechnics were launched off the upper two-thirds of the Tower itself in a spectacular display. I've got to tell you, nothing says "America!" quite like watching Chinese-designed Roman candles being launched off of the Eiffel Tower while standing in front of an Italian amsement ride, listening to the sound track from a Japanese sound system. If only I had been eating French fries or a Belgian waffle!
In my estimation, Kings Island also deserves special praise for their accompanying soundtrack. It was mostly patriotic fare, but so far as I am concerned the best thing about it was that they proved that it IS possible to do a patriotic fireworks soundtrack without including Lee Greenwood's overplayed "God Bless the USA." Kings Island may have just been trying to leave God out of the show, but regardless of their motives, I thought it was a refreshing change. Now if we could just give Neil Diamond ("Coming to America") and Bruce Springstien ("Born in the USA") similar breaks we might see a return to creativity with the music programs. For now I'll take what I can get. 8-)
It was a good show, a spectacular show, although I wasn't at the best viewing angle. If they do it again, the end of International Street is definitely the best viewing location. Not the best fireworks show I saw this season, but absolutely worth seeing. When the show was over, the park re-opened pretty quickly with the exception of The Beast and Vortex. I ended up pretty much camping out on the Flying Scooters as midnight approached, and so by 12:30 I was on my way home. Kings Island pulled off another special event and did it in grand style.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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