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I'll rephrase what I said: "To the management at Thorpe, are you deliberately trying to annoy your customers here?" It's not so much the fact it's an event that I have a problem with here, it's that getting corporate sponsors and IPs involved to promote themselves for a big chunk of their 2019 season is just sheer laziness and lacks any proper thought or vision in my view. I mean, isn't the whole purpose of visiting a theme park supposed to be to escape everyday life and just have a fun time for those hours? Last I checked, playing on a dedicated games console for 45 minutes is not something unique only to a theme park and the majority of youth in 2019 own such a device in their homes which they handle daily. Why fork out £33 minimum entry for something they can do at home? I just don't understand. By all means, let the event happen, I just expected better than this from the "nation's thrill captial" who are owned by a business still classing themselves "2nd to Disney", that's all. The park can frankly do much better.

One potential thing is that Thorpe might be getting a lot of amount of this through the advertising. Taking up the marquee for the best part of two months means it's unlikely they'll be able to use that space for private events (unless it's super easy to dismantle the 'exhibits'). The marquee is a good way for the park to make a lot of extra revenue - it makes more than most would expect. If they're losing that, they're definitely going to be making the money up in other ways, and it won't be from the VR upcharge things they have. They're probably making money from using the space for gaming tournaments, some companies are likely paying Thorpe to have their products on show in prime locations. I'd imagine it would be a good pitch - Thorpe approaches these companies and says "we're having a gaming event at the park, we're having x,y,z there, would you be interested? For this amount of money, we can make you the headliner of the event..." I'm not saying that is what happening, but I imagine that's a likely outcome. This isn't going to push anyone away. No one is going "I WAS going to go to Thorpe Park this year, but they've got a gaming event in one small section of the park, so nah, screw that". It might mean people choose not to visit "Oh, I went to Thorpe a while back, should I go this year? Oh, they've got a gaming event on, that doesn't interest me, I'll hold off and visit somewhere else for now." On the flipside, it's possible this might attract people - but based on social media reaction, that number is minimal at best.

Wow! Some people on here are pretty dismissive of any-one who wants to spend the money on the pass.. Surely it's down to the OP to decide how their £400 is best spent and I note that at no point did the OP ask for opinions on the pass, just how it worked? My understanding is that it works the same way as the DigiPass and VIP Annual Pass (and the once-collected Ultimate Fast-Track bands) - you rock up and have it checked. For the record, I'm also doing the same - I live about 20 mins away from the park and am looking forward to being able to just get up on a weekend and hit the park for a few hours knowing that I don't have to even check how busy it is - I can just go, do what I need to and come home again - no wasted time, no disappointment because Swarm has a 2 hour queue and no planning needed for Fright Nights too...

To get tickets to the "eSports Championship Series" at Wembley Arena costs you £18.25 total (including fees, the ticket itself is £12.50) for a comparison... Granted no creds, but it's a bit of a weird overlap, especially when you only get 45 minutes to actually spend in there... Which if poorly managed crowd wise could end in disaster...

An unnecessary expenditure for the park. They are restricted with capital so are unable to build a new half decent attraction and so have no choice but to try and focus on events to bolster the line up and sell as a reason to return. I suspect that they have very little impact on the parks revenue and advertising these events is just a way of reminding the public Thorpe Park exists. These events aren't going to turn anyone away but I doubt they will bring that many people in either. It just seems like a trick to get Merlin to release some capital for advertising so they can draw people into the park on the merits of existing attractions. Tomorrow will be a fun one when Merlin provide the preliminary financial results for 2018. That might be able to give us an insight into the lack of investment.

I’m not sure why it would push anyone away? It’s a small scale thing in the marquee as an add on to a normal day, those who are interested will be in there those who aren’t will be on the rides, much like Love Island Lates. I can see them wanting to try stuff like this more, similar to what we saw last year with events throughout the year, this time just less zombieish!

To all those enthusiasts who were like OMFG THE LIFT HILL LIGHTZ R ON, ITZ COMING BACK 4 2019!!!! You must feel like idiots now ? Wonder how long this will be SBNO before it's *actually* removed, just like Slammer

Looking forward to JackSilkstone's Closed Season Update video with a thumbnail that says "NEW HYPERCOASTER CONFIRMED?!?!?!?" or similar ?