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British Theme Park Archive has uploaded an incredible documentary about Valhalla from 2000! It's incredible and definitely worth watching through to the end.

The space was originally set up for shows. It had a small stage and an open area where seats could be placed. The maze space itself was more of a backstage / storage area originally. Our friends at Memories at Thorpe Park show the type of shows that were put on there. Even where The Freezer first opened, the space was still used as a show throughout the 00s. The stage was removed for I'm a Celebrity, but the entrance door for it is roughly in the same place as the stage door!

Interesting development. Jungle Escape was at one point in time meant to be returning this year, and I'm fairly certain that was still the plan quite recently. Obviously things can change though. If the rumours are true that Thorpe are using the Living Nightmare space for a season-round attraction then they're obviously down an indoor maze location and Jungle Escape makes the most sense as a space to use. So that'd be a positive. However, if that all happens, it would once again highlight Thorpe's short-term outlook and terrible decision making. Jungle Escape was thought of as a way to continue to make use of the I'm a Celebrity space for years to come, making use of the solid sets they have there, but lasts less than year because they need the space to replace another indoor space they're using for probably an equally short-term investment...

/\ likewise, I only knew it existed from online forums and never saw any adverts for it.

As much as I hate Merlin's marketing led approach to any investment, this just goes to show that marketing at least needs to be considered and attempted alongside building something decent. If I weren't active around these places I'd have had no idea Icon existed, that's just not good enough for such a major new coaster.