Oktoberfest 2020

[JoshC.]

May as well have a thread for this.

 

IMA Score have done a version of the main theme:

I believe this is the first time the park and IMA Score have worked together since 2017.

 

There's also an overlay of Rumba Rapids, going to "Oompah Rapids", which has music not done by IMA Score...

 

More event details should hopefully follow, since it starts a week tomorrow...

[PJ.]

Don’t they mean Nick Hudson did the music?

 

 

 

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[JoshC.]

IMA Score did the main theme overlays. Nick appears to be doing overlays for rides.

[PJ.]

IMA Score did the main theme overlays. Nick appears to be doing overlays for rides.

Apologies


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[JoshC.]

So I went to Oktoberfest at Thorpe yesterday. There's some photos and videos on TPM's Facebook page and as I'm only on my phone I'm too lazy to drag them all in - so check them out over there... [/plug]

 

First thing first: the event isn't finished yet. They were still putting out benches, bunting, etc today. Some of the stalls don't have a full range of food yet. The steins you can buy aren't in yet. It's a bit of a shame. I don't quite get why Thorpe decided to have the event start so early, especially when they only decided to have the event a few weeks ago. It's likely put a lot of pressure on staff to cobble it together and ultimately it feels a bit unprofessional to have a half ready event at opening. 

 

The Oktoberfest area is basically the stretch alongside Derren, turning a dead spot into the highlight spot. It could do with more speakers and stuff as it's a bit lifeless at points. There's typical German-market like stalls; all but one run externally I think. There's a main stage, which will have acts perform on Fridays and Saturdays. 

 

There's some audio changes around the park. Notably Rumba Rapids (which has stickers over Rumba saying Oompah), Detonator and Stealth. Many other rides have Oktoberfest audio too, but they play intermittently. The Oktoberfest area,  entrance, bridge and dome have audio too. 

 

Some thoughts and moans:

-Some of the stalls (like the bratwurst bar) are cash only. In a time where Thorpe have been pushing going cashless for a couple of years, and Covid where card payments are strongly encouraged basically everywhere, I was surprised. 

 

-The stage doesn't have social distancing marked outside it yet. Performers who sing or play instruments should be at least 3m away from people during Covid I believe. It'll be interesting to see how that works...

 

-The area has a lot of benches and barrels now. I can see it being quite congested in busier days, which could be a social distancing nightmare.

 

-I found out from a staff member yesterday that most Thorpe food places are also doing German inspired food options. But nowhere is this said round the park.

 

-A lot of the ride audio is a bit meh in my opinion. And the announcements are caricature level German to the point it sounds more Austrian in my opinion. 

 

-The huge focus on yodelling too, which is a bit odd given yodelling isn't a big Oktoberfest thing. It's more a Swiss thing, but whatever.

 

All in all, the event has potential there. It's clearly been done very quickly, and is a knee jerk reaction to a lack of other events. It would be foolish to expect anything top notch from the word go. But equally, it isn't hitting the mark yet, and it's a bit of a shame it isn't really ready yet, and that they haven't got the stage performers daily (they do have roaming performers, but they're...not good). Hopefully it grows, hopefully they iron out the flaws and - in honesty - it would be nice if they continued it in future years and gave it a chance to properly develop. 

[StevenVig]

4 hours ago, JoshC. said:

-A lot of the ride audio is a bit meh in my opinion. And the announcements are caricature level German to the point it sounds more Austrian in my opinion.  

Apart from the fact that the person you hear is German lol

[JoshuaA]

On 9/9/2020 at 8:56 AM, JoshC. said:

-A lot of the ride audio is a bit meh in my opinion. And the announcements are caricature level German to the point it sounds more Austrian in my opinion. 

I have a lot of family in Austria, and I agree to an extent. Though honestly Bavarian Germany and most parts of Austria  have interlinked culture anyway. My uncle makes Lederhosen for example, and Oktoberfest and Beer Tents are huge where my family live and the accents aren't too drastically different either. It sounding Austrian is not bad at all IMO. Very minimal difference, most people really won't care. 

 

On 9/9/2020 at 8:56 AM, JoshC. said:

The huge focus on yodelling too, which is a bit odd given yodelling isn't a big Oktoberfest thing. It's more a Swiss thing, but whatever.

I agree with this. Yodelling isn't really something that I would consider big in Germany or Austria, I'm not sure what was going through their mind. 

Not bad, just strange.

 

On 9/9/2020 at 8:56 AM, JoshC. said:

All in all, the event has potential there. It's clearly been done very quickly, and is a knee jerk reaction to a lack of other events. It would be foolish to expect anything top notch from the word go. But equally, it isn't hitting the mark yet, and it's a bit of a shame it isn't really ready yet, and that they haven't got the stage performers daily (they do have roaming performers, but they're...not good). Hopefully it grows, hopefully they iron out the flaws and - in honesty - it would be nice if they continued it in future years and gave it a chance to properly develop. 

Agreed, I hope in future years the park brings it back and expands on it. I did enjoy it a bit more, but I do admit its anything but perfect. 

I think first thing would be to direct some actors with great improvisation skills. Look at the street at Tulleys, imagine if the roamers had things to say to you. What if you could have a funny and witty conversation with them? Right now they feel a little awkward, which probably is due to poor preparation or bad direction/lack of direction. I also would love some more food options. I hope they continue to do Markt Lebkuchenherzen (the ginger-bread hearts), it brought back memories seeing those. Expensive but worth it.