According to a recent post on Screamscape, ” the choice may have been made by the owners of [Freestyle Music Park] to finally give up on reopening the park and put all the park’s rides up for sale.”
The park, which opened in Myrtle Beach, SC in 2008 as Hard Rock Park, operated for just 162 Days under the Hard Rock brand before it closed due to financial trouble. The park reopened under new management in 2009 as Freestyle Music Park, and again only lasted one season before closing it’s gates for good.
There has been much written about the rise and demise of Hard Rock Park, particularly in this series by Josh Young of Theme Park University.
I visited the park under both the Hard Rock and Freestyle brands, and there were several rides that were unique to the small Myrtle Beach Theme Park that could have “held their own” with many other attractions across the country.
Led Zeppelin: The Ride/The Time Machine
Time Machine (Led Zeppelin: The Ride)
This Bolliger and Mabillard steel sit-down roller coaster still towers high above George Bishop Parkway on the park’s north side. Featuring a 150′ first drop, and six inversions, including a 120′ high loop, and a 75′ tall zero-G roll over the park’s central lake, Led Zeppelin: The Ride was Hard Rock Park’s largest roller coaster when the park opened. Featuring input from the living members of Led Zeppelin, the coaster, whose station is housed in a Zeppelin-shaped enclosure, was designed so that the band’s hit song, Whole Lotta Love, could be heard in its duration throughout the coaster’s preshow, and ride itself.
When the park changed hands in 2009, the roller coaster was renamed the Time Machine, and featured 5 separate soundtracks, each one a separate hodgepodge of songs, from the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s, respectively. The zeppelin station and zeppelin shaped coaster cars remained, albeit with a new paint job.
There is a rumor circulating that the Time Machine may be making its way to Kentucky China in the near future. We’ll be sure to keep you updated.
Maximum RPM!/Round About
Maximum RPM/Round About’s “Ferris Wheel Lift Hill”
This coaster is truly one-of-a-kind. Premier Rides’ creation was (and still is) the only “Ferris Wheel Lift” roller coaster in existence. Riders would get into coaster cars that resembled Mini Coopers, and would be pushed forward into the bottom of the Ferris Wheel, and they would ride clockwise to the top, before heading over the crest of the first drop. It was a relatively short ride experience, and was synced up to a number of 80’s hits – “I Ran” by A Flock of Seagulls, and “Cars” by Gary Numan, to name a few. It had it’s fair share of mechanical issues before it opened and other problems (ahem, lawsuit!), but its Ferris Wheel lift still has not been replicated to this day.
Nights in White Satin: The Trip/The Monstars of Rock
Nights in White Satin Entrance © About Theme Parks
I don’t think that there has ever been a case of a ride being so critically acclaimed one year, and turning into perhaps the biggest joke of a theme park attraction of all time over the course of one offseason. Nights in White Satin: The Trip took you on a 4:45 “trip” on over just 700 feet of track. The Sally Corporation, known for their dark rides, received rave reviews for Nights in White Satin, named after the Moody Blues song of the same name.
“…it is a mind-bending journey that weaves between reality and illusion.” – Paul Ruben, Park World Magazine
“Hard Rock Park and Sally Corporation have done a masterful job creating an immersive, dream-like soundscape that brings the song to life. With its eye popping visuals and stunning effects, Nights in White Satin: The Trip is near Disney quality…and quite trippy.” – Arthur Levine, About.com Theme Parks
Sally Corp. still has video of this ride on their website today.
Under Freestyle Music Park management, the license with the Moody Blues was lost, and the ride was stripped down to bare bones, with little more than cardboard cutouts replacing the psychedelic imagery found in Nights in White Satin. This left the “new” ride, The Monstars of Rock a shell of its former self.
Did you ever visit Hard Rock Park or Freestyle Music park? What did you think? Leave your comments below.
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