Holiday World is preparing to open this Saturday and Sunday as part of their season opening weekends only. Splashin’ Safari opens for the year next Saturday, May 16th. Director of Sales for the world’s first theme park, Al Keller dropped by the Carmi Kiwanis Club Thursday to give a brief history and preview what to expect this year.
The park, originally began as Santa Claus Land in the 1940’s.
Santa Claus Land is what we started as and that was way back in 1946. You’ll see some of the pictures from the original park. A lot of the buildings and original attractions are still there today. The park was started by Mr. Louis J. Koch. It was a retirement project for him. He always loved family get togethers and holidays so it was perfect for him to invest. We are the nation’s first theme park. We’ve been around longer than Disney or Disney World. We’ve got a long, long history. So if you do the math, that means this year, we’re celebrating our 80th anniversary.
In his role, Keller says his main responsibility is working with schools, corporations, and groups of all sizes to bring guests to the park. That can look like a company picnic, pizza parties for smaller groups, regular group admissions, and more.
Some of the events planned for the season include hosting the world’s largest rubber duck at the park June 8th – 21st. Holidays in the Sky features a 150 unit drone show and pyrotechnics June 20th – August 3rd. Friday Night Live evenings are August 21st – October 30th. Summer Wine’d Down runs August 4th – September 12th. Keller describes it as a culinary event. Happy Halloween weekends run late September through October which feature dinosaurs, a corn maze, and more. Keller also says fans will learn about a big announcement coming in June. A new attraction coming in 2027 will replace one of the most popular closed attractions, Raging Rapids.
The park employs about 110 year round employees and then during the season about 2,000 temporary workers to keep the park humming.
Learn more or book your trip by visiting https://holidayworld.com.
Also featured at Kiwanis Thursday, 4th Quarter MVB (Most Valuable Bulldogs) from Jefferson Attendance Center were recognized for great attendance, attitudes and making good decisions. They include: Kesler Brown, Lyrics Weber-Hunsinger, River Emery, Tucker Bayley, Addison Williams, and Oaklynn Emery.