For #ThrowbackThursday here's me climbing a tree with my younger brother below and my mum engaged in sensible adult behaviour with a rhinoceros sculpture in Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight, probably somewhere around 1980.
Blackgang Chine is the oldest amusement park in the UK and literally every child who was raised in Hampshire in the 20th century has been there, I guarantee it.
It’s been called the “art event of the year.” You may have heard of Luna Luna, the amusement park staged in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987, where nearly 30 artists, including Basquiat, Hockney and Dalí, designed the rides. Well now, thanks to funding by Drake, it’s been re-created in a Los Angeles warehouse. However, it’s pricey to get in and you can’t really interact with the rides. Time Out has a good peek inside.
The St. Louis Carousel (Louis Carousel) built in 1920 and installed in Highland Amusement Park in Forest Park (St. Louis) in 1929. When the amusement park burned down the carousel was the only thing remaining. It was donated to St Louis County in 1963 and installed in Faust Park (Chesterfield, MO) in 1987. Currently it is 102+ years old but fully restored and functional. My daughter and her friend rode it today.
A roller coaster in North Carolina advertised as “the tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America” shuts down to repair a cracked support beam. Read how a man who says he is “not an engineer” spotted the problem, and watch a terrifying video of the beam shifting out of place.