LISEBERG
Sweden
Park News - (10/20/2024) According to World Record Academy, Liseberg has set a new world’s record for featuring the highest average age of riders on a single roller coaster ride. Liseberg sent out the call to recruit adventurous seniors to break the record previously set by Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 2003 with an average age of 75.25 on that park’s Big Dipper coaster.
To Liseberg’s surprise, over 200 seniors from across Sweden signed up for the chance to take the record. The park loaded up a train on their Valkyria roller coaster, a B&M Dive Machine and currently Europe’s Longest Dive Coaster, and smashed the record with the average age of the riders clocking in at 80.1 years.
You gotta love it. I’ve said it before on Screamscape and I’ll say it again, you’re only as old as you feel! I love seeing stories like this, especially after nearly 26 years of writing Screamscape, I’m getting up there is the years myself. I’m no senior… not yet at least, but it lets me know that not only is there nothing wrong with getting out there and riding your favorite thrill rides into your golden years, it’s a clear sign of staying young at heart and active! So get out there and keep having fun!
(4/21/2024) Congratulations to Liseberg, as the Swedish theme park opened the other day to begin their 101st summer season! A celebration was held at the southern entrance with characters, balloons and 4000 pairs of rabbit ears handed out to young children. At noon the gates opened and guests were led down a pink carpet under balloon arches and “a sea of soap bubbles” into the park.
From here the park sett out to achieve a new world record of sorts for hosting the ‘World’s Largest Bunny Disco” led by their rabbit characters and around 1000 children and adults invited to dance along with them.
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 2025 - Kraftverket - (11/22/2024) Blooloop reports that Liseberg will open a new family thrill attraction in 2025 called Kraftverket, which translates to ‘the power house’, which will be located beneath the park’s Valkyria dive coaster. The ride itself will be one of the new Break Dance 5 flat rides from Huss Park Attractions, who just unveiled the prototype for this newly version of the Break Dance concept at the Prater (Vienna) a few months ago.
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Late 2026 to Early 2027 - Oceana Indoor Waterpark - (12/15/2024) Liseberg has posted some new concept images this week showing off their newly revised plan to finish and open the Oceana indoor waterpark project that tragically caught on fire in early 2024, just months ahead of a planned grand opening.
Liseberg reports that the demolition work to clear the existing structure from the damage caused by the fire is now complete, making the site ready to proceed with the new construction plan to complete the Oceana waterpark. In general the goal will be to complete the attraction based on the original plans, there have been some modifications and changes made, including an investment, “in new technology for the slides, to make them more fire retardant. We are also using this as an opportunity to opt for a lighter colour for the attraction tower, to ensure it fits in better with the surrounding cityscape,” according to Liseberg’s CEO, Andreas Andersen.
The work to rebuild and open the project is expected to take about 2 years, so look for it to be complete as early as the end of 2026.
(7/21/2024) Liseberg has confirmed that they will indeed rebuild the new Oceana water park after suffering a devastating fire at the project site earlier this year, just as they were coming close to finishing it. The board of directors for Liseberg has now officially made their “formal decision” to rebuild the project, with construction work set to resume this fall, with a new completion date of 2026.
Since the fire, the needed areas of the site that were damaged have been cleared so that experts could determine if the damaged parts of Oceana build were salvageable or if they would have to clear it all and start fresh.
(4/4/2024) A new report issued by Liseberg has now estimated the damage caused by the fire to the Oceana waterpark project is be at least SEK 484 million, or $45.41 million US dollars. Overall the physical damage to the waterpark has been determined to be less than originally feared, as certain areas of the waterpark remained entirely untouched by the fire. The three main aspects that will need to be addressed include the building of “a new attraction tower, a new roof structure and new rides.”
(2/17/2024) According to various news reports the burnt remains of a human body were found inside Liseberg’s Oceana water park that caught on fire earlier this week. A missing worker was reported immediately as the fire raged on, burning for up to three days while contained within the structure, but the ongoing fire and fears over the structural safety of the structure prevented a thorough search until Friday.
According to a new Press Release from the park as of today (Feb. 17th) Liserberg’s board did meet on Friday to discuss their future plans for Oceana. It was decided during the meeting that Liseberg will “initiate the process for the reconstruction of Oceana.”
(2/14/2024) According to the press conference from Liseberg, the fire in the Oceana waterpark construction site appears to have started off with a “fire gas explosion”, which I believe was caught on video yesterday. It then quickly spread through much of the waterpark causing extensive damage. Due to the flames and fear of possible collapse in some locations, rescue workers have not been able to location the one missing employee at this time.
While they have stopped the spread and contained the fire, it does not sound as if the fire has been extinguished, and may still be slowing burning within the structure. Even so, Liseberg did say that the emergency response teams efforts have managed to save large parts of the building from the flames.
As for the future of the project, Liseberg simply says that they do not know at this time. Their efforts are entirely focused on taking care of all the people affected by the fire, and not upon determining the financial impact or the cost of the damage done.
(2/13/2024) Very sad news came out about Liseberg on Monday morning as it was reported that a major fire had broken out within their new indoor waterpark, Oceana, while still under construction. The indoor waterpark was expected to open this Summer, but just taking a quick look at the video below shows an early scene when it appears that the fire was mainly inside the structure, only to explode out with great force, eventually engulfing most of the park’s outdoor fiberglass waterslide sections as well, which you can see in a video posted by the BBC.
According to a statement from the theme park, the fire has “resulted in total destruction of the building.” 16 people were said to have been sent to a hospital for treatment for minor injuries and all were released later in the day. Unfortunately Liseberg has also reported one man is still missing who was thought to be working inside the project.
The cause of the fire is said to still be unknown at this time, and Liseberg will arrange a press conference on Tuesday morning at 11am to discuss the situation further.
(2/12/2024) The waterpark erupted into explosive flames on the morning of Feb. 12, 2024, delaying the project indefinately.
(2/5/2024) A quick construction update from Liseberg showing off their new Oceana water park project can be seen below. According to the post, this is showing off the moment when the last waterslide piece was being set into place.
(1/17/2024) Liseberg has broken out the hoses and turned the water on to begin filling the various pools at their new Oceana Water World indoor waterpark. According to the report, it is predicted to take about four straight days to fill up the entire waterpark. The project has been under construction since late 2020, so after 3+ years of work, I’m sure everyone is very excited to see the project nearing completion. Look for Liseberg Oceana Water World to open at the start of Summer 2024.
(12/22/21) Liseberg reconfirmed that their plans to open the indoor Oceana Water World is still on track for 2024.
(11/16/20) According to a post on Twitter from ECC, the new indoor waterpark coming to Liseberg will be named Oceana. According to the last information we heard back in July, the plan was to open the indoor waterpark at some point after the Grand Curiosa Hotel opened in 2023, so likely in 2024 at the earliest. You can see some of the concept art in the tweet below.
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