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SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA
Chicago, Illinois
Six Flags Theme Parks
 Park News - (11/12/2023) the parking lot at Six Flags Great America will be transformed into the glowing Arctic Adventure drive-through attraction this holiday season, from World of Illumination. Look for it to open from November 17th through to December 31st, 2023. Jump on over to the official website for all the details and where you can pre-purchase your admission timeslot.
(10/31/2023) The rocks may have been removed from The Demon at Six Flags Great America, but the classic Arrow coaster is up and running once again, and said to be runner better than ever. The removal of the rockwork have revealed a good look at the lit-up tunnel, and with all the red night lights set up for Fright Fest, its looking quite cool after dark. Check it out in the photos sent in below, along with a look at some other nearby attractions.
As for the future, an early rumor going around is that some other renovations, or possibly new theming, could be added to The Demon for next season. We can hope, but I’d wait to see if construction work begins before counting on that to happen just yet.
(10/23/2023) Six Flags Great America has now confirmed on their official website that October 28-29, 2023 they will be hosting “The Last Hangover” event at the park as a final way to say goodbye to two more attractions: Mardi Gras Hangover and Revolution.
There will be a special event for Legacy Members Only on Sunday the 29th with ERT on Mardi Gras Hangover from 11am to 12pm followed by a “spooktacular surprise” with the arrival of Love at First Fright cast members, Witchie and Frankie.
(10/16/2023) If you didn’t catch this image over the weekend on our FB page, then we’ve got some disappointing news from Six Flags Great America to share. From what I’ve been told The Demon has been closed for most of the season and in a post from Coaster101 we can now see that the park is now taking down the rockwork that was built up around the coaster’s first two vertical loops.
If this sounds familiar, then you may recall that the same thing was done to the California version of The Demon many years ago as the fake rock work started to decay. As you can probably imagine, it is likely that the more seismic environment in California may have led to the acceleration of the rockworks demise in that case. For the history buffs however, you may remember that The Demon did not start off named as such, but instead both coasters first opened under the name, “Turn of the Century” and only featured the two corkscrew inversions. About 4 years later the two vertical inversions were added to the layout and the coaster repainted and renamed The Demon, with the rock-work around those inversions added shortly afterwards.
While Six Flags really hasn’t commented at all about what is going on, I wouldn’t expect to see them rebuild the rockwork in their park right now. For those worried that the coaster may also be removed, I wouldn’t count on it, as it was pointed out online that they appear to be protecting the track from possible debris, and they wouldn’t be doing that if they were just going to remove it.
(10/10/2023) A reader sent in an image from the Halloween props at Six Flags Great America showing off two new empty coffins, which in theory would indicate new rides leaving the park. One is already filled out for Dare Devil Dive (1997 to 2023), while the other curiously has two sets of dates… 2004 - ____ and 2018 - ____, which would seem to indicate the removal of two attractions, or perhaps in this case, in memory of two attractions that shared the same site.
2018 is an easy one, as that was the year the park added the Mardi Gras Hangover, one in a series of Larson Super Loop style rides that were installed in rapid succession. The removal of the Hangover is also not surprising, as Six Flags has been removing several of these lately as they have proved to be troublesome on the maintenance side of things.
The other date fits perfectly with the ride that the Hangover replaced, which was King Chaos, a Huss Top Spin added to the park in 2004 and closed in August 2017. So consider this your final warning to get your last rides on the Mardi Gras Hangover… if it is running, because it appears to be destined for the great big scrap heap in the sky.
(7/22/2023) I really hate reporting stories like this, but when the fans of Six Flags Great America wonder why their park has been failing to secure major new attractions year-after-year, the behavior of your fellow guests is probably a big reason why. I can already hear the groaning across cyberspace, so I know you are wondering about what happened now, so let's get to it.
According to several news reports, three guests [aged 18 (m), 17 (f) and 14 (f)] were arrested after attacking a 19-year old ride operator on the actual loading platform of a roller coaster. This all went down back on July 8th at 9:50pm at night, when they say that the operator “accidentally bumped” into one of the guests. Things escalated quickly when the passenger and nearby friends “charged toward the ride operator, hitting and throwing objects at him.” The group quickly left the park after this, but were apprehended by police officers and taken into custody.
Next time you wonder why some parks are having such a tough time maintaining staffing levels, remember this. Of course fights breaking out at Six Flags Great America has become something of a regular occurance over the past few years, with six other teenagers being arrested for fighting just outside the park’s front gate back in late May.
(7/11/2023) Six Flags Great America has several fun event additions to the park this summer:
Flavors of the World Food Festival is now taking place on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 8pm through to July 30th in the Southwest Territory area of the park. Guests can sample dishes inspired by the cuisine from 11 different countries.
After dark, the park is also hosting “Neon Nights Nightly Summer Parade” Look for this to take place Thursdays through Monday nights, now through to August 6.
Fireworks - Look for fireworks to light the night sky on Saturday nights, now through August 12.
(6/4/2023) Here we go again!
According to a local news report a large fight between guests broke out at Six Flags Great America on Memorial Day (May 29th) near the front of the theme park. According to the report a police officer had to use pepper spray to break up the fight which resulted in the arrest of six teens along with minor injures reported to four police officers by the time it was all over.
(5/26/2023) The Sky Trek Tower at Six Flags Great America has been sitting closed since the pandemic started in 2020, but according to the local news, the theme park icon will finally reopen to guests tomorrow, May 27th. The 330 foot tall observation tower is the tallest free-standing structure in the county and opened at the park in 1977, the park’s second season. Local journalist and theme park ride fan Marcus Leshock was given a preview ride on the tower, and the opportunity to climb into the tower and onto the very tippy-top where the flag is. If you were ever curious what it looks like inside the Sky Trek Tower, then follow the link to see his video and photos.
2023 - Nothing is known or expected at this time...
2024 - Sky Striker - (8/30/2023) Six Flags Great America’s website has confirmed that Sky Striker is coming in 2024. As many predicted, this will be a new Zamperla Giant Discovery, a 172 foot tall spinning pendulum ride that will swing guests back and forth at speeds up to 75 mph.
(8/19/2023) The latest tweet from Six Flags Great America seems to indicate that the park’s Revolution ride (a Huss Frisbee if I’m not mistaken) may be leaving at the end of the season. The tweet also includes the #TakeToThe Skies2024 hashtag, and if the park is indeed adding a Zamperla Giant Discovery, it would make sense to remove Revolution as it offers a similar ridge experience, just in a much smaller size.
(8/18/2023) An interesting note has come in about the 2024 teaser set-up at Six Flags Great America. It was pointed out on Twitter that the “Day 172 on Strike” sign could be a reference to a Zamperla Giant Discovery ride, which just happens to be height of that ride model, and Six Flags has purchased a good number of them throughout the chain so far.
The lightning bolt in the middle of the word “Strike” also kind of struck me funny, as we know Six Flags like to us DC comic characters as themes for their rides, and this particular bolt brings the character of Shazam to mind immediately… along with the related Black Adam character.
(8/17/2023) So what’s going on at Six Flags Gream America? Now the entrance to the park’s Dare Devil Dive (Skycoaster) has been decorated and themed with new signs claiming that the Dare Devil is on Strike, “Day 172 On Strike” and the hashtag, #TakeToTheSkies2024.
(8/13/2023) Is Six Flags Great America adding something new for 2024? According to some posts on social media, the park has started to use the hashtag, #TakeToTheSkies2024 in various posts. No official announcements of course, and really not a solid teaser other than the hashtag, but it clearly seems to indicate something new is planned.
While the name could possibly be indicative of something tall like a Sky Screamer, it could also point to something like the Dare Devil Dive Flying Machines that were added to Six Flags Fiesta Texas during the pandemic. Stay tuned…
2024-2026 - Family Friendly Additions & Long Term Park Improvements - (7/9/2023) According to a few rumors that have been coming in over the past year, Six Flags HQ has a vision in place for Six Flags Great America, and it isn’t for a bunch of big new roller coasters. The goal is to make Six Flags Great America more family friendly, and to that goal the park could focus on adding new family friendly additions over the next 2 or 3 years, along with an assortment of clean-up and improvement projects.
For the past year we know the stated goal of the current Six Flags CEO is to go after the family demographic and be less reliant upon the thrill seeking teenage crowd. To that end we’ve seen higher prices hit many of the Six Flags parks, attempts to change out the food offerings, and in general, a desire to try to tap more into the same vein of visitors that Disney parks appeal to. At the same time, Six Flags Great America has been a park that has hit the news headlines for all the wrong reasons too often over the past few years, especially when fights and other guest behavioral problems cause chaos.
Despite the problems, the current build and attractions in the park should appeal to the demographics they now want easily, but in the theme park business your future guest’s attention is always focused on your latest projects. With that in mind, a project rumored to have been in the works to upgrade and retheme the park’s “Camp Cartoon” area may be the next big project. There is also talk of replacing the closed Buccaneer Battle and Go Karts area with other new projects, but at this time I’m unsure of in which order these ideas may be undertaken, so stay tuned.
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