Throughout history, humans have always craved a sense of thrill and an affinity for different forms of entertainment and attraction at all different scales and sizes. Theme parks have continuously evolved, as society redefines what it means to be entertained, and have transformed from evening strolls into physics-defying twists and turns on state-of-the-art rollercoasters.
Long before what we know them to be today, the theme park concept emerged in Europe during the Renaissance era. Taking on the form of themed festivals usually timed around religious holidays and seasonal harvests, crowds gathered in public squares to share food, marvel at foreign objects, participate in games such as javelin throwing and archery, and of course, watch knights joust. Towards the 18th century, pleasure gardens replaced these historic fairs as a way to entertain the middle class. These gardens featured heavily designed parks where guests could walk around, listen to live music, watch dancers and acrobats perform, and finish the evening with extravagant firework shows. They quickly evolved into socialite events where people would show off their fanciest clothes and where artists and architects would exhibit their newest work. These pleasure gardens jumped across the pond and caught on in New York City, which soon added small rides to these events, including the first carousel in North America.
Eventually, the pleasure garden concept declined in popularity and the rise of the types of theme parks that closely align with what we are familiar with today began to spring up across the United States. Many of the American trolley car systems that operated during the late 1800s paid a flat fee for electricity each month. To generate extra revenue outside of peak hours, they built small parks with rides, lounge areas, and casual games so that people would ride trolleys outside of commuting hours and on the weekends. Coney Island, located in New York City, is one of the most famous amusement parks and sprung up as a result of a trolley company’s need to entice additional riders.
The amusement park industry skyrocketed into the early 1900s, and by the rise of industrialization, there were hundreds of theme parks around the world. Ride engineers were only limited by whatever their imaginations could dream up, building rollercoasters that were taller, faster, and longer than ever. At the same time, parks were heavily designed environments, with architects creating worlds that were often times targeted to entice a certain demographic.
When Disneyland, dubbed “The Happiest Place on Earth” opened in the 1950s, it was the first park centered around a specific theme. Divided into Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland, the park was designed around the founding ideals of American city planning. The “city of tomorrow” was a combination of an homage to cities of the past with elements of futurism that represented what the world could be, featuring large pedestrian walkways and fantastical people movers, motorized by highly-innovative technology at the time. Disneyland featured a touch of familiarity while transporting guests to a place that they had never been before. Guests can fly with Peter Pan, be transported to Snow White’s world, and experience the magic of Dumbo.
Disney’s parks also displayed designs from some of the world’s most famous architects of the time. Michael Graves constructed the Dolphin and Swan Hotels, which embodied the “entertainment architecture” ideology. The entire complex emphasizes the spirit of Disney without featuring any characters and became known for its bold, sculptural uniqueness. Spaceship Earth at EPCOT is essentially Bucky Fuller’s brainchild, heavily resembling his geodesic dome structures. Disney of the modern era aims to bring guests into fake worlds, recreating movie scenes and sets to allow people to play the roles themselves, transforming into a Jedi knight from Star Wars or a wizard at Hogwarts.
In the present day, while most theme parks still offer a sense of escapism, their designs and planning methods are much less heavy-handed, as they now focus on rides and as the main experience and draw for guests. Instead of a new urban fabric that offers an alternate universe, the thrill is derived from the pit in our stomachs as the rollercoasters inch up the hill with metal gears clinking underneath, and the ability to say that we braved the world's tallest drop, fastest loop, or longest corkscrew in the world. As technology advances, it's likely that we'll once again be submerged into alternate worlds with a digital twist.
