Closed For Storm

Some of you may be interested in checking out "Closed For Storm". It is a documentary currently streaming that focuses on the rise and fall of Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans...and the impact of Hurricane Katrina. There is a lot of interesting footage. Some of the interviewees also add some insight...particularly those who are on proposal teams for possible projects on the property.

I will note that they do take some care to make clear that the loss of that park, in light of the major suffering in New Orleans, should be kept in perspective. But, the fact that the park's location is such that a portion of New Orleans is still suffering due to the blight is worthy of consideration.

In any event, I thought some of you may be interested in the topic if you have some time over the holidays.

It's on Amazon, by the way.

Also, someone built this gaudy thing to remember the park.

That's ... almost cool, but also looks like an invitation for a teenager to fall from 40' up trying to climb into that seat.

I agree that it is kind of interesting. What's weird about the New Orleans park is that it is so reverently remembered by some. It was open for a little longer than 5 years, wasn't highly thought of or well attended, and may not have survived much longer without the hurricane. I know the way it eventually went down and the visual impact of its demise and current status contribute to the notoriety. Maybe watching the documentary would help give me a better perspective.

Yeah, it's funny how the demise of something can make it legendary given enough time, regardless of whether or not they were revered during their existence (celebrity is very much the same). I don't seem to remember there being a particularly overwhelming fondness for the park.

or Drachen Fyre.

I had the same thought. If all those people who say they went to Geauga Lake as often as they say, Geauga Lake (or SFWoA) would still be there.

I liked Drachen Fire.SOB, one of the worlds worst roller coasters of all time, gets fondly remembered by some.I'll check out this doc soon. Thanks for the heads up.

I just watched this. It was “ok” in my opinion. The scene with the Six Flags uniforms still in their plastic packaging some 15 years later was neat.

In late June 2020, my stepson and I were in New Orleans for our first and only time. We went out to the park hoping to do some “urban exploring.” It was late morning. We found a path on the backside (opposite the parking lot) and were just out of our car when some “homeless looking” guy drove up in a beat up windowless sedan straight out of a zombie movie set. That guy started dropping “F-bombs”…threatened to “kill” us…etc.

Needless to say we didn’t get any close-up views of anything from inside the fence line…as we high-footed it out of there.

I still don’t know what the hell happened. There is NO WAY that vehicle and that guy were “official” security. It appears that…at least on this one particular day…there was some sort of “homeless” encampment inside the park…complete with their own security patrol, etc.

I was hoping the documentary would shed some light on the people “living” inside the park…but nothing of the sort was alluded to…

Someone needs to do a horror film on that site before they tear it down. It is a sad…yet so uniquely fascinating setting.

Questionably Placed "Quotation Marks"

Aamilj said:

Someone needs to do a horror film on that site before they tear it down. It is a sad…yet so uniquely fascinating setting.

Jurassic World shot there. Not horror but close?

I remember my visit thinking it reminded me a lot of Fiesta Texas. Smaller layout, but with lots of color and theme. I'm pretty sure I was impressed by the employee friendliness too.

Ride collection left a lot to be desired, but I remember it being an overall positive experience.

Also, the Percy Jackson movie had a scene filmed inside the structure of Megazeph. Not horror, but it was a starkly lit night scene that IIRC had a threatening aura. I don't really remember the movie, it was a kids movie.

I had forgotten the park was originally ‘Jazzland’ when it opened and wasn’t a Six Flags at first.

I watched it. There's a lot of disaster porn, but it's a little thin on storytelling. There's certainly more to tell about Six Flags at the time.

FWIW, I just saw another scene shot in SFNO.

"Your Honor" a Showtime show which aired it's first episode in 12/2020 had a scene in Episode 6 where 2 characters sneak into the park on a date. They are filmed climbing a fence (which could be the real fence or a setpiece, IDK) and sitting in a random ride vehicle with Megazeph as the backdrop.

I just watched the movie and thought it was well made, and very interesting. How about the Indiana Beach guy buy it up and reopen the park.

I bailed about twenty minutes into the movie. I couldn't stay focused on it. It would have done better as a half-hour, more tightly cut documentary.

Goonch79 said:

How about the Indiana Beach guy buy it up and reopen the park.

Indiana Beach guy has his hands full right now, between IB itself, Clementon (any progress there? not that I've heard) and the former Fantasy Island in upstate New York, which just became worth a visit:

https://triblive.com/local/kennywoods-laser-loop-returns-to-u-s-at-...ment-park/

The parks that Indiana Beach guy is working on have at least operated in the last 3 years. The New Orleans park was left for dead 16 years ago and was barely viable before that. As I said earlier in the thread, given the state of Six Flags and what they were doing down the road in Houston at the time the hurricane hit, I don't know that the park would have been around much longer.