Author: Chris Glass

It’s 2021. Right? Just checking. I think you can forgive us for losing complete track of time recently. In fact, it was just over a year ago that we covered the preview of the then-upcoming 2020 Boysenberry Festival, featuring some truly inspiring feasts. Then just a few short days later, everything came to a life-changing halt.It’s somewhat fitting that after a 3-month pandemic-led pause from festivals, the fifth and final Knott’s Berry Farm tasting festival is themed to the single event that gave them the experience and clout to run food festivals during the craziest times of our lives.I say…

Here we are, around two and hundred fifty days since most businesses have had to drastically modify how they operate, as we enter the final months of 2020, with a glimmer of hope that 2021 will be seeing the return of this industry to a more familiar structure. But until that happens, we’re going to be seeing each park play to their current set of strengths, and Knott’s seems to have found a reliable cadence with their tasting events. Following on the heels of their 100% sold-out Taste of Fall-o-ween experience, we’ve now entered the realm of the guy in…

Let’s have a sidebar for a second. In all my years writing for this site, I had established a pattern for the topic of the articles I’d end up writing. The longer it went on, the more focused it became. This year has thrown predictability out in the streets for a wild ride that I hope remains a once-in-a-lifetime situation. So it’s been a bit of a dry spell for me, with no Halloween events to cover, no refurb updates on Jurassic World, and not much going on outside of the parks, either. I’m not sure what the right balance…

It’s stated every year, like clockwork, but seeing how the Boysenberry Festival has grown is still an amazing sight to behold. For many years, the Fun Bun was heralded as the most amazing part of it, going unexpectedly viral for the genius combination of boysenberry glaze and a deep-friend cinnamon roll. We have now gone far beyond that single point of interest during this event, to the point where I can’t begin to cover everything that will be offered.Some opinions and facts will be stated in the coverage of the Boysenberry Festival Tasting Preview we were recently invited to, but…

This year is going to be a big one for Knott’s as they’re celebrating 100 years. That means extra attention for all of their events, extra spit and polish on everything, and they started it off right with a great presence in the Pasadena Tournament of Rose New Year’s Day Parade. This is the first seasonal event of their 100 Year Celebration (if you don’t count the final days of Knott’s Merry Farm at the beginning of the month, but let’s not get nit-picky here) and their third year honoring the little rugrats that are found around the park. Outside…

Christmas is an interesting time at theme parks in California. We want the same traditions year after year, but also new changes and replacements. It’s hard to choose what things you want to keep the most as every person has a different set of opinions of what needs to stay. I’ve learned that over the years. Every attraction is someone’s favorite thing in the world.Knott’s, if anything, is a park of roots and traditions; and their Merry Farm is a key part of that. The entire park is transformed and gets into the spirit of the season in ways that…

Has it really been a decade since the Queen Mary first started their Halloween event in 2009? Man, the time has flown by. We personally began visiting a few years after that, and it’s been interesting to see how the event has changed over the years, and what has stayed the same.The food offered has really broadened. I remember years ago where it was just regular carnival food with a spooky name. And now we have these colorful elotes that are really eye-catching. Much like Knott’s, Dark Harbor leans into its own history for the base story of the event,…

Two weeks have now elapsed since Knott’s kicked off the 2019 season of Scary Farm and it’s finally hitting its stride. The biggest gripe of reviewing Halloween events like this is that opening night can sometimes be the least accurate night of the event. As guests and performers react, the whole event shifts organically. The monsters finish warming up. The mazes work out kinks. The crowds start increasing. The weather gets less brutal. Suffice to say, even if I wasn’t reviewing this, I’d still be making multiple visits as I just have a blast every time I make my way…

Knott’s wasted no time last week during their annual Scary Farm Reveal event. While a small tease was given during Midsummer Scream’s panel a few weeks earlier, this was the whole shebang. Every maze, every show, every scare zone, was revealed in one fell swoop. These reveal events have become increasingly theatrical and engaging over the years. So not only was there an opening number for the entire event, but both of the new mazes also had a song and dance routine to go along with it. And they were well done. The amount of effort put into this spectacle…

Last year, Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor panel had a big surprise. Jon Cooke came out to reveal his company Plague Productions was coordinating with the event to bring their touch to all of the mazes for 2018. Suffice to say, it worked out fantastically well. Everyone I talked to during my multiple visits only had glowing things to say about the changes for 2018, and that was without a new maze introduced. And his presence on the stage this year also showed that he’ll be around for 2019 as well, which is good news. If you’ve already dug around to…