Hard Rock Park: Where to learn about the saga
The saga of Hard Rock Park has intrigued professionals and enthusiasts alike for over a decade now. How exactly do you build such a unique, ultra-cool theme park and watch it bite the dust within a few months? The park soft-opened April 15, 2008. Five months later it was out of business, only to be resurrected as Freestyle Music Park the following season. That lasted no longer than the first go-round, then everything was locked up and began rusting away for years.
There were three primary sources of information to help put together the park’s story for the book:
The Park That Rock Built, a book published by the park and sold in their shops the first year. It contains concept art, construction photos, and photography showing the various lands in the park after completion. It also provides some background as to how the original concept evolved into its final theme.
Episode #243: The John Binkowski Interview, The Season Pass Podcast
Jon Binkowski Themed Entertainment Association 2017 presentation. It takes guts to step out on stage in front of all these professionals in your own field and explain why your big project was the biggest failure in recent memory. Good for him, though. It was a terrific concept and we can all learn from the stories.
Theme Park University series on Hard Rock Park. Josh went deep for this one, with several articles describing the park’s design, history, planned expansion, and what went wrong. Lots of photos and concept art as well. UPDATE: The TPU website has since shut down…sorry for the tease…).
Here is a park map, merchandise, and photos from my visit to the long-closed park.
