The Singing Mushrooms Return for Kings Dominion's 40th!

The original display © Kings Dominion

It is not every day that you get to write a news item about singing mushrooms, so let's celebrate!  As part of their gigantic 40th anniversary celebration, Kings Dominion has announced that their famous singing mushrooms (and frog!) will return to the park next year.

“When Kings Dominion announced its 40th Celebration earlier this fall, the response was overwhelming that our guests wanted to see the popular Singing Mushrooms brought back,” said Kings Dominion’s Vice President and General Manager Pat Jones. “As an employee and fan of Kings Dominion since the 70’s, I am excited to see one of my personal favorites return to the park for a new generation of guests to enjoy.”

Study for one of the new characters © Kings Dominion

The famous mushrooms and frog were located at the park for a many years, and regularly performed barbershop quartet style songs in front of the park's sky ride station.  Kings Dominion has contracted with Garner Holt Productions to recreate the mushrooms and frog characters, and they will be better than ever when they reappear at the park.  According to the park's press release, "the new Singing Mushrooms will have more character to the figures with subtle additional functions not seen in the original animatronics."

Garner Holt was the company responsible for the figures in the recently refurbished Timber Mountain Log Ride at sister park Knott's Berry Farm, and have worked in virtually every theme park out there with animatronics.

© Kings Dominion

The characters will make a home in the newly rethemed Candy Apple Grove section of Kings Dominion, and work has already started (above).  Guests will be able to catch the group performance right across the midway from the Dodgem bumper cars.

So why write a big post about some mushrooms?  Well, because I still think it's terrific how much Kings Dominion is celebrating their 40th anniversary... and spending cash on small things like bringing back this display.  I can honestly say that I would never believe that this type of thing would have happened under old Cedar Fair management, a positive change in my book.

Kings Dominion has promised other surprises for the celebration to be revealed throughout the winter, so we still have more to look forward to!