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Focus: Coney Island Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
This summer, like every summer since 1985, Friday nights are rockin’ and hoppin’ at Coney Island Park in Cincinnati during the park’s “Hot Wax Hops” series of oldies dances, held under the stars in the historic Moonlite Gardens.
The concept is simple enough: The park books oldies bands to play and buys promotional services (advertising and a DJ to serve as host) from the local oldies radio station. Throw in a full bar, frozen drinks, party-time munchies like pizza, nachos, and brats (bratwurst; a Cincinnati favorite), and dancing under the stars, and you have all the makings of a great Friday night.
The payoff is substantial. The park generates income from a facility that otherwise is little in demand on Friday nights, says Mary Schumacher, the vice president of sales and marketing for Coney Island Park.
Moonlite Gardens is a concert venue that dates back to the park’s heyday in the 1920s. “The big bands used to broadcast from here,” Schumacher says. “In the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s all the big bands played here.”
Back then, Coney Island Park was the Cincinnati amusement park, and Moonlite Gardens was attached to a companion building that enabled it to accommodate 7,000 guests. Then, the owners of Coney Island Park, weary of dealing with floods, built Kings Island just north of the city. They took out the rides and removed some older buildings, including the companion building to Moonlite Gardens.
From 1972 to 1984, Coney Island Park offered little more than picnicking and swimming. Moonlite Gardens was converted to a facility that could be rented for wedding receptions, private parties and corporate events.
The park started making a comeback in 1984, and it hit upon the idea of Hot Wax Hops the next year. “We were looking for other ways to use the building, Schumacher says. “We were using it for wedding receptions, dinner parties, fund-raisers, that sort of event, which usually take place on Saturday nights. The dances became a secondary way to generate revenue.”
At the start, the park booked bands that played music from the ’50s and ’60s. That has changed over the years, Schumacher says. “A lot of the bands have expanded their play lists. The older we get, the older they get, and a lot of them have moved to the ’70s.”
The park charges $7 at the door starting at 7 p.m. The radio disc jockey plays records for an hour and then the band plays from 8 to midnight. “The DJ acts as the host for the evening,” Schumacher says. “We hold dance contests and we have a lot of give-aways throughout the evening.
“Our dance floor doesn’t have a roof, and the people like that. It’s neat to dance under the stars. It’s just a very casual outdoor evening.” If it rains, the facility is big enough to move everything inside.
The typical dance draws 1,500 to 2,000, Schumacher says, and this is an important component to the program’s success. “We know of a lot of people who have tried to do it over the years and it did not work as well,” she says. “You have to be able to accommodate large crowds. A lot of smaller venues want to try it when they can only fit 300 to 400 in their hall. I’ve had restaurants call me about doing it, especially restaurants that have a private banquet room. They see it as a way to put the room to use.
“But if you can only handle 300 people, by the time you pay the band and pay for the media, there’s not a lot left for you. If you have to provide lights and sound, as we do, you have to be able to recover your costs. The reason it works for us is it draws. . . enough people for us to cover our costs and still make some money on the event.”
These days, Coney Island Park includes Hot Wax Hops as part of its “Garden Parties” calendar of events (named after the Moonlite Gardens, where they are all held). “We offer blues, we have jazz; if there are small acts coming through town the promoter will use the facility and we will include it. We had been doing it for so long that we had to offer something different for the audience, and the name Hot Wax Hops was too narrow for what we do.” Coming up with a overall name for the entire series makes it easier to market, Schumacher says.
This is the eighteenth year the park has sponsored the dances. They started out with 10 during the summer, Schumacher says. “Along the way we dropped to six, and now we’re back up to eight or nine because all of a sudden the demand for it started getting bigger. It waned a bit in the mid-1990s, but then it started picking up again.
“It’s not one of the major things we do. It’s just that we’re a laid-back, old-fashioned park. We don’t have a lot of high-tech rides, so we try to do a lot of events that cover a wide age bracket.”
—Frank Elliott
© Copyright 2003 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. All rights reserved under copyright. Use of any content contained herein prohibited without the expressed consent of the publisher.