Valleyfair, sometimes stylized Valleyfair! is a 90 acre (0.5 km²) amusement park located in Shakopee, Minnesota, USA and is currently the largest amusement park in the Upper Midwest United States. It has over 75 rides and currently operates 8 roller coasters, one of the most popular being Wild Thing. Valleyfair also has a water park, Soak City (Formerly Whitewater Country - Changed with Addition of Breaker Bay in 2009), located completely within it.
Valleyfair opened in 1976 and was originally themed as a Coney Island-styled turn-of-the-century amusement park, which leads to some jarring contrasts with modern-style rides like the steel roller coasters Corkscrew and Wild Thing.
The park is owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. Valleyfair and Cedar Point are the two original Cedar Fair parks and the Fair in the Cedar Fair name comes from Valleyfair.
Valleyfair’s normal operating season runs daily from Memorial Day through Labor Day and some weekends in May and September. There is also a "ValleySCARE" event near Halloween.
Valleyfair! opened in 1976 featuring 20 rides and attractions on 26 acres (110,000 m2), with the roller coaster High Roller being the main attraction. The carousel in the park came from Excelsior Amusement Park which was closed many years earlier. It is the oldest ride in the park. In 1978 in an effort to increase investment capital for continued park expansion, Valleyfair was acquired by Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and placed under the management of Cedar Fair Limited Partnership. The park continues to grow every year with new rides and attractions. Since 1976, Valleyfair has invested over $96 million into the park, and today the park has over 75 rides on 125 acres (0.51 km2) of land. A height restriction was imposed in the year 2001 with the building of Power Tower. After negotiations with the FAA and the nearby Flying Cloud Airport, the FAA restricted the building height of Power Tower at 275 feet (84 m) due to its proximity to the airport. Power Tower's original plan was to be a height of 300 feet (91 m) and to take riders to 275 feet (84 m).
Although not as well-known a "coaster park" as some other parks like Cedar Point, Valleyfair does have many popular coasters and is known widely for them.
Challenge Park is located on the southeast corner of the amusement park. Challenge Park is a separate charge attraction and requires an additional fee to participate in activities. Challenge Park features four different attractions: RipCord, Adventure Golf, Go-Karts and Bumper Boats. RipCord is a Skycoaster where 1-3 individuals are harnessed, raised to a height of 161 feet (49 m), and one of the riders must pull their own cord to release them to a swinging freefall. The Adventure Golf is semi-mountain themed with a waterfall and ponds, making a rather picturesque entrance to the park. The go karts travel beneath the figure-eight of the park's hyper-coaster, Wild Thing.
Soak City is a water park located within Valleyfair. It is a no-additional-charge attraction open to all Valleyfair visitors. It includes five high speed, single-person water slides, a lazy river, a fast single person rapids ride, a large family raft ride, and a children's area. In 2009, Breakers Bay, a large 350,000 gallon wave pool was added in addition to a new bathhouse, restaurant, and cabanas.
Valleyfair hosts several performance venues with a wide variety of live entertainment at no additional charge.
During the Halloween Haunt at Valleyscare, The Galaxy usually presents a kids magic show during the day anda more adult, horror magic show at night.
At the Halloween Haunt, The Boogie Monsters take over the Kidworks Stage, performing Halloween and spooky-themed songs for the trick-or-treaters on the nearby Trick-or-Treat Trail
ValleySCARE is a Halloween event put on by Valleyfair starting in 2006. Originally, Valleyfair operated Halloweekends until 2000 and changed the name after it reinstated the event with more theming and haunted areas. The first event featured 3 indoor haunted houses, one indoor/outdoor haunted house, and one scare zone. The following year (2007) the haunt expanded with one more scare zone. In 2008, the haunt expanded once again with the addition of Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed, a brand new maze located in the 2nd game warehouse behind Cool & Creamy. Along with Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed, Hellside Farm received a major upgrade, and Chateau Du Damne received a new ending.
For the 2009 season, there are no new haunted attractions being added. However, a few live shows will be added to the Live-Entertainment lineup including the live show "Fangs" that originated from 'Knott's Berry Farm' in 'California', a new "Gory Comedian", as well as a spookified band. "Hellside Farm" has also been relocated due to the recent construction of "Breakers Bay".
Here is a list of the Haunted Attractions found at the Halloween Haunt at Valleyscare.
Come experience first-hand the many rooms of this nightmarish renaissance castle including the Baron’s throne room, the Baroness’ reception area and finally her “bedroom”. If you survive the visit, you’ll make your way outside to the fabled gardens. The Baron hopes you partake in the delights of his fauna. From there the gardens exit to the entrance of the Chateau’s graveyard and mausoleum where you can meet other visitors who never left. If you’re lucky, perhaps you may leave to live another day. If not, the Chateau always has room for more.
Plenty of shrilling laughter will be heard as they entice you to be part of their world under the Big Top Tent, but beware, you may never exit the world of the killer clowns! CarnEvil is a 3D attraction.
With lack of funds and Dr. Mangler’s mysterious passing in the 1970’s, the asylum staff abandoned the facility, leaving the building and grounds unsupervised. Most patients died of a slow miserable death, but some still linger living off the decaying corpses of the dead. The doors of this evil place will now unseal. Guests will be invited within the bloody asylum walls, which house a collection of living fears and phobias waiting to wreak havoc on innocent souls. They could venture, if they dare, into the unholy depths of the building where Dr. Mangler conducted his most bizarre experiments...that is, IF THEY MAKE IT.
Valleyfair unknowingly constructed on the abandoned cemetery and has operated ever since. One night as the fog thickens, the dead rise looking for souls to take in order to enter the great beyond.
Valleyfair is the only Cedar Fair park (outside of Gilroy Gardens, which is only managed by Cedar Fair) not to feature either the Peanuts characters or, in the case of the former Paramount Parks, Nickelodeon characters, which instead have or are have been associated with the center court amusement park space in Bloomington's Mall of America as Camp Snoopy in the past, and the current Nickelodeon Universe. Instead, Valleyfair has in the past featured characters such as the Berenstain Bears and the Pink Panther, and actually has a mascot of its own - Colonel Oohmpapa, who can be seen wandering the park during its general operating hours.