Busch Gardens to Open Sesame

Friday August 15, 2008

Everything's going to be A-OK next season at Busch Gardens Europe when the Williamsburg, Virginia park opens a new Sesame Street land. Among the attractions will be a 4-D movie, "Sesame Street presents Lights, Camera, Imagination!" featuring Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and other stars of the popular PBS program. The land will also include a junior roller coaster, a mini log flume, and an interactive play area with wet and dry elements. Life-size Sesame Street characters will roam the area, perform in a stage show, and greet families at a themed restaurant. It's a safe bet cookies will be on the menu. I've always been fascinated that a company best known for making beer is also in the family-friendly theme park business. The Budweiser Clydesdales and Elmo make for strange bedfellows, don't they? Now that Belgium-based InBev will be brewing The Great American Larger, and reportedly casting off the theme park division, the incongruity of mixing beer with Fozzie Bear will likely disappear.