The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 101

F5 MAY 12, 1991 Hershey coaster turns world upside down THK MORNING CA1 I By RANDY KRAFT Travel Writer HERSHEY If you love roller coasters, but think going upside down on one is an unnatural act, Hersheypark's new Sidewinder definitely is not for you. Riding this tightly coiled steel snake is a totally disorienting experience. When you open your eyes and the sky is where the ground is supposed to be, you know you're in big trouble. For those who wonder why they ever made the mistake of getting on board, the best that can be said is the ride is mercifully short. Riders go upside down six times in 90 seconds forward through three loops, a brief pause to catch their breath (or stomach) then backward through the same loops.

Sidewinder makes absolutely no claims to fame. It's not the highest or fastest coaster and doesn't have the most loops. Yet park officials expect thrill-seekers will be waiting in line for up to two hours to get on the ride. Officials also indicated getting involved in a race to produce the biggest or fastest roller coaster is not a priority for Hersheypark although they said larger coasters are on the way. "You're only the biggest and best till someone else can put one in," said park manager Jack Silar.

"Biggest isn't always the best," said HERCO board chairman J. Bruce McKin-ney. "You've got to be unique too." But Sidewinder is not a one-of-a-kind roller coaster. Sea Serpent on Mariner's Landing amusement pier in Wildwood, N.J., is identical, according to Silar. He said 11 or 12 coasters like it are in the United States.

However, park officials said Sidewinder is the only coaster of its type in Pennsylvania. The $4.2 million coaster has 876 feet of track and its top speed is 45 mph. The new ride can be seen on the horizon as guests approach Hersheypark, but it doesn't look like a roller coaster just a narrow, black, inverted stuck 115 feet into the sky. Sidewinder's red and yellow train leaves the station backwards, slowly climbing one leg of the which is steeper than it looks from the ground. Near the top, the train stops a moment, then is released back down the breathtaking hill.

After it shoots forward, back through the station, and immediately climbs into the first loop, everything becomes a spinning blur. The train snaps through three consecutive loops, then goes up another hill the other leg of the At the top, it pauses, then drops again repeating the course backwards. When introducing Sidewinder to the media earlier this month, McKinney claimed: "It's the most thrilling 90 seconds you'll ever experience. I say 'you' because I don't intend to get on it." "Going backwards does get to you a little bit," admitted one park staffer who already had been on the coaster. "I wasn't right for two hours afterwards." One of the first female riders coming off Sidewinder pronounced the experience: "A little nauseating, but not as bad as 1 expected." "It was wonderful," said another rider.

"I was scared to death. But once you do it, it's fine." During the May 2 media introduction to Sidewinder, seventh- and eighth-graders from the Milton Hershey School also got to ride the coaster as part of their study of physics. Students getting off the ride were ecstatic. "That was bad!" declared one. "We gotta go again," shouted another.

Taking advantage of free rides, with no waits, some claimed to have gone on Sidewinder a dozen times. Many who rode the coaster more than once declared: "It's better the second time!" "The first time you can't enjoy it," explained 14-year-old Michael Ramirez. "It just puts butterflies in your stomach you're scared something is going to happen." "I like the backwards part best," said 14-year-old Alex Perez. "Looking forward is too scary." NAOMI HALPERIN The Morning Call Riders go upside down six times in 90 seconds forward and backward on Hersheypark's Sidewinder. introduced in 1977.

But Silar said these days a coaster with just one loop "is old hat." The park also has the wooden Comet, its oldest, and the steel Trailblazer, which does not have vertical loops. IF YOU GO Hersheypark opened for its 85th season yesterday. The park is open 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.

It will be open next Saturday and Sunday, then daily May 24 through Sept. 2. Hershey is 75 miles from center-city Al-lentown, a 1 Vi-hour drive. Go west on Interstate 78 then south on Route 743. Admission is $20.95 for anyone between 9 and 61.

$17.95 for those 3 to 8, $13.75 for those over 61, free for those under 3. Parking costs $2. For more information, call Silar said going upside down three times while moving backwards is what makes Sidewinder a novel experience. The park manager, who predicted the new coaster's lines will be up to two hours long on busy days, said it will carry 600 to 700 passengers an hour, "if we're lucky. The capacity is not the greatest, because there is only one train." The train carries 28 passengers.

No other rides were removed to erect the compact coaster in the park's Pioneer Frontier area, near Canyon River Rapids. It stands over what had been a catered dining area, which was moved to another location. Sidewinder, called a boomerang-style coaster, was manufactured by a Holland company called Vekoma International. Hersheypark officials hope Sidewinder will boost attendance at least 3 to 6 percent. Silar hopes the park will draw 1.8 million visitors this year.

It had nearly 1.7 million last year. Park officials said guest surveys done during the last two years "have indicated a real desire for a new roller coaster." Silar said Hershey wanted to add a new coaster, but keep it within the perimeter of the 87-acre park. "We did not want to bust out into the outlying acreage." Hersheypark officials did not release details, but said their long-range plans include construction of a larger steel coaster in 1993, followed sometime after that by a new wooden coaster. Silar said the wood coaster would be built around the perimeter of Hersheypark. Sidewinder is the park's fourth coaster and its first new coaster in 14 years.

Her-shey's sooperdooperLooper was the first looping coaster on the East Coast when Royal finery of Indonesia to hold court at Smithsonian Sackler Gallery, at 1050 Independence Ave. S.W., is an underground museum behind the Smithsonian's Castle. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day.

No admission fee. Call 202-357-2700. For a recorded message about programs, call 202-357-3200. Spoleto USA Spoleto Festival USA, which features 123 events, begins next week in Charleston, S.C. The 15th annual festival, which begins May 23 and continues RAVEL By RANDY KRAFT -Travel Writer The artistic splendor of Indonesia's royal courts will be on display in a new exhibition opening next Sunday in the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M.

Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. Objects in "Court Arts of Indonesia" include jeweled court regalia, ceremonial weapons, manuscripts, textiles, shadow puppets, dance masks and other royal heirlooms. The exhibit contains 150 works, dating from the 8th to the 20th centuries. Many will be on public view for the first time. Free daily programs of traditional Indonesian puppetry, dance and music also will be in the museum.

Indonesia consists of 13,677 islands in the Indian Ocean between Southeast Asia and Australia. With 180 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in the world and covers an area about the size of the United States. Its 6,000 inhabited islands are home to about 300 distinct ethnic groups. Many artifacts in the collection are from courts that once ruled the islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra. The exhibit will be in the museum through Sept.

2. It is called "a core event of the Festival of Indonesia, a celebration of Indonesia's cultural diversity" taking place throughout the United States this year. ues through May 27 at Philadelphia Park Racetrack in Bensalem. Hours are 5 p.m. to midnight Mondays through Fridays, noon to midnight Saturdays, Sundays and Memorial Day.

Admission is $5, free for those under 6. Philadelphia Park is south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Exit 28. Call 800-749-3247. Vacation guides A 32-page vacation guide to Long Beach Island, N.J. and mainland communities in southern Ocean County is available free by writing: 1991 LBI Vacation Kit, 265 W.

Ninth Ship Bottom, N.J. 08008. Or call 800-292-6372. For a 112-page Official Visitors Guide to OrlandoOrange County, plus other vacation information, write: Visitor Information, OrlandoOrange County Convention Visitors Bureau, 7208 Sand Lake Road, Suite 300, Orlando, Fla. 32819.

Or call 407-363-5800. For a 32-page visitors guide and map to the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania, write: Laurel Highlands 120 E. Main Ligonier, Pa. 15658. Call 800-333-5661.

Next weekend The 36th annual Fine Arts Fiesta, which calls itself Pennsylvania's oldest full-scale arts festival, will through Sunday on Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Fiesta spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said more than 100,000 people attend the free event. Headline entertainment will be Allison Krause, a countrywestern singer who won a 1990 Grammy for best blue-grass recording, and Mary Wilson, formerly of the Su-premes. Krause will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Wilson at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday. Other activities include an artists market, with more than 50 artists from around the country selling their work, six community art exhibitions, a classical performance tent and continuous entertainment in the bandshell. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, till 8 p.m.

Sunday. Call 717-696-4749. Four historic homes in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, where the city's wealthiest families built grand houses along the Schuylkill River, will be featured on a new tour next weekend. The four "Historic Houses in Flower" are Lemon Hill, Strawberry Mansion, Cedar Grove and Sweetbriar. All will be decorated by local florists.

Admission is $10, $5 for children under 10. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Guided tours through the four houses will last two or three hours.

In conjunction with the tours, the Fairmount Park Garden Festi val display and plant sale will be in the Horticulture Center. Parking is available at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A trolley bus will provide transportation for $5, with stops at the houses, art museum, Horticulture Center and the Visitor's Center at 16th and JFK Boulevard. Call 787-5449. From 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Saturday, children under 12 will be admitted free to Franklin Institute Science Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences, Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts along Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway. (Parents must pay regular admission at each museum.) Performances at the museums will include jugglers, clowns, puppeteers and jazz. Each also will have special exhibits and activities designed for families. For details, call Franklin Institute at 448-1200, Natural Sciences at 299-1000, Please Touch at 963-0667, Fine Arts at 972-7600 or the art museum at 763-8100.

A historical walking tour through Trenton, with emphasis on the the city's role in the Revolutionary War, will be at 5 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $3. The tour, which lasts about an hour, is sponsored by Old Barracks Museum on Barrack Street. The museum, which also focuses on the Revolution, will be open 1 to 5 p.m.

Sunday. Admission is $2, $1 for seniors and students, 50 cents for children under 12. For tour reservations, call the museum at 609-396-1776. More than 200 antique and collectibles dealers will participate in the Waterloo Antiques Fair 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday and Sun- day at Waterloo Concert Field, Waterloo Road, Stanhope, N.J. The fair will take place rain or shine. Admission is $3, $1.50 for children 6 to 12. Call 201-384-0010. The 18th annual National Pike Festival will be next weekend along Route 40 in Somerset, Fayette and Washington counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. A wagon trail will follow the route during the festival.

Events will be under way at communities along a 200-mile-long stretch of Route 40. and at Fort Necessity National Battlefield and Nemacolin Castle. Call 800-333-5661 or 412-238-5661. A Sangria Festival will be next weekend at the Original Bucks County Vineyards near New Hope. Sally Starr will be the celebrity guest and mariachi musicians will perform.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $1.

The vineyards are three miles south of New Hope along Route 202. Call 794-7449. NOTEBOOK through June 9, is expected to be the largest and most extravagant ever. It will cost a record-breaking $5.7 million and feature 29 newly commissioned works of music, dance, theater and art. Highlights include opera, 10 dance groups, concerts, art exhibitions, fireworks, even a one-ring circus.

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