The Charlotte Observer du lieu suivant : Charlotte, North Carolina • I4

4I SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008 THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER www.charlotte.com Born in the USA includes a mid- way-style, pay-to-play games area; climbing structures for kids; an all-ages Shake Rattle Roller coaster (cars have a dou- ble lap-bar, so Junior wrig- gle free or fly out); plus the Slip- pery When Wet suspended coaster an easy target for folks on the ground, who can blast riders with water cannons. An amphitheater can seat 2,000 visitors plus 10,000 standing and 8,000 on the lawn for local and regional bands that will play throughout the day, plus occasional major groups (six to eight such shows the first year). Regular performances will be included in park admission. One name act has been announced: Volunteer Jam, with Charlie Daniels and .38 Special, during Myrtle mid-May Bike Week. British Invasion is the largest themed area.

Its thriller is the Maximum RPM coaster: Board your and a ride-in Ferris wheel rotates you to the track above. Nights in White Satin: The Trip also pegged as a major draw is an indoor ride synchronized to a tweaked ver- sion of the 1967 Moody Blues standard; cars glide over 720 feet of track in 4.5 minutes (speed: 1.82 mph), passing 14 scenes. The Roadies Stunt Show will have live-action stunts and com- edy. Punk Pit is a musical cousin to the Moonwalk, with separate areas for small fry and for large- size moshers. Lost in the is an indoor amusement arcade that mixes new games with classics such as Pong, Donkey Kong and Pac- Man.

(You pay to play.) Rock Roll Heaven has Led Zep- pelin the Ride. the signature coaster, and is syn- chronized to the 1969 hit Lotta The track is close to three-fourths of a mile in length, has six inversions and a 120-foot loop. Maximum speed: 65 mph. The ride entrance re- sembles an actual zeppelin and is about the size of a mobile home. Malibu Beach Party is a live show with acrobatics, diving and motorcycles.

Reggae Falls is a play area with water ele- ments. Cool Country attractions in- clude Midnight Rider, a coaster where you hear Southern rock; also a giant swing ride; and Monster Race, a round-ride. Country on the Rocks is an 860-seat indoor ven- ue with rather improbably a souped-up ice-skating show. Ch-ch-changes The exterior of Country on the Rocks resembles a rusty old fac- tory but was originally a Fantasy Harbor attraction called Magic on Ice, then Magic on Ice. It was retooled as The Savoy, a big-band music venue, then Florida businessman Jon Bin- kowski bought it in 1999.

Binkowski turned it back to a skating show, but his Ice Castle closed the following year just as the outlet-plus-attraction site slid into financial troubles. While Medieval Times survived still in business, the other theaters hit hard times. Binkowski saw the writing on the asphalt and led a move by parcel owners to pool their hold- ings and get a theme park built on the site. His new development group got the Hard Rock people involved through a licensing agreement. That helped attract financial heavy hitters and eventually Lev Leviev, an Israeli tycoon with international hold- ings.

Leviev became the majority owner in Hard Rock Park. final Ice Castle show was in late 2002; the Hard Rock Park project was formally launched four years and one close call later. The deal was sealed just two days before fore- closure was to begin on the Ice Castle site. Binkowski is now chief cre- ative officer at the park. His story is put to use in an employee ori- entation seminar that details the evolution.

Title: come to the He believes the unsung hero of all this is the late George Bishop, who developed the Waccamaw- Fantasy area in the 1980s and and who actually envisioned more theaters than were ever constructed. What he did build plays a role in cutting construc- tion costs at the new park. Like The Ice Castle, Mall 3 of Waccamaw Factory Shoppes has been repurposed. It holds Hard Rock headquarters (in the onetime Belk outlet); the Nights in White Satin indoor ride; and the Lost in the game arcade. Fantasy Harbor included a large artificial lagoon that at one point was a Jet-Ski concession.

Hard Rock Park was seamlessly designed around it. The new Gibson guitar mega-statue on its shore is fitted with lasers that will throw beams across the wa- ter after dusk; nightly fireworks will explode over the lagoon. The two swans that have lived there for the past eight years are now named Rock and Roll, and quite used to noise: The entire park is directly under a major Myrtle Beach Interna- tional flight path. Any laser show will have lower-power beams and they shoot straight up. The top of the Led Zeppelin coaster is just 13 inches shy of the maximum-height limit.

Crosstown traffic Aside from Led 15-story superstructure, Hard Rock Park easy to see from U.S. 501, the main road to down- town Myrtle Beach. The frontage road still holds a derelict chunk of the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. Investors hope to raze and redevelop the site as a retail-residential complex to be called Paradise City. The theme park is behind it.

And the orientation has been turned around. The back of the park is closest to the high- way; the main parking area and entrance plaza are on the south end of the grounds, next to Medi- eval Times. This anticipates a bridge and ramp from U.S. 17 Bypass, the main highway from Charleston and Wilmington. This exit over the waterway will pour parkgo- ers into the site without them having to navigate the dreaded U.S.

501, a highway where warm- weekend traffic snarls are a downside part of the Grand Strand experience. The Bypass bridge is a couple years down the pike. For now, two exits from 501, a half-mile apart, already have signs pointing the way to Hard Rock Park. The dozen miles between Conway and the theme park bloom with land-for-sale signs; when developed, 501 will prob- ably be an even slower crawl. just have to deal with it.

Try turning on the radio: You might find Freddie the 1962 ode to fun in amusement parks. Then again, you could hit the Beach version from 15 years later, or the punked-up sin- gle from a dozen years after that. It recycles just fine. Hard Rock Park to hit Grand Strand Amusements from 1I PHOTOS BY RANDALL HILL (MYRTLE BEACH) SUN NEWS This sculpture, based on a Led Zeppelin album cover, will be placed near the queue for the Hard Rock main attraction, Led Zeppelin the Ride. The print I Hard Rock Park is three miles west of the ocean, just south of U.S.

501, at 211 George Bishop Parkway. Before you reach the Intracoastal Waterway bridge, take one of these exits: Forestbrook Road (first up) or George Bishop Parkway (second up). Both lead to Hard Rock Parkway, the frontage road. A The opening for Hard Rock Park is Tuesday, April 15; the park will be open daily through May 8, though hours may vary. Hours for the regular season May 9-Aug.

31, are 10 a.m.-1 a.m. (early closing May 19-22 and May 26-June 6). Closed most Mondays-Tuesdays from Sept. 7 through late December. A I I Admission: $50; 3 and younger, free.

Annual pass (good for one year following first visit): $150. $10 parking. 843-236-7625; www.hardrockpark.com. Bruce Rean (from left), Andy Marcus, Roger Farwell and Stuart Koenig pose in front of a photo op a play on the album cover. be able to do the same, in the British Invasion part of the park.

The sounds of whose music? The opening is April 15 52 years after Elvis received his first million-seller gold record. If you were a 20-year-old who liked then now a 72-year-old and probably not a big fan of, say, Bob Marley, Ozzy Osbourne or the Sex Pistols. Everybody loves rock roll. just that not everybody loves all of it. Park brass say the target visitor is a 30- to 45-year-old mom family for whole-house trips to the beach.

That would make her born between 1963 and 1978 and her personal pop tastes could be all over the map. And with five themed areas playing distinctly appropriate tunes, how does a rock roll theme park avoid ear confusion? Solution: state-of-the-art technology. The park grounds are festooned with 350 small directional Peavy amplifiers affixed to lamp posts. Another 150 are worked into the landscaping. The speakers are volume-set and situated in a way that a tune playing at one attraction carry over to the next speaker, attraction or theme area.

this for wizardry: hear one song played at an adult or all-ages attraction and at a kiddie component nearby, youngsters will hear the same synchronized song, but done in a juvenile arrangement a Mister Rogers could appreciate. Odd jobs: Moo than meets the eye Park officials estimate a high-season work force of about 3,000, and half that after Labor Day. About 70 percent of the positions are filled. Where will the nonlocals (including college kids imported from Europe on J-1 work visas) stay? thinking now about the apartment-filled River Oaks and Lake Arrowhead areas across U.S. 501 from the park.

One of the oddest jobs had to fill? Operator of the Heckle Cow. a large metal statue of a bovine who wears sunglasses and an Elvis hairstyle. The creature has a horns and a udder. stands on hind legs. The operator, perched out of sight nearby, uses a microphone to insult passersby.

And if they get too close, the staffer can activate the water-squirt switch. Planned surprises The secret ingredient? Discoveries. Those are the little, insider flourishes such as the Disney that turn up in unexpected places. Hard Rock include: The Heckle Cow. (Moo on this in the box above.) Mirrors in the restrooms in the Rock Roll Heaven area are set on a two-second delay.

The two-story guitar fountain nearby has water spouts where the strings should be. Touch the trickle and hear the correct musical note. English-style telephone booths are dotted around the British Invasion area. Walk into one and answer the phone when it rings. aware of at least three more discoveries.

And I telling. the plan (kinda) Hard Rock Park is doing a two-step to get its long-range bearings. The April 15 opening is preliminary regular hours kick in May 9 a time when the staff can fix bugs that may arise. The park will get a better idea of what attractions and activities are most (and least) crowd-pleasing and what traffic and in-park snarls might arise once summer hits. The formal grand opening June 2-3 will be splashy.

The Eagles will perform there the first day, the Moody Blues the following. Tickets for this event go on sale Monday. 2008 is a test-run year, aimed at familiarizing locals with the park and fine-tuning park operations. The discounted one-year pass (pays for itself in three visits) is aimed at Grand Strand residents, as well as families primarily coming to the area for the beach, golf or shopping. The targeted potential visitor lives within 350 miles of the gates the easy-drive triangle between Atlanta; and Jacksonville, Fla.

Cross-branding of the Hard Rock name is omnipresent at the park. Its logo is a teal variation on the orange. The Florida-based Cafe chain is lending the Park rock roll artifacts for display cases. JOHN BORDSEN Watch out for the Heckle Cow. First insult you.

Then spray you. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO The Eagles Timothy B. Schmidt (from left), Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh will perform during the grand opening in June..