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LISEBERG
Sweden
 Park News - (10/31/2023) Liseberg was looking for volunteers to undergo the Peak Fear Experiment program and now those findings are being released.
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On 11 October this year, Liseberg amusement park in Sweden carried out ‘The Peak Fear Experiment’, a field study in recreational fear. Out of 1,640 applications from 22 countries, two participants were chosen: Vicki Bååth, a 45-year-old teacher from Sweden, and Helge Branscheidt, a 38-year-old hair and make-up artist from Germany. Liseberg conducted the experiment in collaboration with researchers from the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark, who will now publish the study results in The Peak Fear Report:
"This experiment shows that subjecting yourself to recreational fear in a safe environment can improve your psychological resilience and stress management ability and help you build strategies for managing fear and negative feelings. In other words, it can help to develop you as a person," says Mathias Clasen, PhD and co-director at the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University.
For Liseberg, the purpose of the experiment was to gain increased knowledge and insight into how recreational fear can best be designed to optimise fear experiences in the amusement park:
"Every year, thousands of guests visit Halloween at Liseberg to experience fear. The results of this report show that Liseberg has excellent knowledge in the area of recreational fear. Now we want to use these insights to further develop our fear attractions. One aspect we want to examine is whether we can help visitors to tailor their fear experiences at the park," says Karl Svedung, Head of Marketing at Liseberg.
Both of the participants, Vicki Bååth from Sweden and Helge Branscheidt from Germany, found the experiment a thrilling and fun experience that also challenged them on a deeper, more personal level:
"For me, the scariest element was the unknown, not knowing what was going to happen. It might sound very strange to others, but I enjoyed being in those scary places, letting rip and going crazy," says Helge Branscheidt from Hamburg.
Vicki Bååth from Sweden had to temporarily interrupt the experiment by shouting the safe word, Peak Fear. However, she doesn’t regret taking part:
"I had to find ways to avoid going into panic, like when I decided to get angry to manage my fear. This enabled me to enjoy the fear experience at the same time as being scared. This is the most fun and exciting thing I’ve ever experienced, and I was very proud of myself when I took control of my fear," she says.
You can read the full report here, and they’ve also posted a video about it that you can see below.
(9/14/2023) Liseberg, you now have my attention! According to the video below, the Swedish theme park is looking for those willing to face their worst fears. In a partnership between Liseberg and the “Recreational Fear Lab” at Denmark’s Aarhus University, they have created the “Peak Fear Experiment” and are looking for volunteers aged 18+ willing to spend the night in Liseberg on October 11th… ALONE.
(8/19/2023) Liseberg wants to send you to the moon! Well… kinda. As part of the celebration for the park’s new Luna roller coaster Liseberg is now “seeking citizens from all countries around the world for the world’s first international moon trip - aboard the new roller coaster, Luna.”
"Do you want to travel to the moon?" the amusement park asks as it reaches out through its own channels, seeking individuals who are citizens of, or have strong connections to, countries other than Sweden. One chosen representative from each country in the world will be sent up on Luna on the first Saturday in September.
If your interested, you can apply here.
(4/20/2023) According to Blooloop, Liseberg has set April 22 as the day when they will open the park’s new Grand Curiosa experience hotel, as well as the park’s new Luna roller coaster. The hotel will feature 457 guest rooms, a large restaurant on the ground floor, a rooftop terrace bistro overlooking the park’s carousel along with a fun slide connecting the hotel’s 2nd and 3rd floors.
(2/13/2023) Liseberg has reported that the park has closed the 2022 financial year while achieving the highest profits ever for the theme park. “The annual accounts for 2022 show both record turnover and record profit, which provides security for the future.” Net sales totalled €130 million and profit before tax was €21 million which significantly exceeds the Company’s expectations.
“We have recovered faster than we dared hope for. With 2022 behind us, we can close the door on the pandemic and look towards the future,” says Andreas Andersen, CEO, Liseberg.
Liseberg will be approaching the 2023 season with caution however. While this will be the 100th anniversary of the park that will also feature the opening of the new Luna roller coaster and 457-room Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel, they are keeping an eye on the uncertain economic conditions that may affect the region.
(4/9/22) I kind of thought the trend of adding VR enhancements to existing thrill rides had ended, but Liseberg has just announced that they are adding a temporary VR overlay to the park’s AtmosFear drop tower ride starting April 23. They are promoting it as one of the most intense VR experiences in the world, and the temporary addition is only planned to be in place until the park’s Balder roller coaster is ready to reopen this summer after some track-upgrades.
The new AtmosFear experience will have the riders travel through wormholes to the AtmosFear station before taking the plunge while being attacked by robots.
This is also the first time I’ve heard about track upgrades happening to Balder. Balder is the second of four wooden coasters made by Intamin featuring a new ‘pre-fabricated’ track system. The first was Colossus at Heide park that opened in 2001 and then ended up closing suddenly in July 2016 as issues began to take place regarding this new track system. After some study and a complete track replacement undertaken, it reopened in April 2019. With that in mind, many have been waiting to see how things play out for sister rides: Balder (2003), El Toro (2006) and T Express (2008).
Digging a little deeper, apparently Balder opened with the park for the 2021 season after replacing a few sections of track, but closed down early on in the season after they determined the track issues were more severe than originally thought. From a few reports out there, Balder did reopen in August for a few days before closing down yet again for the rest of the season.
Meanwhile we know El Toro in the US also closed last season after an incident took place in June 2021 that resulted in a partial derailment for a car at the rear of the train. We don’t know the exact cause of this, but both the trains and track underwent inspection keeping El Toro closed for the rest of the season, though it is expected to finally reopen later this Spring.
Meanwhile keep an eye on Liseberg for Balder to reopen this summer. We know the team out there has been well praised over the years for keeping good care of Balder, so I’m sure Balder is in good hands and will soon reopen to thrill the park’s guests once again. I’m just curious how much work needed to be done so far, and if there are plans in place to do another phase of replacement work in the near future.
2023 - Luna Coaster - (9/3/22) A new video showing off the new LUNA coaster coming to Liseberg in 2023 can be seen below. Luna was created by Vekoma to be the longest and fastest Family Boomerang coaster in Europe when it opens in early Spring 2023.
(12/22/21) In 2023 Liseberg has already announced that the park will add a Vekoma Family Boomerang coaster to the line up called Luna, as part of the park’s 100th Anniversary celebration. The concept artwork for the coaster is kind of neat, with the train themed like a rocket ship and the station themed like an observatory building.
2023 - Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel - (12/22/21) Liseberg also re-confirmed that the new LisebergGrand Curiosa Hotel will also be ready to open in 2023.
(7/7/20) While Liseberg isn’t able to open for the 2020 season, the park is focused on future projects now, including the Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel, which is set to open in 2023. The 457-room hotel will include a unique restaurant and a fully functional merry-go-round from 1923. Once open they will begin work on a second phase that will add a year-round indoor waterpark to the resort.
(10/1/19) Good news for Liseberg as the park was given permission to proceed with plans to build the Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel. The first phase will see the hotel and 457 rooms built while an indoor waterpark will be added to the hotel later on. Look for construction to begin this fall. According to the report at BlooLoop the hotel will even feature a unique slide that runs between floors in the lobby.
(5/18/18) According to the latest update posted to BlooLoop, Liseberg will start construction later this month on their new expansion that will add a waterpark, a new hotel and even more parking. While the parking expansion should be done by 2019, the new hotel and waterpark aren't expected to open until sometime between 2021 and 2023. The waterpark, which will mostly be indoors, will be open to anyone who wants to buy a ticket, and not just guests staying and the connected resort hotel. The nice thing is that this will bring year-round business to Liseberg.
(9/30/17) According to the latest information, Liseberg plans on opening a new themed family destination hotel and indoor waterpark just to the south of the park, but still connected to the main property by 2021. The opening should coincide with the 400th anniversary of Gothenburg and various celebrations that will take place then.
The indoor waterpark will feature 10 slides, 8 pools and 3 play areas, while the new hotel will feature 453 guest rooms as well as a new restaurants, meeting spaces and a spa. Both the hotel and waterpark (which will also have a small outdoor section) will be themed to the 'Swedish East India Company".
(1/26/17) According to this report Liseberg is now planning an indoor waterpark and resort hotel. The proposals were submitted for permission last year and the park is just waiting to get a final approval of their plans before they move forward.
2024 - Oceana Indoor Waterpark - (12/22/21) Liseberg reconfirmed that their plans to open the indoor Oceana Water World is still on track for 2024.
(11/16/20) According to a post on Twitter from ECC, the new indoor waterpark coming to Liseberg will be named Oceana. According to the last information we heard back in July, the plan was to open the indoor waterpark at some point after the Grand Curiosa Hotel opened in 2023, so likely in 2024 at the earliest. You can see some of the concept art in the tweet below.
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