originally posted on 3/24/2025
Iconic parks Kennywood and Silver Dollar City will soon be under the ownership of Herschend.
Photo: Mike Matscherz. View full-sized image.
Photo: Curt Schimmel. View full-sized image.
Following last year’s merger of Cedar Fair and Six Flags to create Six Flags Entertainment Corporation — the largest U.S. theme park operator — the amusement industry is about to be heavily affected by another change. Palace Entertainment — the U.S. business of Parques Reunidos — has signed a definitive agreement to sell the company to Herschend. This is intended to allow Parques Reunidos to consolidate its leadership and accelerate growth across its European properties while enabling Herschend to expand its growing portfolio.
Iowa’s Adventureland, a recent addition to Palace Entertainment, will now be owned by the same company as Dollywood, among others.
Photo: Jill Ryan. View full-sized image.
Once completed, the deal will place some of the amusement industry’s most beloved parks under the control of Herschend, which in 1950 began the transformation of a small cave tour operation in the Ozark Mountains into Silver Dollar City (Branson, Missouri). Since then, the company has expanded to include other amusement parks such as Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee), Kentucky Kingdom (Louisville) and Wild Adventures (Valdosta, Georgia) in addition to owning the Harlem Globetrotters and Pink Adventure Tours brands as well as various aquariums and resorts across the county.
Lake Compounce — the country’s oldest continually operated amusement park — has been no stranger to ownership changes in the last few decades.
Photo: Howard Gillooly. View full-sized image.
Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania — one of two amusement parks having been designated a National Historic Landmark — is one of 20 Palace Entertainment properties to be immediately added to Herschend’s portfolio. Others include Dutch Wonderland (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Adventureland (Altoona, Iowa), Idlewild and SoakZone (Ligonier, Pennsylvania), Castle Park (Riverside, California) and the oldest continually operated amusement park in the country, Lake Compounce (Bristol, Connecticut).
As of now, no additional details of the acquisition have been announced, including whether or not Herschend’s famous cinnamon bread will be offered at any of the former Palace Entertainment properties.
— Rob Ascough, ACE News Editor
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