2025: General Discussion

[Bert2theSpark]

Fireworks have always been outsourced anyway. The creative direction came from the park, but the delivery didn't. You'll either see a marked improvement, or no noticeable change, as the creative direction may now be centralised.

From my understanding, the Entertainments department lost creative control of the Fireworks events after 2015 and Jubilee Fireworks took over full control of the show. Then either in 2023 or 2024 Entertainments were then given back the creative direction of the event after running the pre and post show elements for a few years.

The contracts for these events are usually multi-year signings as well, so Jubilee would have probably have been locked in before any outsourcing of Entertainments began.

 

[Alsty]

As Merlin Entertainments increasingly outsource their entire operation, I thought I'd ask Generative AI for some more fitting names:

• Merlin Arrangements: For those magical outsourced deals.
• Merlin Installments: Piecing together subcontracted magic.
• Merlin Detainments: A cheeky jab at keeping things stuck in the middle.
• Merlin Engagements: Creating illusions of involvement.

It also suggested some of these:

• Hocus Focus: Merlin Edition: Where the focus is on finding someone else to hocus.
• Merlin's Magic Outsourcers: Conjuring contracts instead of spells.
• Merlin’s External Enchanters: All the sorcery, none of the effort.
• Merlin’s Charm Contractors: Magic tailored to the highest bidder.

 

[Poisson]

The excellent horse/jousting events and I think the trebuchet are outsourced at Warwick and it works well. I have little hope, but not 0 hope.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

The excellent horse/jousting events and I think the trebuchet are outsourced at Warwick and it works well. I have little hope, but not 0 hope.

If we get the same level of Entertainment at Alton Towers as Warwick Castle has, then I will be very impressed with the park going forward. Increasing the entertainment offerings and general 'dwell' time within the park would certainly serve as a method of expanding the appeal of Alton Towers to a wider audience than beyond the ride lineup. It would also put Towers in a good position to have a strong enough entertainment offering for when Universal and Puy du Fou enter the UK theme park market.

 

[djtruefitt]

From reading the press release it seems we may just get what we had before and possibly more, so I guess we’ll say no real difference to scarefest or Fireworks, the only concern being it might feel less Towers if people involved in these events aren’t from towers and are just external, eg would we have the phalanx Expo if a random company designed the whole show, rather than those who know the park well?

It’s just a shame we lost so many ents people for another company to then come in a few months later, but I guess that was always the plan for Merlin, just a bit of a bad way of going about it in terms of all the staff they sacked, some of which had been with the company for 20+ years.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Standard practice. Just because some out of touch bean counters have realised they can save money by firing a load of staff, doesn't mean they don't need someone to do that job.

Outsourcing to an external company, or hiring freelancers like myself, may cost them more per hour, but you only pay for the work done. No sick leave, holiday, maternity pay, pensions, other costs to worry about.
...
The flip side is, while us contractors get a higher hourly rate, we only get paid for the work done. No sick leave, holiday, maternity pay, pensions, other benefits to keep us alive when work is scarce.