January – A new chapter for Lightwater Valley
January started with the announcement that Mellors Group had acquired Lightwater Valley, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the Yorkshire attraction.
With the group already operating Fantasy Island, enthusiasts were naturally interested to see what this could mean for the park. The acquisition also came with promises of fresh investment and new attractions, giving Lightwater Valley fans plenty to look forward to.
Spring – New additions arrive
Spring brought plenty of new additions across the UK. Paultons Park opened its Viking-themed area, Valgard: Realm of the Vikings, featuring Drakon, Raven and Vild Swing. Elsewhere, Pleasure Beach Resort welcomed Aviktas, Chessington opened World of PAW Patrol and Alton Towers introduced Bluey the Ride: Here Come the Grannies!
There were also smaller additions across the country, including Spinning Racer at Lightwater Valley, Rotor at Crealy and Fossil Falls at ROARR!.
August – Summer Festival returns
August saw Attraction Source’s Summer Festival return to Alton Towers on 8 August.
The event brought enthusiasts together for exclusive experiences and, of course, a chance to catch up with familiar faces from the community. Events like this are always a welcome addition to the enthusiast calendar.
September – Rita 100 takes over Alton Towers
September brought one of the year’s biggest creator challenges, as Digital Dan started his Rita 100 charity challenge at Alton Towers on 21 September.
Dan set out to ride Rita 100 times in support of Alzheimer’s Society. After managing 60 laps on the first day, the challenge carried on into the following day, with donations and updates keeping the community following his progress.
The fundraiser eventually raised more than £10,000. A brilliant effort, although I think most of us would be quite happy not to see Rita again for a little while after that!
September – Theme Park Daily joins the community!
September was also a pretty exciting month for us, as Theme Park Daily officially launched!
What started as an idea for a fan-made UK theme park website has grown into a place for news, interviews, games, creator features and plenty of enthusiast discussions.
We’ve already had the chance to interview creators, feature some brilliant enthusiasts and give readers something to enjoy even when they’re not actually at a theme park.
A massive thank you to everyone who has visited the website, shared an article, played one of our games or got involved. There’s plenty more to come!
September – The industry comes to London
IAAPA Expo Europe returned to London from 21–25 September, with the main exhibition taking place from 22–24 September at ExCeL London.
The event brought together manufacturers, designers, park operators and attractions professionals from across the world. For anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes of our favourite rides and attractions, it was a chance to see what the wider industry has been working on.
September – And the winners are…
September also saw the return of the UK Theme Park Awards, with the ceremony taking place at Pleasure Beach Resort on 10 September.
Paultons Park had a particularly successful evening, taking home 11 awards, including Theme Park of the Year for parks with over one million visitors. Pleasurewood Hills took the title for parks with under one million visitors.
Other notable winners included Coastertog for Content Creator of the Year, Thorpe Park for Best Theme Park for Thrills, Drakon for Best New Attraction (Large) Gold and Aviktas for Silver.
Lawrence Mancey, Josh Haywood and Sarah Smith also picked up awards recognising their contributions to the industry, while Tulleys Shocktober Fest took home Scream Park of the Year.
Congratulations to all the winners!
October – ScareMazing and 25 years of fear
October brought another busy month for Halloween events. Attraction Source’s ScareMazing took place at Alton Towers on 10 October, giving attendees the chance to experience scare attractions, take part in behind-the-scenes experiences and hear from some of the people involved in creating them.
Meanwhile, Thorpe Park celebrated 25 years of Fright Nights.
With Tenement joining the lineup alongside returning favourites such as Trailers, Stitches, DeadBeat and Survival Games, there was plenty for scare attraction fans to get stuck into.
Twenty-five years is quite an achievement, and Fright Nights has definitely become a regular fixture in the UK Halloween calendar.
November – The end of The World of David Walliams
November brought an unexpected change at Alton Towers, as the park confirmed that The World of David Walliams would permanently close from 3 November 2026.
The area had been home to attractions including Gangsta Granny: The Ride, Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp and The Royal Carousel. Having opened in 2021, its closure marked the end of a five-year chapter at the resort.
With no replacement plans confirmed at the time, it’ll be interesting to see what Alton Towers decides to do with the area next.
November – SLKSTN returns and the closed-season chaos begins
Jack Silkstone’s SLKSTN Unlocked returned to Thorpe Park for its fifth year on 5 November.
The event brought enthusiasts together for Fright Nights mazes, three hours of Hyperia in the dark on two trains and the Arch Nemesis afterparty. Five years in, it’s become quite the fixture in the enthusiast calendar.
And just when we thought the community might start settling down for closed season, something rather unexpected happened.
Yes. Beans on toast.
Bakerstreet Coasters, Oliver Webb, Ride Comparisons and others somehow managed to turn making beans on toast into one of the biggest talking points on theme park social media. The Alton Towers fireworks hadn’t even started, and we were already debating who made the best beans on toast. We’ve got rollercoasters to talk about, people!
It seems the days of the famous apple pie meme are behind us. Beans on toast has officially taken over, and I’m not sure the community is ever going to recover.
Naturally, Theme Park Daily got involved too, launching its own little game, Beans On Coast. Because apparently, this is what the UK theme park community does now.
Until next season…
And just like that, another season is nearly over. No more trying to squeeze in one last ride before closing, no more checking whether Hyperia is on two trains and no more convincing ourselves that joining the Smiler queue when it’s already at 90 minutes is a good idea.
Now comes the difficult part: waiting for opening day, planning our first trips back and inevitably having the same coaster ranking debates we’ve been having for years.
2026 has given us some brilliant new additions, memorable enthusiast events, creator achievements and plenty of community moments that probably wouldn’t make much sense to anyone outside the theme park world.
Thanks for being part of another brilliant year in the UK theme park community. Here’s to more credits, more airtime and hopefully (for me) the announcement of Colossus’s closure in 2027!
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