La Ronde (amusement park)
La Ronde () is an amusement park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, built as the entertainment complex for Expo 67, the 1967 World Fair. Today, it is operated by Six Flags under an emphyteutic lease with the City of Montreal, which expires in 2065. It is the largest amusement park in Quebec and second largest in Canada. It is on located on the Northern tip of Saint Helen's Island. This is a man-made extension to the island in the space where the small Ronde Island had been. The park hosts L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, an  international fireworks competition. La Ronde is one of three Six Flags parks not to be officially branded as a Six Flags park, Great Escape in Queensbury, New York, and Frontier City in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma being the other two. History. La Ronde was the entertainment complex built for Expo 67, the world fair held in Montreal from April 27 to October 29, 1967. The exposition was located on of man-made islands in the St Lawrence River adjacent to Montréal, and comprised six "theme" pavilions, 48 national pavilions, four provincial pavilions, 27 private-industry and institutional pavilions, and La Ronde  – a entertainment complex with theatres, midway attractions, drinking and dining. The rides, restaurants and beer halls of La Ronde remained open until 2:30 a.m. each nightly, after the rest of the Expo site closed down at 10:30 p.m. After Expo 67 World's Fair, the City of Montreal continued to run the amusement park for the next 34 years. The City of Montreal sold La Ronde to Six Flags, an American theme park chain, in a deal completed on May 4, 2001. It acquired all of the assets of the park for $20 million USD and has a long -term contract to lease the land from the city. Before the announcement of the Six Flags purchase, the city had considered offers from other bidders including Paramount Parks, Cedar Fair, and Parc Astérix. Since then, Six Flags has invested around $90 million in new rides and improvements, such as Le Vampire, Splash, Le Goliath and Ednör - L'Attaque as well as a new main entrance. The amusement park was used as a backdrop in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "Laughing in the Dark" (season 1, episode 2) and was given the fictional name "Playland". The episode featured  the park's giant roller coaster, haunted house with a dragon on the front and its old-fashioned carousel. La Ronde had a Nintendo-sponsored video game centre with the latest Nintendo video games and attractions. Since 2009, the former 3D theatre has housed Nintendo DS and Wii consoles, advertisements and a Nintendo Store. In May 2002, La Ronde announced the installation of a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster called Le Vampire, which was the first major investment by Six Flags. It is a mirror image of the "Batman – The Ride" roller coasters found at many other Six Flags parks . In 2003, La Ronde opened six new rides including Auto Tamponneuses, Tour de Ville, Manitou, Vertigo, Grand Carrousel, and Toboggan Nordique. Some existing rides were replaced by these new rides. In 2004, La Ronde opened Le splash (a Shoot the Chute ride) and Spongebob 3D. In May 2006, La Ronde opened its ninth roller coaster, Goliath, a high Bolliger & Mabillard mega coaster. It reaches speeds of , making it the fourth tallest and the fourth fastest roller coaster in Canada. For the 2007 season, La Ronde painted its observation tower bright orange to advertise Pizza Pizza, an Ontario pizza chain that  was emerging into the Quebec market at the time. All of the pizza stands inside the park were renamed from Pizza Ronde to Pizza Pizza. In 2007, La Ronde celebrated its 40th anniversary with Expo 67 themed events commemorating the world fair. In January 2009, La Ronde announced its intention to become a Six Flags branded park, using the rights to Warner Bros. and DC Comics trademarks under the licensing agreement with Six Flags. Le Vampire, a mirror image of constructed in 2002, carries no association to the Batman media franchise because the licence with Warner Bros. and DC Comics  is not valid in unbranded Six Flags parks. It is not yet known whether Le Vampire will be re-branded to "Batman: The Ride" once the branding of the park commences. The Serial Thriller, a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster that used to be located at the now defunct Six Flags AstroWorld, was shipped to La Ronde from the Great Escape, another Six Flags property where it had laid in storage since 2005. The roller coaster, which opened in 1999 at Six Flags AstroWorld, was installed over the Lac des Dauphins at the park for the 2010 season and is named  Ednör - L'Attaque. It features special effects and is themed around an alleged sea monster that was purported to have appeared in the Lac des Dauphins. On March 9, 2010, La Ronde announced that "", an interactive laser-tag attraction themed around the Terminator series, would also be featured in the park for the 2010 season. On January 19, 2012, Six Flags announced Vol Ultime at La Ronde; it is similar to the SkyScreamers and it is tall. In 2013, the park opened a water-themed attraction, Aqua Twist. On August 29, 2013, Six Flags announced the addition of Demon, a top  spin ride, for the 2014 season. As a world premiere, Goliath was the first roller coaster equipped and exploited with a virtual reality headset. On August 28, 2014, Six Flags announced Maison Rouge, a haunted house, for the 2015 season. On September 3, 2015, Six Flags announced Avenue Aventure, a section of the park which includes Bateau Pirate, Condor and two new rides: Phoenix, a Larson flying scooters, and Gravitor, a Chance Falling Star from Six Flags St. Louis. On September 1, 2016 Six Flags announced Titan, a Zamperla Giant Discovery. It is the park's second pendulum ride. It  is identical to the Riddler Revenge at Six Flags Over Texas. In 2017, Le Monstre had only one track open for mainly the whole season while the other track was retracked. In May 2017, on its 50th anniversary, La Ronde announced the permanent closure of one of its original rides, "La Pitoune". The water log ride dated back to the Expo 67, and had its final season in operation in 2016. It has since been dismantled. On Saturday, May 19, 2018, Six Flags La Ronde opened a platform thrill ride called "Le Tourbillon", a Larson International GX5 model (Waltzer-style ) Tilt-A-Whirl, residing along L'Avenue across from the Phoenix. This addition was supposed to have been amongst the proposed featured rides for a new family section, called "Carnaval En Folie" (the newly-added ride was due to be named "La Torsade"). On May 18, 2019, La Ronde debuted a new ride called Chaos, a Fire Ball ride by Larson International previously known as El Diablo when it was located at Six Flags Great Adventure from 2015 to 2018. After being relocated to La Ronde, its red color was changed to black, and it received new trains. Chaos is located  on the former site of Le Moulin de la Sorcière between the rides Manitou and Boomerang. On August 25, 2019, Super Manège closed. In August 2019, Six Flags announced that Vipère, formerly at Six Flags Magic Mountain, would debut in 2020. The project was delayed several times and ultimately cancelled in 2022. On August 3, 2020, after a three month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, La Ronde opened belatedly for its 54th operating season. It closed early for the season in October 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic. Only a limited number of rides were open during its short  two-month season. Grounds. The park is situated on the northern tip of Saint Helen's Island in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Parts of the park formerly occupied the smaller Ronde Island, before a man-made extension extended the Saint Helen's Island. South of the amusement park is Parc Jean-Drapeau, an urban park and former grounds of Expo 67. The amusement park opens to the public from mid-May to late October. La Ronde closes for the season in the last weekend of October. To celebrate Halloween, in the month of October, the park hosts an annual Fright Fest . The festival has four haunted houses, and many costumed performers who walk around the park. Toddlers under the age of two are able to enter the park for free. Attractions. La Ronde holds a number of attractions including live shows and amusement rides. As of 2019, the amusement park had 40 amusement rides including eight roller coasters. One of the park's roller coasters, Le Monstre, a holds the record for highest double-tracked roller coaster in the world. Former attractions. A number of attractions and amusement rides have been installed and later removed from the park. They include: La