During the off-peak season, Six Flags Over Georgia sits empty most days of the week. Dormant and untouched, the vacant amusements and rides serve as an uncanny reminder of the laughter and jovial entertainment that the park provided to families and friends every day just weeks ago. Last Friday, Sept. 12, the park took on a different mood.
Jackets filed out of buses and climbed out of their carpools Friday afternoon, smiles abeam for a night of thrills and excitement at the Student Center Programs Council’s (SCPC) Georgia Tech Night at Six Flags. The event is not only one of SCPC’s most prominent events of the year, but one of the most attended, well-known and important social events for students on the calendar at the Institute.
The first 1,000 students who purchased tickets through the official Campus Tickets website received their tickets for only $25; afterwards, student tickets cost $32 for students and $35 for faculty, staff, alumni and guests until the day of the event.
The ticket prices are a reflection of SCPC’s efforts to make the event as accessible as possible for any member of the Tech community. For September and October, the park remains open on the weekends for their annual Fright Fest event, where a single-day ticket can cost upwards of $70 including taxes and fees, not to mention the $35 parking pass for carpoolers — parking was free on Friday.
Early birds had the best deal to purchase their tickets, and the early birds at the park had the first pick of rides before crowds started to accumulate. When the gates opened at 6 p.m., the first students who entered took full advantage of the opportunity and beelined to their favorite rides to avoid long wait times later in the night.
One of these rides was the park’s headline rollercoaster, Goliath. With a maximum drop of 175 feet and a top speed of 70 miles per hour, it was sure to provide Jackets with an exhilarating experience.
“Goliath is great — top-three ride at Six Flags, in my opinion,” said Edwin Ontiveros, fifth-year AE. “Not the top one, because you’re competing with Superman and Batman. I feel like the gimmicks are what make the other two.”
While Ontiveros rates Goliath relatively highly compared to other rides at the park, others felt it might have been lacking. Daniel Marquez, fourth-year AE and self-proclaimed roller coaster guy, said he was not intimidated.
“It wasn’t scary. They need to make it like three times taller,” Marquez said, but he later admitted that Goliath was the best roller coaster in the state. “Not really,” Marquez added when the Technique asked if any roller coaster in Georgia was scary.
Elsewhere, students were enjoying other popular rides such as The Riddler, Mindbender, Harley Quinn Wild Whirl, Dare Devil Dive and Georgia Scorcher. Notably absent from the open amusements were the two water-based rides, Log Jamboree and Thunder River, as well as the admittedly tame but family classic Dahlonega Mine Train. Other than those rides, Jackets were free to roam the park and hop on any ride available with relatively short queuing times compared to a fully loaded park.
One ride, Pandemonium, saw riders swing back and forth on a rotating disk that got higher and faster with each swing — almost to the point where onlookers might just think the disk had enough momentum to do an entire loop-de-loop before inevitably swinging back down and up the other side.
“I thought it was pretty chill. At the highest point, you were floating. You were just absolutely floating … It’s like being a bird,” said Lucas Martinez, first-year BIOL. “I came out because not very many people were gonna be here, and it’s a great opportunity to see the park.”
While many students lined up for and enjoyed the rides, several food stalls and carnival-game booths scattered around the park struggled to attract a significant number of students. One group that did participate in a carnival game was Aditya Gupta, first-year BIO, and one of his friends who came with him.
They paid $20 each to throw five basketballs at hoops a couple of yards ahead of them and about a foot over their heads. They only had to sink one ball to have their choice of prizes, which included massive stuffed bears, unicorns and ducks. Neither of them was able to land a shot.
“I’d say it’s pretty much a scam. If you look back here, you can see that the hoops are not circular. They are more like elliptical,” Gupta said, while pointing to the basketball hoops, which appeared to be a normal size from the front; he said he would not be participating in another carnival game. “As a Georgia Tech student, I’m broke. As any college student, I’m broke.”
Many students also said they avoided purchasing any food while at the park due to the high prices and found the prices in the park to not caterbe tone deaf to an all-college student audience.
“I probably won’t get any food. It’s expensive, but I’d say the tickets are a great price,” Gupta said.
Aadi Sarma, M.S. CS, explained that he would not get the food because of the poor quality and to avoid the high prices.
“Never ever buy any of the food. Never,” Sarma said.
The easily avoided high prices didn’t dampen the mood at all as students strolled around the park and laughed with their friends, but far scarier beasts did. Located in the dark pathways of the park, in between rides, organizers placed actors dressed as zombies, four-legged monsters and other unidentified frightening figures to scare guests as they traversed the park.
Often, the monsters would sneak behind a clueless friend group, then yell and jump at them from behind, eliciting impulsive screams. In one area of the park, monsters had metal shoes that they could skate on the pavement to create sparks that lit up the dark passageway.
“I’d say they are kinda scary, not going to lie. I’d say now that it’s darker, they are a little scarier,” said Aishwarya Suresh, third-year IE. She added that her friend group was trying to avoid them as they walked around the park.
In spite of — or because of — the moments of terror, frights and thrills, almost every Jacket at Six Flags enjoyed the park with smiles plastered on their faces. Friend groups laughed hysterically, and young couples strolled, enjoying each other’s company while roller coasters soared overhead and Halloween music pumped through the speakers.
Despite being vacant most days of the week recently, Six Flags Over Georgia was filled to the brim last Friday, not with students, faculty or staff who could only take up a fraction of the park’s total capacity, but with something more powerful than sheer numbers. The Tech spirit of camaraderie, ingenuity and expression flowed through the night’s air and lit up Six Flags.