Is there anything creepier than a frozen Ferris wheel or a creaking roller-coaster track? At these abandoned theme parks, the fun died a long time ago. Some were left to rot and ruin after natural disasters, while others suffered financial struggle.
Click through to see haunting images of some of the world's creepiest abandoned amusement parks, past and present...
The Hurricane, a 100-foot-tall (30m) wooden roller coaster, was the main attraction at Boomers Park in Dania Beach. It was the biggest wooden roller coaster in Florida when it first opened in 2000 and, despite being part of the Boomers Park, was owned and operated independently. It was shut down by its operators in 2011 with the owners citing "business reasons". It's thought the humid climate in Florida made maintaining the roller coaster unviable.
The rest of the park stayed open, attracting visitors to its colourful mini-golf course and arcades until January 2015, when the park was closed to make way for development.
However, once closed, the park lay dormant for long enough to let the vegetation take over a little. While several plans to demolish the roller coaster and the buildings onsite were made over the years, it wasn't until recently that a new development took their place. Now called Dania Pointe, it's a luxurious complex of hotels, retail stores and restaurants.
Starting life in the 1950s as a church playground, Belgium’s Dadipark was transformed into an amusement park in the 1980s. Although it was initially popular, with one million people visiting at its peak, disaster loomed.
In 2000, a child lost his arm on one of the rides, sparking concerns around safety and scaring many former fans away. Two years later, the park closed. This was supposedly due to renovations, but these refurbishments never happened and the park was eventually abandoned.
After years of neglect, Dadipark was given a lifeline in 2004, when investors sought to transform the ruin into a modern theme park. But the project was ultimately thwarted by planning regulations and funding issues, and Dadipark was demolished in 2012. As of 2023, work was underway to turn the site into a hiking area.
Spreepark (formerly known as VEB Kulturpark) once saw up to 1.7 million visitors a year. But decades after opening in 1969, its owner ran up colossal debts and even ended up in prison for smuggling illegal substances. The park subsequently fell into disrepair and was left abandoned for several years, only to be reclaimed by nature, urban explorers and graffiti artists.
Thanks to a large-scale regeneration project, the site is gradually being resurrected as a sustainable art, culture and nature park. The new Spreepark, complete with its original (albeit renovated and transformed) Ferris wheel, is set to open in its entirety by 2026, though parts of it have been welcoming visitors since 2023.
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The once-vibrant Six Flags New Orleans became a shadow of its former self after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The park was submerged under seven feet (2m) of floodwater for more than a month after the killer storm's reign of terror ended. The park remained closed ever since, a monument to the destruction.
Instead of the screams of joy and laughter once heard in the park, it fell silent, with graffiti gracing almost every surface, and disused roller coasters, dodgems and Ferris wheels rusting away, never to be used again.
It wasn't always abandoned, though, as the park occasionally saw life as a filming location – blockbusters such as Jurassic World and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were filmed there. In June 2024, the imminent demolition of Six Flags was announced, as the site is to be developed into a huge resort complex with water parks, hotels, dining outlets, shops and a family entertainment centre.
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Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita opened in the 1940s and was once said to be the largest theme park in central Kansas, with a wooden roller coaster and around 24 other rides. It enjoyed a long life, entertaining residents of the state and visitors passing through. But in 2004, disaster struck.
The park was the scene of a serious accident in which a teenager fell from the Ferris wheel and was critically injured. Joyland was then closed and, apart from a brief lease of life in 2006, remained empty and grew increasingly dilapidated, with vandals and thieves flocking to the deserted space to break windows, start fires and mark it with graffiti.
In 2015, after more drama including severe windstorms, trespassers getting into nasty accidents, alleged arson attacks and looting, demolition began. Locals, some of whom had visited with three generations of their family, stopped by to take their last photos of the park before the attractions were hauled away. Joyland's carousel has since found a new home within Wichita's Botanica gardens.
Japan has seen its fair share of creepy theme parks, with one being Nara Dreamland in southern Honshu. It was opened in the 1960s as the country’s answer to Disneyland, an idea dreamt up by a local businessman who was inspired after a trip to the USA.
It was a reasonably popular theme park, but as Universal Studios Japan opened, visitor numbers dwindled. The park was closed in 2006, and it soon became popular with urban explorers. Those fascinated by ruined landscapes visited the park to take photos and explore the empty rides.
Until 2016, when demolition of the park began, it had been abandoned for 10 years and resembled a 'nightmare-land' rather than a Dreamland, with rust and overgrown foliage engulfing the roller-coaster tracks, and the sinister silence of desolate rides.
This tiny, abandoned theme park has now become an attraction in itself. While you can't ride the merry-go-rounds or dodgems at Yongma Land, pay a small fee to enter and you can wander among the derelict grounds as you wish.
Established in 1980, Yongma was popular with the locals in Seoul. But when Lotte World opened in 1989, featuring indoor and outdoor rides, Yongma lost favour. Exacerbated by Asia's financial crisis in 1997, the park's income dwindled, and its licence to operate was eventually pulled in 2011.
Today, the park is a favourite of photographers who come to take artistic shots of its once bright and breezy attractions. It has appeared in music videos and is now owned by a local businessman, who will allegedly turn the carousel lights on for you after 8pm (for a fee).
This Chinese theme park never welcomed visitors. Wonderland, around 20 miles (32km) outside of Beijing, was planned to be the largest amusement park in Asia, but it was a promise that proved too big for the developers.
Construction was halted after disagreements over property prices and a political corruption scandal. Ever since, the park – which was only partially constructed and is now littered with half-finished buildings – has been mostly empty, drawing only photographers and local kids to explore its eerie skeleton.
After 15 years of abandonment, much of the attraction was demolished in 2013, leaving only foundations in place of the empty buildings. The Badalang Outlet shopping mall was opened on the site in 2015, with the remains of the fairy tale castle painted to match the colour scheme of the new retail complex.
Ho Thuy Tien was an ambitious project, with plans for amusement rides, water slides, pools, aquariums, live entertainment and restaurants. There was so much hype, it even opened before it was completed, welcoming visitors in 2004. But it far from blew its competition out of the water, and eventually closed down.
Today, it stands abandoned and its water slides, the only attraction that was ready at the time of opening, lie dormant with no gushing water or screeching thrill-seekers. Instead, you'll just see the odd curious backpacker, and perhaps a herd of cows helping to keep the weeds at bay.
Set in lush countryside around five miles (8km) to the south of the city of Hue in central Vietnam, it's easy to see the faded potential of this aqua adventure park. But the once blue splash pools are now smelly and stagnant, and the flumes have been left to rot. Perhaps the most intriguing structure in the park is this giant lakeside sculpture of a dragon. Urban explorers have even climbed inside, via a staircase located in the beast's body, to peer out from its gnashing teeth.
Known as Ghost Town in the Sky, this abandoned Wild West-themed amusement park has seen as many ups and downs as its Red Devil roller coaster pictured here. Located on Buck Mountain, a mountaintop site towards the bottom of the Great Smoky Mountains, the park opened in 1961 and closed down in 2009. It's featured here courtesy of Abandoned Southeast, in images taken by photographer Leland Kent.
At the height of its popularity, Ghost Town attracted over 620,000 visitors every year. But the 1990s spelled trouble for the park, whose struggling revenue couldn't support the maintenance requirements of its beloved attractions. When a chair-lift ride broke down in the summer of 2002, it was the beginning of the end for Ghost Town.
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Despite attempts to resuscitate the ailing theme park by investing millions into its renovation, its owners failed to secure any further funding and declared bankruptcy. While an official announcement is yet to be made, it's thought that Disney has now purchased the Ghost Town in the Sky site, with plans for a new theme park dedicated to its old, defunct and decommissioned rides.
Located in the English county of Lancashire, this King Arthur-themed amusement park opened in 1983 and was a popular family attraction. It operated for almost 30 years, but visitor numbers, poor food ratings and bad weather ultimately led to the park saying "good-knight."
The Magical Kingdom of Camelot, to give it its full name, had roller coasters, children's rides, jousting competitions and staff dressed in medieval costumes. Its closure was finally announced in 2012, and some of its rides and roller coasters were sold off to other resorts. You can still ride the Whirlwind (now called Sky Spin), for example, at Germany's Skyline Park.
The site has had a few ups and downs since closure, with planning sought for a housing development quashed by the council, and another plan for new homes jettisoned by the developers in 2018. Parts of the park were demolished in 2020, but Camelot has since been reborn as an alternative events space and site for immersive experiences. It was used for a special series of zombie-themed nights in 2022 and will host the Scare City Experience for a second year later in 2024.
Billed as 'Europe's biggest theme park', Wonderland Eurasia opened in the Turkish capital in March 2019 to much fanfare. The 320-acre theme park featured 26 roller coasters, thousands of other attractions and cost the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality hundreds of millions of dollars to build. However, less than a year later, in February 2020, it closed its doors permanently.
Just two days after opening, one of the rides suffered a malfunction, forcing people to evacuate. Further political turmoil, sub-par ride quality and lack of attendance all contributed to the park's ultimate downfall. The operator struggled to pay staff wages and electricity bills, and so it was shuttered – with some attractions still unfinished.
Today, it resembles a dump site more than it does a theme park. Decaying dinosaurs, broken-down models and headless robotic features dominate the landscape, creating a particularly eerie scene on the outskirts of the city. Decimated by looters looking for cables and other recyclable items to steal, the site's future remains uncertain, though many locals would like to see it turned into green space.
Sitting on the legendary shores of Lake Shawnee, this abandoned amusement park has turned its misfortunes on their head, and now serves as a chilling tourist attraction for those willing to step through the gates. Opened in 1926 before a string of unfortunate events and financial woes slammed it shut 40 years later, it’s no wonder Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is rumoured to be haunted.
Then, during construction for a new off-roading facility, a Native American burial ground was unearthed beneath the amusement park. The owners have since chosen to embrace Shawnee’s spooky history, offering tours by appointment (including overnight experiences) and running eerie events like the annual Dark Carnival.
Now check out the world's eeriest hotels and resorts left to rot...