Summer Nights at Busch Gardens
June 6th, 2008
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Tampa, FL - Play late at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay during Summer Nights, when the adventure park offers extended hours, special entertainment and festive food and drink from June 6 through Aug. 17.
In addition to thrilling rides, animal encounters and Broadway-style shows, the 335-acre adventure park will offer additional entertainment throughout the park after 5 p.m. during the three-month event.
Four stages will feature skilled performance artists, such as jugglers, a contortionist, plate spinners, hula hoop performers and an aerial bungee act. DJs performing throughout the park and stiltwalkers parading through Jungala in elaborate and colorful nature-inspire costumes create a festive mood.
Desert Grill will feature master ventriloquist Kevin Johnson and his Fine Feathered Friends, Clyde and Matilda, an outspoken buzzard and shyer cockatoo. Johnson appeared on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” in 2006, making it to the semi-finals. He has won Best Male Performer from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in 2004 and 2006 and has lectured on puppetry and ventriloquism.
A special event for the Fourth of July at Busch Gardens will be music legend Chubby Checker and fireworks in Gwazi Park. Checker made famous the song and dance craze “The Twist” with his 1960 hit. The concert will begin at 8:15 p.m., with fireworks to follow, weather permitting.
Summer Nights also offers more time to explore Busch Gardens’ newest attraction, Jungala, a lush jungle village where discovery and exploration invite guests to connect with the world around them. Visitors can experience up-close encounters with orangutans and nocturnal Bengal tigers, which are more active in the evening hours. Families can stay late to explore Tree Top Trails, a three-story play land of climbing nets, mazes and tunnels. Young adventurers can watch the sun set over the treetops on a zip line adventure or while launching into the sky from inside a 35-foot waterfall on the Wild Surge.
Park hours for Summer Nights are extended until 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Summer Nights is included with a day’s paid admission or any annual pass.
The Busch Gardens Shuttle Express will offer three additional departure times from Orlando on Mondays and Fridays to accommodate Summer Nights hours. For more information on Summer Nights or Shuttle Express schedules, please call 1-888-800-5447.
