Magic Castle

It’s been crazy around California’s Great America this week and at the offices of International Culture Exchange Group in Fremont (ICEG)–all leading up to today and the Grand Opening at Global Winter Wonderland. Why so crazy? This isn’t our first year, after all. Perhaps if we had settled for the status quo, it would have been a walk in the park (no pun intended). Instead, Lulu Huang, CEO of ICEG was determined to make this year’s Global Winter Wonderland bigger and better.

UFO

I’ve seen it in the making and she has accomplished her objective.  The move inside Great America was the first big step. It immediately provided multiple venues for entertainment, food and shopping.  Study the website and the Festival map to see what areas of the park have entertainment venues and the times for each performance and what food is where. I see a turkey leg in my future. With so many possibilities, the Festival Season Pass is a great deal because you will want to come back, more than once.

The bigger space also meant they can have more lanterns, bigger lanterns, and other unique structures. For the nearly 420,000 people that attended last year, Lulu was focused on making sure that almost all of the larger structures are new this year. Even though many Christmas festivals feature the same structures year after year, she wanted to differentiate Global Winter Wonderland from those other events.

Being inside the park gave us access to six Great America rides including their two-story Carousel. The layout of the park also mans that around every corner you’ll be treated to a new and more beautiful surprise.

Be prepared to say “Whoa!” because this year’s experience is sure to amaze.

For those of you who gave us this feedback, please know the parking lot was the best we could do in our premier year. But, as a result of our tremendous success, California’s Great America took notice of how much the community embraced our event and they, like us, wanted to make it even bigger and better. So we’ve moved INSIDE Great America, which offers so many amazing opportunities for us to create an even more spectacular holiday event for residents not just in Santa Clara but in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California as a whole.

With so much more for the entire family to see and enjoy, you can make Global Winter Wonderland a two-day event this year and make a trip to Santa Clara an even bigger holiday excursion, taking in some of the other holiday events that take place throughout the area.  We hope we’ll see you at Global Winter Wonderland as you make it a part of your family’s annual holiday traditions.

Peking Opera is a form of traditional Chinese Theater which combines music, vocal performance, dance, mime, and acrobatics. These shows are most often recognized by the elaborate and colorful costumes and make up, as well as for the variety of performance that each embodies. This form of performance is regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China, and you will see why when you enter the Pavilion.

Check performance dates/times by visiting the Global Winter Wonderland website.

While giant lanterns will light up the sky night after night, there’s also going to be a laser light show that will emanate from a beautiful princess palace.  The greater size and the existing infrastructure of the park (light poles, trees, and other islands of foliage) means a lot more opportunity to dazzle visitors with interesting light displays.  Imagine walking the winding paths of Great America and finding a stunning display of light and artistry around every turn.

The multiple entertainment opportunities including outdoor stages and street entertainment provides choices for guests and provides the opportunity for Global Winter Wonderland to bring in an array of entertainers including Kung Fu Romance, a Chinese acrobat troupe coming to the festival from China.  Another example of how this year’s Global Winter Wonderland will be bigger and better than ever.