Pop Culture & Entertainment

The Oldest Amusement Parks in the World

Denmark’s Bakken has been open since 1583, 260 years before the next oldest. Here are the 18 oldest amusement parks still running, ranked by opening year.

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Walking through Bakken amusement park in Klampenborg, Denmark

Pictured: Bakken (Dyrehavsbakken) in Klampenborg, Denmark, from a 2023 walking tour; it is #1, open since 1583.

Rank Park Opened Age in 2026 (years) Country Location Owner / operator
1Bakken (Dyrehavsbakken)1583443DenmarkKlampenborg, near CopenhagenIndependent tent owners (Dyrehavsbakken Tent Owners' Association)
2Blackgang Chine1843183United KingdomBlackgang, Isle of WightVectis Ventures (Dabell family)
2Tivoli Gardens1843183DenmarkCopenhagenTivoli A/S
4Lake Compounce1846180United StatesBristol, ConnecticutHerschend
5Cedar Point1870156United StatesSandusky, OhioSix Flags
6Idlewild1878148United StatesLigonier, PennsylvaniaHerschend
7Seabreeze Amusement Park1879147United StatesIrondequoit (Rochester), New YorkNorris family
8Gröna Lund1883143SwedenDjurgården, StockholmParks & Resorts Scandinavia
9Dorney Park1884142United StatesAllentown, PennsylvaniaSix Flags
10Blackpool Pleasure Beach1896130United KingdomBlackpool, LancashireThompson family
10Lagoon1896130United StatesFarmington, UtahLagoon Corporation (Freed family)
10Waldameer1896130United StatesErie, PennsylvaniaNelson family
13Kennywood1898128United StatesWest Mifflin (Pittsburgh), PennsylvaniaHerschend
14Hersheypark1906120United StatesHershey, PennsylvaniaHershey Entertainment & Resorts
15Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk1907119United StatesSanta Cruz, CaliforniaSanta Cruz Seaside Company
16Quassy Amusement Park1908118United StatesMiddlebury, ConnecticutGeorge Frantzis II and Eric Anderson
17Hirakata Park1910116JapanHirakata, OsakaKeihan Leisure Service (operator)
18Luna Park Melbourne1912114AustraliaSt Kilda, VictoriaPrivate consortium led by Lindsay Fox

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How we rank: parks are ordered by the year they opened to the public as an amusement park or pleasure ground, oldest first, and parks that opened in the same year share a rank (1, 2, 2, 4, …), listed alphabetically within the tie. Only parks that have operated continuously since opening count: seasonal closings, wartime shutdowns of a few seasons, fires and the 2020 pandemic season do not break the run, but a park that was demolished, closed for good or reopened under a new operation does. Opening years follow each park’s Wikipedia article, and Bakken’s follows Guinness World Records;[1] several parks quote earlier dates for their site (Dorney Park 1860 and 1870, Lagoon 1886), and the table uses the year the park itself opened. Kennywood’s date is the 1898 in its infobox, while its timeline gives a formal opening on 30 May 1899.[15] As of 2026. Age is 2026 minus the opening year, and owners are the latest we found.

The Top 10

#1

Bakken (Dyrehavsbakken) — 1583

Bakken dates from 1583, when Kirsten Piil is said to have found a natural spring in the Dyrehave woods north of Copenhagen, and the crowds that came for its water drew the first entertainers.[2] Guinness World Records recognizes it as the oldest amusement park in operation.[1] It sits in Klampenborg about 10 km north of central Copenhagen, runs from the end of March to the end of August, and draws roughly 2.5 to 2.9 million visitors a year, the second most popular attraction in Denmark after Tivoli.[2] Its restaurants and rides are run by independent businesses that must belong to the Dyrehavsbakken Tent Owners’ Association, founded in 1885.[2]

#2 (tie)

Blackgang Chine — 1843

Blackgang Chine opened in 1843 on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, a year after Alexander Dabell took out a lease on the site in 1842.[5] Wikipedia describes it as the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom, and it is still a family business, owned by Dabell’s descendants through Vectis Ventures.[5] Coastal erosion has repeatedly eaten the cliff-top site, so attractions such as Adventureland (closed 1986) have been lost over the decades, and the park runs a March-to-November season.[5] It ties Tivoli on the opening year, and the two are listed alphabetically.

#2 (tie)

Tivoli Gardens — 1843

Tivoli opened on 15 August 1843 in the middle of Copenhagen, beside what is now the Central Station, and Wikipedia calls it the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world after Bakken.[4] It came through the Second World War: in 1943 saboteurs burned buildings including the concert hall and in June 1944 a bombing hit the Rutschebanen coaster, which reopened 25 days later, and the park itself reopened within weeks of the 1943 fire.[4] It drew 4.25 million visitors in 2024, making it the most visited amusement park in Scandinavia and the fifth most visited in Europe.[4] It is owned and operated by Tivoli A/S.[4]

#4

Lake Compounce — 1846

Lake Compounce traces its history to 1846, when Gad Norton set off an explosives experiment that drew crowds and inspired him to open a park on the site in Bristol, Connecticut.[6] It is considered the oldest continuously operating amusement park in North America.[3][6] Its wooden Wildcat coaster, designed by Herbert Schmeck and built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, opened in 1927.[6] Herschend was announced as the buyer in March 2025, replacing Parques Reunidos.[6]

#5

Cedar Point — 1870

Cedar Point began in 1870 when Louis Zistel started ferrying locals to a Lake Erie peninsula near Sandusky, Ohio, as a public bathing beach.[7] Wikipedia calls it the second-oldest operating amusement park in the United States, behind Lake Compounce.[7] Its Midway Carousel (1946) is the oldest operating ride and Blue Streak (1964) the oldest operating roller coaster there.[7] Cedar Fair ran it until the company merged with Six Flags on 1 July 2024, and its planned 150th-anniversary celebration was pushed from 2020 to 2021 by the pandemic.[7]

#6

Idlewild — 1878

Idlewild opened in 1878 as a campground beside the Ligonier Valley Railroad, founded by Thomas Mellon in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.[8] It is the oldest operating amusement park in Pennsylvania and the third oldest in the United States, behind Lake Compounce and Cedar Point.[8] It closed temporarily in 1943 because of wartime rationing, which is the kind of short break the ranking allows, and it is among the parks Herschend bought in March 2025 from Parques Reunidos-affiliated owners.[8]

#7

Seabreeze Amusement Park — 1879

Seabreeze opened on 5 August 1879 as Sea Breeze Grove, built by the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad Company to bring summer visitors to the Lake Ontario shore at Irondequoit, New York.[9] It was renamed Dreamland Park in 1939 and took its current name in 1975, when Robert Norris, grandson of George W. Long Jr., who bought it in 1946, became president.[9] Wikipedia calls it the fourth-oldest operating amusement park in the United States.[9] It stayed shut for the whole 2020 season because of COVID-19 and reopened in 2021.[9]

#8

Gröna Lund — 1883

Gröna Lund opened on 3 August 1883, when Jacob Schultheis rented a plot on Djurgården island in Stockholm to put up carousels and other amusements.[10] It is the first and oldest amusement park in Sweden, and Schultheis’s descendants owned it until 2001.[10] Since 2006 it has belonged to Parks & Resorts Scandinavia.[10] After the Jetline coaster derailed on 25 June 2023 the park closed briefly, and the ride was later removed.[10]

#9

Dorney Park — 1884

Dorney Park near Allentown, Pennsylvania, gives 1884 as its opening year, though Wikipedia traces the site to 1860, when Solomon Dorney built a trout hatchery and summer resort, and says it became a public attraction in 1870.[11] It is described as the fifth-oldest amusement park in continuous operation in the United States and is one of only 14 trolley parks still running.[11] Its Thunderhawk coaster (1924) is one of the oldest operating roller coasters in the world, and a fall 1983 fire destroyed a large part of the park without ending its run.[11] Cedar Fair owned it from 1992 until the Six Flags merger of 1 July 2024.[11]

#10 (tie)

Blackpool Pleasure Beach — 1896

Blackpool Pleasure Beach was founded in 1896 by A. W. G. Bean and John Outhwaite on Blackpool’s South Shore, and it is still run by the Thompson family.[14] Wikipedia says it remained open throughout the Second World War, though investment fell.[14] Sir Hiram Maxim’s Captive Flying Machine, which opened in 1904, is described as the oldest amusement ride in Europe, and the park has four wooden roller coasters, the most of any UK park.[14]

#10 (tie)

Lagoon — 1896

Lagoon opened in Farmington, Utah, on 12 July 1896, and it is counted from that date, not from 1886, when the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad built a lakeshore resort called Lake Park that closed by the end of the 1895 season.[12] The park shut for three seasons during the Second World War, and a November 1953 fire destroyed much of it, which is the kind of setback the ranking allows.[12] It has been owned by the Freed family’s Lagoon Corporation since 1983, and its 1921 Roller Coaster is one of the oldest in the world.[12]

#10 (tie)

Waldameer — 1896

Waldameer opened in 1896 in Erie, Pennsylvania, at the base of Presque Isle, built by the Erie Electric Motor Company as a trolley park.[13] Wikipedia calls it the sixth-oldest amusement park in the United States and one of 13 trolley parks still operating, and it marked its 100th season in 1996 and its 125th in 2021.[13] It has been run by the Nelson family since 1978, and it went without a coaster from 1938 until Comet opened in 1951.[13]

Famous old parks left out

Several well-known names fail the continuous-operation test. Hanayashiki in Tokyo opened in 1853 as a flower garden but was demolished in 1944 under an air-defense law and rebuilt later.[21] Vienna’s Wurstelprater is often dated to 1766, when the Prater park opened to the public, but Wikipedia dates the amusement park itself to 1895, and it was heavily destroyed in April 1945; it is named with Bakken and Tivoli as one of the three oldest operating parks in Wikipedia’s amusement park article, so treat that as a competing claim.[3][22] Coney Island in Cincinnati closed after the 2023 season, Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire closed from 1929 to 1932, and Lakemont Park in Altoona ended ride operations in 2024.[23] Paris’s Jardin d’Acclimatation opened in 1860 as a zoological garden and became a family leisure park only from 1931.[24]

Amusement Parks Theme Parks History Oldest Denmark United States Roller Coasters
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Sources

  1. Guinness World Records, “Oldest amusement park in operation” (Bakken, Klampenborg, Denmark, 1583.)
  2. Wikipedia, “Dyrehavsbakken” (origin in 1583, season, visitors, tent owners’ association.)
  3. Wikipedia, “Amusement park” (Bakken, Wurstelprater and Tivoli as the three oldest operating parks; Lake Compounce as the oldest in North America.)
  4. Wikipedia, “Tivoli Gardens” (opened 15 August 1843, wartime attacks, 2024 visitors.)
  5. Wikipedia, “Blackgang Chine” (opened 1843 on a lease taken in 1842; oldest in the UK.)
  6. Wikipedia, “Lake Compounce” (1846, Wildcat 1927, Herschend purchase.)
  7. Wikipedia, “Cedar Point” (1870 and the Six Flags merger.)
  8. Wikipedia, “Idlewild and Soak Zone” (1878, 1943 closure, Herschend purchase.)
  9. Wikipedia, “Seabreeze Amusement Park” (5 August 1879, 2020 closure.)
  10. Wikipedia, “Gröna Lund” (3 August 1883, owners, 2023 Jetline derailment.)
  11. Wikipedia, “Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom” (1884 infobox date, 1860 and 1870 earlier dates, 1983 fire.)
  12. Wikipedia, “Lagoon Amusement Park” (Lake Park 1886, Lagoon opened 12 July 1896, closed three seasons in WWII.)
  13. Wikipedia, “Waldameer & Water World” (1896, owners, 100th and 125th seasons.)
  14. Wikipedia, “Blackpool Pleasure Beach” (1896, open through WWII, 1904 Captive Flying Machine.)
  15. Wikipedia, “Kennywood” (opening dated 30 May 1898 in the infobox, formal opening 30 May 1899 in the timeline; Herschend purchase.)
  16. Wikipedia, “Hersheypark” (opened 30 May 1906.)
  17. Wikipedia, “Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk” (1907, California’s oldest surviving amusement park, 2020 closure.)
  18. Wikipedia, “Quassy Amusement Park” (1908, owners.)
  19. Wikipedia, “Hirakata Park” (1910, oldest amusement park in Osaka.)
  20. Wikipedia, “Luna Park Melbourne” (opened 13 December 1912.)
  21. Wikipedia, “Hanayashiki” (opened 1853, demolished 1944 (left out).)
  22. Wikipedia, “Wurstelprater” (established 1895, destroyed April 1945 (left out).)
  23. Wikipedia, “Coney Island (Cincinnati)” (closed after the 2023 season (left out); also Canobie Lake Park, closed 1929–1932 (left out), and Lakemont Park, rides ended in 2024 (left out).)
  24. Wikipedia, “Jardin d’Acclimatation” (opened 1860 as a zoological garden; family leisure park from 1931 (left out).)
  25. Videos: independent creators on YouTube (Vision Walking, Castlestein, Theme Park 101, CoasterDash, Theme Parks Tour, Feagans Travel, Canobie Coaster, CoasterBaller, Thrill Productions, Theme Park Worldwide), chosen because each shows the park named; none is an official channel. Owners are as of 2026.