As Six Flags Great America gets ready to celebrate "Muslim Family Day" on Sunday, September 12, conservative wingnuts are up in arms that the amusement park would be so insensitive to have such a day the same weekend that the country is honoring and remembering the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack. more ›

The closing of local amusement park Kiddieland and the selling off of its rides and attractions had a lot of local fun-seekers down. But for those still itching for a blast from the past, there's hope. The Little Dipper, the most popular ride had Kiddieland, has been refurbished and is going up at Six Flags Great America. The park spent $36,000 buying the ride and has spent more money refurbishing it. According to ABC 7, only 10 percent of the original wood from the ride was kept. But the original cars have been spiffed up and Six Flags has done their best to recreate the Little Dipper as authentically as possible, considering they had no blueprints. Gary Pohlman, director of construction, said, "We brought our people down there along with an engineering firm to basically shoot everything in place and do it 'As Built' of the ride there in Melrose Park. That gave us something to work off of for resetting it back up here." The ride should be ready to roll by Memorial Day. more ›

Some good news for fans of Kiddieland who are still disappointed by the closing of the popular area amusement park: two of the park's rides are staying in the area. The Little Dipper roller coaster will be relocated to Six Flags Great America and the purchaser of the famed carousel hopes to get it up and running in the area. The rides were part of an auction earlier this week. Frank Zygmunt of Westmont paid a total of $420,000 for the carousel told the Proviso Herald: more ›

It might be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon, but Six Flags says the company doesn't plan to lay off any of the more than 1,600 employees recently hired to work at its park in northern suburb Gurnee during the upcoming park season. more ›

They didn't coerce anyone out of this one -- Chicago mob kingpins guilty in decades of crime. And a relative of a mob murder victim wasted no time applauding the guilty verdicts in the Family Secrets case. Signed, sealed, can't be delivered --Heavy rain forced Stevie Wonder to cancel his concert Monday at the Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island. It was rescheduled for tonight. David Letterman and Oprah are BFF now. Screw The... more ›

The Plain White T’s have quietly been playing around since 1997, but ten years in they are experiencing something called “success” with their first major label album, Every Second Counts. The band earned its first Billboard Hot 100 No.1 with their single “Hey There Delilah” unseating Rihanna’s “Umbrella” which spent seven weeks at the top. more ›

Thank the Lord. Six Flags Great America is going to expand its sales of hard liquor this summer. Man, we were worried that not enough people were getting sick, acting the fool and being generally lame at Great America. Now they will have plenty more ammunition to fuel their fire. more ›

The media elite and tenured intelligentsia are making you feel like an unwashed plebian if you aren’t fawning over Fermilab or Millennium Park. And you’re sick of your relatives braying on about thrilling tourist traps like Medieval Times and Six Flags. You know better, don’t you? For the rest of the month, the Illinois Tourism Bureau gives you the chance to make your alternative views heard… and then promptly drowned out by the voters who... more ›

Oh the schemes people can hatch when left to their own devices. Whether it's a novel way to get even with your neighbor, planning ahead so you can deposit that money you stole on the way home, a scam to rip off an amusement park, or just an excuse to go get a sandwich, there was no limit to creativity in this week's chronicle of stupidity. more ›

Props to commenter geekgrrl for calling this one last Thursday when we reported that Six Flags will be daring people to eat live cockroaches for a chance to jump the line. PETA has asked Six Flags to cancel the promotion during next month's "Fright Fest," calling it "a tired gag from 'Fear Factor.'" more ›

We know you're so excited to ride that new Superman roller coaster at Six Flags Great America that you're hopping around like a little girl about to pee in her pants. But would you eat a 3-inch long hissing cockroach to get through the line faster? As part of their annual "Fright Fest" Halloween promotion, Six Flags will allow anyone who eats a live Madagascar hissing cockroach to skip to the front of the line.... more ›

Fishing Derby 02 via phule, who notes: Impromptu fishing derby along the Chicago River during lunch. Lasted 30 minutes and 1 fish was caught before security from Boeing threw everyone out. more ›

You know what is more fun than standing in the hot sun for three hours to ride a rollercoaster or water slide that takes a minute or less to get through? Pretty much everything. We realize that not everyone shares our hatred for theme parks like Six Flags Great America and the Dells, and that’s all well and good. But what if we told you their rides were also death traps? more ›

Chicagoist hasn't been to Six Flags Great America for years, but we used to love to go and remember the last time we went (1999?) we thought it was really expensive. Great America opened for the season on Saturday, and we were shocked to read that the price for a single adult admission (anyone over 54 inches) is now $54.99. For one day! Holy shit! And that doesn't include the cost of gas to get up there or soda or anything to eat or a wacky souvenir Bugs Bunny tshirt. Not to mention that the price of parking also went up this season. It's now $15 to park for the day. more ›

Thrill-seekers looking for a good time at Six Flags Great America yesterday got disappointment instead, after a series of power outages shuttered the park for more than two hours. Power flickered off for about 30 minutes at 1:20 p.m., and a backup system's subsequent failure an hour and a half later left park-goers in the dark for more than two hours - some stranded atop roller coasters and thrill rides. more ›

Crain's Chicago Business released their annual list of Chicago's Largest Tourism Attractions, and to nobody's surprise, Navy Pier whupped some tourism butt by topping the list of favorite attractions in the city. Stomping the next largest attraction, the Taste of Chicago, by 3.2 million people, the Pier had 8.75 million visitors last year, and raked in $43 million in revenues. Coming in number two was the Chicago Cubs, with 3.1 visitors in 2004, and Six... more ›

� Roger Ebert gets a new site, adds a funny photo of himself more ›

The new park will be built this winter in Gurnee, on 13 acres of land ajoining Six Flags' Great America. Features of the park will include include slides, raft rides and a wave pool. There will also be a two-acre play area with 17 towers interconnected with slides, bridges, chutes and ladders that would be "the world's largest interactive water play structure." more ›