Welcome back to the Farm! It’s year two for the Peanuts Celebration and we’re excited to dig in and see all the changes for 2019. A big crew of MiceChatters headed to the park to check it out. Peanuts Celebration runs weekends through March 10th, plus Presidents’ Day (February 18th).
UPDATED (1/30/19) – Two new dates have been added to Peanuts Celebration 2019 – Monday, February 11th and Friday, February 15th
Now let’s make like a sandwich and jam…
New Peanuts Celebration Shows
Let’s start our journey into all things Peanuts by taking a look at the wonderful shows. No bad ones this year, it’s all worth your time.
Space Beagle
The Camp Snoopy theater becomes NASA HQ in this new show where Snoopy becomes the first dog on the moon.
This show replaced last year’s Lucy and Charlie Brown’s Balancing Act, and we believe it’s a massive improvement. Fun for the whole family, Space Beagle is a musical journey filled with tons of charm and corny humor.
I wasn’t sure how this one was going to pan out when Charlie Brown started rapping in the beginning but by the end of the show, Brian and I were dying laughing.
One of the funniest gags in the show are these alien Woodstocks that appear all over the Camp Snoopy stage, even on the walls! If you blink, you’ll miss them!
Space Beagle features a wide variety of music genres and hilarious parodies, it’s a must see this year.
Now if I could get that Billie Jean parody out of my head…Charlie Brown has got his dog…
Spike’s Discoteca de Silencio
Here’s something rather unexpected, a silent disco hosted by Snoopy’s brother Spike in Fiesta Plaza.
For those uninitiated, a silent disco is a dance party where all the participants wear headphones that are synced up to the same music instead of playing music over speakers. For everyone not participating, it just looks like everyone’s jamming to air. Walking up to the party in Fiesta Village is indeed pretty chuckle-worthy.
There are three stations to listen to, plenty of options for everyone. It’s a little awkward at first, but is unique compared to the usual dance parties held in this area.
Returning Shows
Peanuts Sketch School
Knott’s resident art teacher will show you how to draw your favorite Peanuts characters. After the class, you can stick around and watch classic Peanuts television specials.
If you’ve taken the animation class at California Adventure or Hollywood Studios, it’s mostly the same. The artist takes you step by step and you draw the pre-chosen Peanuts character from basic shapes (we got to draw everyone’s favorite Beagle, but it changes for every class).
I love stuff like this, it’s a nice way to have interactive entertainment and it gets you out of the sun for a while. This is great for kids too, it teaches them a skill!
Peanuts Cowboy Jamboree
Franklin and Linus host this show at Calico Park with their friend, Sidesaddle McGee. Together they challenge guests to games like Race a Stick Horse, Bowl a Cactus, and horseshoes.
When we watched, they played Mrs. Knott’s pie toss, with purple frisbees standing in for the pies. This is definitely a kids activity, they’re encouraged to participate.
The Music Goes Round and Round
Sally needs help writing her paper on musical history. With the help of Shroder, Snoopy, and their new friends Brandon and Karin, they show her music from different eras.
From Bluegrass to Rock and Roll, this show is entertaining and educational. Heck, some kids might discover some music genres they would’ve otherwise not known they enjoyed.
Just like Woodstock’s Music Festival in the evening, this show is only performed twice so plan accordingly! It is played during the day, so viewers should be aware of the sun (odd to say in January, right?). We love that Knott’s is starting to use this stage during the day, though. If they continue to use it, we hope that they put up some permanent sun shades.
Woodstock’s Music Festival
Featuring Jelly of the Month Club, a strange kiddie rock supergroup that includes members of Sublime and The Ziggens, the Peanuts gang are putting on another high energy rock concert.
This is definitely one of the highlights of the Peanuts Celebration. Jelly of the Month Club is fantastic, they’re surprisingly hard rock for a band aimed at kids. The show itself is hysterical right from the start with the well-produced intro video.
Major highlights include Snoopy appearing as parody versions of popular artists throughout the show, with the band playing along.
Don’t miss this show, it’s incredible. Jelly of the Month Club’s set is amazing, and the infusion of the Peanuts characters makes this a really unique family rock concert that needs to be seen.
New Experiences
Woodstock’s Bird’s Eye View
A trip on the Sky Cabin Woodstock’s nest gives you a wonderful view of the entire Peanuts Celebration.
The Sky Cabin always has great views, but there is new audio narration to accompany the ride. We rode both during the day and evening, and it seems the audio changes based on what time of the day it is, changing from pointing out things you can see to just a light piano background track during the evening. Unfortunately, the audio volume was a tad low in both cases and we couldn’t really get a handle on what exactly we were supposed to be paying attention to. Hopefully, that’s fixed quickly. But it’s a clever idea.
Returning Experiences
A Trip to Beagle Bonanza Grand Sierra Railroad
Returning again this year is the Trip to Beagle Bonanaza overlay for the Grand Sierra Railroad. Accomplished using cutouts of characters and objects with a wonderful narration, this is a really cute overlay to the Grand Sierra Railroad.
The story follows Snoopy, his siblings, and the rest of the Peanuts gang as they go to Beagle Bonanza, a festival celebrating all things beagle.
There are dozens of these little vignettes with their own little gags.
Definitely make a stop on your way to see Space Beagle to take a trip to Beagle Bonanza, you won’t be disappointed.
Food
What’s a promotion at Knott’s without food? There’s a surprising lack of boysenberries this time (maybe they’re saving them for the Boysenberry Festival in April), but what is available is delicious.
Because it’s the Peanuts festival, there was a focus on peanut butter and jelly options, which will excite kids and kids at heart alike.
I appreciate that Knott’s has some sort of decorating activity for kids at their location near the cemetery – cookies during Peanuts Celebration and Merry Farm or pie decorating during Boysenberry Festival.
The plain cookies do look a little like shields, but once you decorate it, it should look like a kite. Unless you want it to look like a shield…
Some savory items were added to the menu as well. It’s like a mini food festival folks.
Most of the sweets are available all over the park so they should relatively easy to find. What looks good to you? I’m definitely coming back to try a couple more of these.
Character Meet and Greet
Main Entrance and Camp Snoopy
There are plenty of opportunities to take photos with Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang at both the main entrance and Camp Snoopy. There are also these great gag photos set up all around Snoopy at the front of the park.
Pigpen’s Pig Pen
Pigpen is hanging out with the pigs and horses at the Livery Stable near the Calico Saloon. Come by, say hi to Pigpen, and meet some animal friends.
Merchandise
Knott’s has some updated Peanuts Celebration merch. Seems like there’s a decent variety for such a new promotion. Some of this could probably stay for the rest of the year as well.
The real big seller will likely be this Charlie Brown sweater that our media rep was showing off. It may have been almost 80° during the opening day of the Peanuts Celebration, but temperatures will be dropping again soon!
Peanuts Celebration Decor
Knott’s doubled down on Peanuts Celebration decorations this year, updating some and adding more in places.
The kites aren’t new this year, but they are updated. Each one is attached to a character and were all over the park. They’re absolutely adorable and we loved seeing them everywhere.
Over in Town Hall, a movie about Charles M. Schulz plays with lots of info on all his characters.
Compared to the craziness of some of the other festivals and seasonal offerings, Peanuts Celebration is a bit more quaint and easily consumed by kids and adults. Everything can easily be done in a day and enjoyed at a nice pace. As a first time visitor to this particular promotion, I enjoyed everything; I’m a sucker for some good old Knott’s live entertainment. Brian also mentioned that the Peanuts Celebration was much stronger this year, essentially fixing or replacing any problems he had with the first one last year. This is a great start for Knott’s in 2019, we hope to see them keep it up as we anxiously await this year’s Boysenberry Festival in April!