Just a couple weeks ago we were at Knott’s Berry Farm checking out the new Calico River Rapids. Then we returned a few days later for the relaunch of Ghost Town Alive, a live-action roleplaying game that encompasses the little town of Calico. Now Knott’s has created the perfect companion to that experience with what I can only describe as “the coolest backyard BBQ you’ve ever been to.”
With a variety of live entertainment, a myriad of booths, and plenty of oversized lawn games, Knott’s has created a chill-out spot on the edge of Ghost Town.
Most of the festivities take place on or around the Calico Mine Stage. The whole viewing area in front is covered in astroturf, complete with fire pits, picnic tables, food booths, and oversized lawn games.
Speaking of fire pits, they’re not just for some heat, you can actually roast s’mores over them.
S’mores are $7, come in the little box below, and are available at booth B. They don’t seem to be included on the Summer Nights Tasting Card, though.
Summer Food
Knott’s has cooked up some fun summer eating and scattered it around Boysenberry Festival style all over the area around the Calico Mine Stage. Everything is inspired by camping and backyard BBQ food, and there are a surprising variety of sweets.
We recommend the $35 tasting card, which you can get at Ghost Town Candy, Cordy’s Candy Corner, or at specialty podiums like the one above. It really does up the value of the booths, as quite a few of the a la carte prices are pretty high. We’ll list off the a la carte prices for each item but unlike festivals at Disney California Adventure, we didn’t notice anything that was priced a la carte lower than what each tasting card tab is worth ($4.38 each).
If you purchase a tasting card, you get a handy map that tells you where all the booths are. The ones to take note of are F, G, and I, which are on the other side of the tracks from most of the festivities. F is on the side of the ice cream stand, G is at Ghost Town Candy, and I is at Judge Roy Bean’s.
Booth A: Ice Cream
Boysenberry ice cream is always a favorite and this booth is no exception. There are two items available, an ice cream cookie-wich and an ice cream cone. The ice cream flavors available are vanilla, boysenberry, and butter pecan. The cookie-wich can be made of either chocolate chip or lemon cookies and rolled in either chocolate chips or sprinkles.
The ice cream here is so good, we could’ve spent an entire tasting card at this booth just on boysenberry ice cream. The cookie-wich is made with normal cookies rather than soft-baked ones, which makes for a messy eating experience, although we noticed that the cookies softened up after being soaked in the ice cream long enough. We recommend just breaking up the cookies and eating the thing like chips and dip.
A la carte:
- Ice cream cone – $6
- Ice cream sandwich – $8
Booth B: Kettle Corn, Fruit Salads, and Pastries
More sweets! This booth has quite a few options, kettle corn, fruit salad, churro loops, Farmer’s Market shortcake, and peach crumble.
The peach crumble and shortcake were delicious. The shortcake especially had this wonderful boysenberry pie filling on top that was to die for.
The kettle corn was tasty as well but was just…kettle corn.
A la carte:
- Kettle corn – $6
- Fruit salad – $6
- Churro loops – $5.50
- Farmer’s Market shortcake – $5.50
- Peach crumble – $5.50
Booth C: Corn, Tacos, and Salad
This booth was odd but surprisingly good. Most of the dishes have a sort of Mexican flair to them, particularly the corn cup, it’s almost like an Elote in a cup.
The taco wasn’t really my favorite. The shrimp doesn’t have a lot of flavor, the slaw and pico de gallo were fine but I felt like it needed some sort of sauce. Maybe they can offer some hot sauce or something to punch it up.
The corn cup may seem like an odd item. While the asking price without the tasting card is rather high at $6, I ended up enjoying it. It’s corn kernels, sour creme, cheese, cilantro, and you’re given some chili powder to go on top. Knott’s clearly understands that there’s an audience for this sort of thing and I’m glad it’s here.
The summer salad for this week had spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and a raspberry dressing. I can’t believe I’m saying this about a salad, but I think it was the best and most unique tasting savory item. Knott’s will be rotating it throughout the summer, some other examples will include a chilled summer fruit and shrimp salad with a lemon basil vinaigrette, potato salad, and a pasta salad. While we felt the serving size should be bigger, this one was a clear winner.
A la carte:
- Corn cup – $6
- Fish tacos – $8
- Salad bowl – $6
Booth D: Chili and Sausage
No summer is complete without a BBQ and this booth scratches that itch.
We felt the sausage was tasty but not as good as the very similar boysenberry sausage they served during the Boysenberry Festival just a few weeks ago. A quick and easy plus to this that would make it feel more Knott’s would be to bring some Boysenberry condiments like the BBQ sauce, ketchup, and mustard over from the Boardwalk BBQ.
We were surprised at how good the chili was, particularly the cornbread bowl that it sits in. Not only do they load this thing up, but the cornbread is also seriously amazing. Cornbread is actually a little better eating experience than sourdough because it’s easier to eat the bowl. Very unique, we really recommend you give this one a try.
If you don’t want the bread bowl, you can have the chili poured over Fritos corn chips as well. Also, if you’re looking for a veggie option, there’s a meatless chili available too!
A la carte:
- Seasonal sausage on a bun – $8
- Chili in a cornbread bowl – $9
- Chili in a cornbread bowl (veggie) – $8
- Chili corn chip pie – $8
Booth E: Skewers
Skewers are definitely a summer BBQ favorite and there are three flavors here.
Both the veggie and chicken skewers were great, but we felt they could maybe use a little bit of sauce. We wanted to try the shrimp and sausage skewer, but they ran out! It must’ve been good.
A la carte:
- Chicken skewer – $8
- Veggie skewer – $5.50
- Shrimp and sausage skewer – $9
Booth F: Fresh Lemonade
Lemonade is a staple of summer and Knott’s has freshly squeezed it for Summer Nights. The flavors are boysenberry, strawberry, watermelon, and original.
The main location is on the side of the Ghost Town ice cream stand, but lemonade is also available at booth H and I. They do freshly make it for you with whatever flavor you chose.
We tried the boysenberry lemonade and felt this was the only real disappointment of the night. We tasted very little actual boysenberry flavor (it just looks like a bunch of boysenberries stewing in a syrup), and because we picked boysenberry, there were a bunch of berries at the bottom of our lemonade. Normally that’d be fine, but the straw is so small you can’t suck them up, so there’s an abundance of pulp and bits of berry floating around. I might’ve liked it more if I had gotten just plain original lemonade. I’ll try a different flavor next time.
A la carte:
- Lemonade – $5.50
Booth G: Fudge Dipped Apples
Fudge-dipped apples were a pleasant surprise. Not only are they delicious, you get to choose your toppings.
When you order an apple, you get a sheet with choices of toppings and a caramel drizzle. Pro tip: If you write to-go on it, they’ll box it up and drop it in a bag for you to take it home with you! How about that for a parting gift.
I can almost feel the imminent sugar buzz just looking at these things.
Booth H and I: Beer, Wine, and Lemonade
Both booth H and I serve beer, wine, and flavored lemonade. We were surprised to see that the tasting card included alcohol, normally that’s a separate thing.
One thing to note is that there is no a la carte option for the beer or wine, you need a tasting card tab. I’m not sure if you can get it in a different size or if it’s available elsewhere a la carte, but we’re certain this was done for efficiency more than anything, the line for alcohol was always long.
Entertainment
Summer Nights entertainment consists of four main things: a band at the Calico Mine Stage, a band at the Calico Park Stage, a DJ above the Surf Shop, and Summer Nights interactive characters. The key to the live entertainment seemed to have enough unique offerings that there’s something for everyone. Hiatus was a pop-rock band, Doug Legacy was a cajun band, and the DJ spun more modern dance tracks.
Calico Mine Stage: Hiatus
These guys have the big stage and for good reason, they have the big sound. A quintessential pop-rock band, Hiatus played rock classics, mainly from the 90s and 00s.
While we heard popular covers from bands like Maroon 5, we also heard some more obscure ones like a punk-rock rendition of “Come On Eileen” by Save Ferris.
With a varied set, Hiatus puts on a great show with lots of different hits, they’re sure to be fun for just about everyone. They really packed in a crowd as well. Folks seemed to love them, us included.
Summer Nights DJ at Charleston Square
High above the Surf Shop of Charleston Square, a DJ spins tunes in between Hiatus’ sets. It’s a clever place to put him, creating a unique spot for guests to come dance. I don’t have much to say about the actual experience as electronic dance music isn’t my kind of thing, but it’s great that Knott’s decided to include it for all the young people who seemed to be enjoying it.
Calico Park Stage: Doug Legacy and the Zydeco Party Band
While this band isn’t playing on the big stage, they’ve got an all-star lineup. They play fun and quirky genre called “zydeco,” which is a sort of Creole version of blues, but features an accordion.
If you go look these guys up, all of them seem to have seasoned careers, including the band being used on the Muppets Tonight show and being regulars at Ralph Brennon’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney.
Unsurprisingly, the band plays incredibly well. While the other acts were a bit more unpolished, the Zydeco Party Band played with extreme precision and showmanship.
We definitely recommend wandering between sets or just checking out all three, they’re staggered in a way that allows one to end and the other to begin. Each set contains different songs, so you can easily stay and be entertained by live music all night if you wanted.
Summer Nights Citizens
In true Knott’s fashion, they’ve plussed up a great event with interactive characters unique to this experience. If Ghost Town Alive didn’t give you enough character interaction (I mean, I’m not sure how you’d be deprived while playing that), these silly parody-style characters will certainly enhance your time at Summer Nights.
Everyone seems to serve a purpose for a traditional summer outing. There’s an MC, Duncan Disorderly and his sidekick, Helen Highwater. I find it hysterical that they even made them custom nametags.
The scoutmaster is Justin Credible and the waitress is Anna Break (seriously, these names are gold), they were leading children in fun games. The first one required the children to put an Oreo on their head and try to make it land in their mouth, which was hilarious to watch.
The second required kids to keep balloons up in the air, which obviously didn’t work with the heavy breeze blowing through Buena Park.
Another was for the adults and required them to move one colored cup from the top to the bottom and back up again.
I found Anita Drink (no, seriously, who wrote these names, I want to thank them) lounging on one of the giant beach chairs, wine glass in hand. Watching her was hilarious, as she’s drunk on wine and has hysterical one liners.
Lawn Games
Knott’s has set up seven party games all around the Calico Mine Stage “lawn.” Most of these are oversized versions of standard party games, but they were constantly in use, the kids couldn’t get enough of them.
Berry Pong: Beer pong but with a lot less alcohol
Hole-In-One Golf: Miniature golf but with a lot less putting
Corn Hole: A classic bean toss. Just watch your aim.
Giant Jenga: Jenga but…bigger
Giant Checkers: Checkers but with hockey puck sized pieces
Tiki Toss: An infuriating game that requires you to throw a small metal ring into a hook, hopefully missing all the people around you as it swings back.
Knott’s Summer Nights succeeds in everything it sets out to do. It creates new things for the guests to see and do, has great food, and is really focused on what Knott’s does best – live entertainment. After spending most of the week at the launch of a very serious new galaxy far, far away, Summer Nights felt like a breath of fresh air due to its upbeat vibe and musical flair.
With Ghost Town Alive’s incredible live-action roleplaying during the day and the wonderful live entertainment as well as the delicious food of Knott’s Summer Nights, many folks may just find themselves the perfect Summer hang-out for the whole family.
Discount Theme Park Tickets & Travel
Discount Disneyland Tickets and travel – HERE