Update: This article was updated 7/21/20 to include new information about Knott’s Taste of Calico event dates 

It’s been a while since we could actually say this, but welcome back to the Farm! As a big surprise, Knott’s announced a new festival last week, The Taste of Calico. Taking place in Ghost Town, the park is hosting a mini food festival that features more than 20 food items. While parts of the park are open for this festival, they are not operating any attractions, rides, nor large entertainment. Instead, Knott’s is operating within California’s strict business guidelines, serving food in an outdoor environment only. However, you will also find craft booths and many Ghost Town shops open as well. So there’s a surprising amount to do in the mostly closed park. Let’s take a look at the new operations and festival . . . 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Health Screening and Safety Procedures

Cedar Fair, Knott’s Berry Farm’s parent company, has committed a lot of resources to be able to reopen their parks as safe as possible. While Knott’s won’t be getting back to its regular operations anytime soon, the safety steps taken are likely what Cedar Fair intends on doing across the chain. Several of the parks in the Cedar Fair chain have already begun welcoming guests back (Cedar Point, Worlds of Fun, Dorney Park, and Kings Island). Here’s  what they are doing in other parks to ensure guest safety during their visit:

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

And here’s an interesting video the company produced for their flagship park, Cedar Point: 

While Knott’s themselves have not announced what the park entry process will look like when they do ultimately fully reopen, it would be a fairly safe bet that it will follow very closely to what the other parks in the chain will be doing and what to what we have experienced this weekend for the Taste of Calico.

At the Main Entrance Plaza, a new queue has been installed to allow temperature checks before entering the park. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Before entering the park, guests will be asked if they have experienced any COVID-19 symptoms in the past 14 days. When cleared, guests will continue through the check-point and get their temperature taken.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

In a surprising move, Knott’s California Shop has been completely gutted and is now being used for the health screening processes. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The temperature-taking process was quick and easy! Knott’s is using an infrared camera in order to read a guest’s body temperature as they walk through the room, no temp-gun needed! Just walk across the designated floor marking and you’ll be waived on through to the exit. Nothing invasive or scary about it. We found this method to be much more pleasant than the current temperature gun to the head being used at Disney.

At bag check, all of the security tents have been shifted to the side closest to the temperature screening area for ease of access. Cedar Fair is continuing to follow its standard bag check policy upon entering the park. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Into the park, we go!

Reminders of the risks of COVID can be found nearly everywhere upon entering the park, starting with the pre-recorded safety announcements at the entry and plexiglass around the turnstiles. Masks and social distancing are a must, and Knott’s is doing their best to make sure everyone is aware of the new protocols that have been put in place.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Around the park, benches and tables have been spaced out to accommodate social distancing, and to encourage guests to sit down to eat – rather than walking around without a mask eating food.  

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
They’ve rolled out the faux lawn in front of the Calico Stage to create a nice seating area. Lots of tables!
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Social distancing markers at all the restrooms.

In the now-defunct Mystery Lodge queue, near Calico Rapids, Knott’s has set up a Relax Zone which allows you to take your face mask off if you need a breather. But because the weather was lovely yesterday, and the event takes place later in the day (4pm until 10pm), very few people were using the area.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

This area uses Mystery Lodge’s outdoor line queue and features shade, fans, and benches to help cool you off during a hot day in the park. Signage requests for you to continue to social distance while you have your mask off.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

A side note, the real “mystery” of the Mystery Lodge, is why has it been closed for so long and what’s going to take its place? 

Taste of Calico

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

While Knott’s Berry Farm attractions remain closed to the public, this specially ticketed outdoor event gives guests access to the streets of Calico to sample some of Knott’s culinary creations, including boysenberry specialties, visit local crafters, and do some shopping at the specialty stores. The most exciting part is just walking around the park again! While this event requires each person to purchase a $25 5-sample tasting card to enter the park, it’s essential for controlling the number of people in the park and making sure that Knott’s can afford to operate the festival at the same time.

We understand that the event was limited to about 500 people per day. VERY limited indeed.

UPDATE: Today, Knott’s has announced that they will be extending the Taste of Calico food festival! The operational festival days are now July 24-26, July 31-August 2, and August 7-9. And there are also new, longer hours for the event as well: Fridays and Saturdays from 12pm-9pm, and 12pm-8pm on Sundays. Admission remains limited and pre-purchased from Knott’s website. 

Food

There several food options available, But due to some unfortunately long lines and slow service, we’ve only been able to try a few things during our visit.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Pastrami Sandwich on a Pretzel Bun with Boysenberry Mustard and a Side of Chips. Very good. But about 2 hours into the event they ran out and told guests it would take an an additional hour before more was available.  This location is across from the Calico River Rapids ride and is sort of in an out of the way spot, so it has the shortest lines.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Deep-Fried Potato Chips with an Onion Dip
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Left: Bread Pudding with a Crème Anglaise. Right: Mrs. Knott’s Biscuit Bites with Boysenberry Butter Dipping Sauce. Both were very good.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Pulled Pork Sliders. You can’t really go wrong with this one. But the fries were sort of basic. Would have been nice with a boysenberry slaw or even seasoned fries.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Boysenberry BBQ Wings. Good, but weren’t hot when served to us, which was disappointing after waiting in a line at least 30 minutes long.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Left: Basil Lemonade. Right: Mac & Cheese Bites with French Fries and a Sriracha Ketchup. This is a fun item . . . but the wait was over an hour!  See a trend here. The waits were really disappointing.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Mini Stuffed Churro with Boysenberry Filling. Why is this size not available year round? What’s great about this churro’s this size is you get more filling for the size than in a full size one.
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Roasted Corn with Butter and Cotija Cheese. Its roasted corn, how can you go wrong?
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Boysenberry Sausage on a Hoagie Bun. This was about a 25 minute wait. This is a returning item from pervious fesitivals and its delicious!

Here’s our takeaway on the food portion of the festival . . . the food is consistently good throughout the festival. But, because this is a small event, there are very few booths. As a result, everyone lines up 5 different times to use all of the value on their tasting cards. At 500 people that’s 2,500 line visits.  So waits became uncomfortably long very quickly. 

Merchandise:

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Knott’s has reopened several Gift Shops around Ghost Town, although what we’re most interested in the Crafters in the booths outdoors. For many of the crafters, this is their first opportunity to make money in months. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
The crafters were SO happy to see guests again. Be sure to spend some time shopping and chatting with them.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The teas are amazing. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Boysenberry hat anyone?!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

honey from local farmers. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

This booth is fun, they have a live beehive inside.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Entertainment

There are even some citizens of Calico chatting with guests and each other from the balconies of Ghost Town.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

While Knott’s has not officially listed any entertainment during this short festival, you will find character interaction and music throughout Ghost Town. During our visit, we were able to spot some of the citizens of Calico, including the Mayor and a bandit on top of the Saloon interacting with passing guests.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

We also spotted a magician playing with the crowd on stage in Calico Square.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

A Small Price to Pay For Boysenberries

While we had a wonderful time at the event we do have a few issues that we think can be easily resolved. Around Ghost Town, a great many of the Food Booths did not have distancing markers or enough of them (temporary nor permanent) laid out for guests as the lines became longer than planned. Generally, guests do a much better job of distancing where there are lines on the ground (even simple masking tape would work). Also, we experienced painfully long lines to get food items considering the small number of guests. At some points, the lines were estimated to be 45 minutes or longer! That’s a very long time to wait for slider-sized portions even in normal times.  

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

This leads us to how tickets are handled for this event. While the number of tickets was estimated to be limited to just 500 people, and the event was listed to run from 4 to 10pm on Friday & Saturday and Noon to 8pm on Sunday. Most guests seem to have arrived in that first hour. Knott’s probably should have staggered the ticket times to allow better guest flow throughout the event, possibly even extending the event hours so more tickets could be sold.

Guests are clearly not going to stay during the entire duration of the event, and staggering the number of guests entering every hour should help to keep food queue lines shorter and allow guests more time for shopping. Timed entries would also ease the burden on the temperature and bag check outside the park. If Knott’s wishes to extend the event beyond the two weekends listed, they really need to address the issue of lines. We admire all their new safety procedures, but safety sort of flies out the window when folks are packed into long lines.

Take a Virtual Stroll

MiceChat’s own Dusty Sage took a stroll around Knott’s new festival yesterday, here’s your chance to follow along . . . 

Elsewhere on the Farm

Halloween?

It sure does look like Knott’s has pulled their Halloween props out of storage and is working on the backstage mazes. See the images below and let us know what you think. But with the event just over 2 months away, it may just be wishful thinking on our part. That would be a big expense for Knott’s if the season had to be canceled as it looks like it might have to be. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
That tower is the exterior of “The Depths,” one of our favorite mazes
, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
And that’s Paranormal Inc. in the distance with stacks of props and materials in front.

Do you think Knott’s could do a smaller, socially-distanced, version of Haunt for 2020, or is it completely off the table? Let us know your thoughts on how a haunt might operate in these strange times.  But if ever there was a time when face masks would fit perfectly, it’s Halloween!

The Beauty of the Boysenberry

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

For some of us, it has been months since we have been in a theme park, let’s enjoy the beauty of this 100 year old park.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The Blacksmith was working away when we were there. It was an unnecessary but very nice touch for him to be staffed and give the area a little extra life. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The pathways of Ghost Town felt wide open and the gardens were beautifully planted. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Even the fiberglass Saloon girls know how to keep 6′ distance.  

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Bear-y Tales Coming Soon

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

While the park has been closed, Knott’s has continued work on their new attraction, Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair. On Friday we get our first look at the attraction and the attraction marquee from a distance. Knott’s has announced that once the park reopens officially, the new attraction will make its debut.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The marquee is fun to look at! It has lots of spinning parts. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
The sign has a fading lighting effect throughout the sign at night

Knott’s has also installed another Coke Refresh Station under the attraction station, which replaces part of the arcade.

As we take a closer look into the station, you can also just make out that the new loading platform mural has been painted as well as the vehicles have been painted to the classic red to match the original ones.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Looking at the queue entrance, there still work that needs to be done, but one thing to note is the line entrance has been rotated to face the Charleston Fountain.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Adorning the fences along the queue is these circle emblems lettering BT, for Bear-y Tales!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Behind the queue entrance, on the wall of the building, Knott’s has painted a big Berry Factory Mural as apart of the retheming.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

One final thing of note is that Knott’s has installed street signs on the lamp pole outside of Cordy’s Corner. The new street name is Memory Lane South.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Additional work has occurred on the Shultz Theatre. New canvas roof covers have been installed over the upstairs doors.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Taking a quick trip outside the park we can see that a new digital marquee sign has been installed over the upstairs balcony.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The digital sign only has two images stored in it at the moment. The second image confused us because it says Knott’s Berry Farm: Camp Snoopy Theatre. I wonder why the sign displays an image of something completely on the other side of the park?

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Marketplace

Outside the park, in the California Marketplace, Knott’s has moved the Calico Stage right into the middle of Paper Street to entertain guests during the weekends. The tables are spaced out with lots of distancing. It’s actually a nice spot to consume a chicken dinner from the to-go window just to the left.  

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Around the Marketplace, these beautiful eagle decorations adorn the 4th of July bunting.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

In the last couple of weeks, Build-A-Bear has reopened. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

At the door, you are told to wait for an employee to enter the store.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Inside, they feature the Trolls from the recent movie.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

We have also spotted some of the exclusive Build-A-Bear shirts for Knott’s.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Over at Virginia’s, specially themed face masks have arrived.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!
Please stay 6ft from the bear

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

The masks are $10 each. We really like the Calico Map design. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

We also spotted a bunch of the 100th Anniversary Pins inside the shop.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival! , Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Over at the recently reopened Peanuts Headquarters, you’ll find some new Snoopy and Woodstock plush that look really cute.

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

And the TGI Fridays has reopened for takeout (or eat in the outdoor patio or new cafe seating on the closed Paper Street)

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

 


Let Us Help

Theme parks are reopening, and whether you are ready to travel yet or not, there’s no better time to lock in low rates on future travel. But waiting on hold and not knowing what questions to ask isn’t the magical part of a vacation. That’s why MiceChat has partnered with Get Away Today to handle all the difficult stuff for you . . . all for no extra cost. That’s right, they do all the work and it doesn’t cost you extra. 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

Our travel partners at Get Away Today are here to help you with your theme park booking and rescheduling plans. We know you’re as uncertain about the future as we are. That’s why Get Away Today is offering the most flexible Disney travel options available. Ask about:  

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Give your family something to look forward to


Let’s Hear From You

We really did enjoy our time on the Farm. Hopefully, Knott’s will extend the Taste of Calico event for the rest of the summer (perhaps even until the park reopens). Despite a few social distancing shortfalls, Knott’s has made the experience as safe and fun as possible. If the park is unable to open soon, a rotating menu for the Taste of Calico could help fill the gap. And what about the question of Halloween? Possible, impossible . . . let us know what a socially-distanced Halloween event would look like! 

, Knott’s Berry Farm Partially Opens for NEW Festival!

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Brian Pinsky
Brian is an avid visitor of Disneyland and has been a Passholder for over 20 years. He is currently studying Civil Engineering and loves to map out the parks in his free time.