Gröna Lund’s new monster ride opens 2021
By News Release | December 10, 2020
Three long years of waiting are over. On April 24 Gröna Lund will open its greatest attraction to date. The legendary roller coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard has been contracted by the 138-year-old Swedish waterfront amusement park to custom design a never-before-seen inverted steel coaster. The new coaster will have guests soaring 34 meters above the park at speeds up to 90 km/h. Get ready for Monster – King of Roller Coasters!
In the autumn of 2017, work started on the most extensive construction in the long history of Gröna Lund. One third of the park was to be completely refurbished and transformed, adding themed environments, restaurants, games and a new waterfront boardwalk. This new area was due to open in 2020 but following Covid-19 restrictions in Sweden the opening had to be postponed. Now we look forward to the premiere of Gröna Lund on April 24, 2021, when the new area will be opened, featuring the park’s brand-new crown jewel Monster – King of Roller Coasters.
“This is by far the biggest and greatest ride in the history of Gröna Lund. The whole construction process was so extensive it started three years ago in the fall of 2017, long before the pandemic. With an entire year lost to Corona, it’s even more important to start the season of 2021 in the strongest possible way. And that’s exactly what we will do with a ride like Monster”, says Magnus Widell, CEO of Gröna Lund.
“We’ve travelled the world for years visiting different amusement parks and we’ve tried out hundreds of roller coasters. That’s why we proudly, and without exaggerating, can say that Stockholm now will get a world class roller coaster with the premiere of Monster”, says Johan Tidstrand and Mattias Banker, owners of Gröna Lund.
“34 meters up, at the top of the lift hill, the first drop will plunge riders towards the water at 90 kilometers per hour. Riders will be upside down no less than four times as Monster soars above Gröna Lund, passing both the Fun House and our Zac-spin coaster Insane”, says Peter Osbeck, Senior Ride Manager at Gröna Lund.
Today we are also excited to reveal the story behind the new ride Monster, which is based on a local urban legend.
“At the time when the subway system in Stockholm was expanding, there were plans for a subway station under the island of Djurgården at the Stockholm waterfront. But suddenly the workers abandoned the construction site, and the station was never finished. What really happened in the tunnels deep beneath the surface of Gröna Lund is still unknown, but rumor has it that something lurking in the deep had been awoken. The unfinished station was sealed with concrete and fell into oblivion. Decades later, during the construction of a new roller coaster, Gröna Lund workers discovered the abandoned subway station. It is now being used as a station when boarding the roller coaster, which was named Monster after the myth and urban legend surrounding the old subway station. The real truth about what transpired in the tunnels, and if the myth is true? No one knows…”