Summer in Texas draws families looking for excitement, and from the 1960s to the late 1980s, that meant road trips to the state’s famous theme parks: Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, the beloved AstroWorld and WaterWorld in Houston. SeaWorld San Antonio opened in 1988, and four years later, Gaylord Entertainment Company, best known as the parent of Opryland, launched a new kind of park in San Antonio: Fiesta Texas. In 1995, Time Warner bought the park, officially turning it into Six Flags Fiesta Texas.
Jeffrey Siebert, regional general manager for Six Flags Entertainment Company, says the theme park’s magic hinges on one key idea: making the guest experience effortless.
“When our guests come to the park, they are here for an ecstatic day of fun,” Siebert said. “Their job is to have fun on rides and attractions, do some shopping, see some shows—a pure day of magic. Behind the scenes, there is an entire team ensuring we are delivering that guest experience in a strategic and systematic way.”
Sangerfest Halle in the Spassburg German-themed area. The food hall is built to accommodate hundreds of guests, serve scratch-made meals, and offer German music live on stage.
Parks like Fiesta Texas can anticipate what visitors will want—such as which rides they want to go on first, when they’ll get hungry, and when they’ll want to see a show. The theme park team works to ensure everything is ready, from organized ride lines to dining spots that can serve hundreds. Logistics, technology, and staffing come together to make sure thousands of guests get what they need, and all they have to do is enjoy a great experience.
An Immersive World
Fiesta Texas is divided into zones centered around specific narrative themes. There’s the Hurricane Harbor water park; Los Festivales and Spassburg, which showcase San Antonio’s Mexican and German cultural roots; the Texas Cowboy-meets-steampunk Crackaxle Canyon; the superhero-filled DC Universe; and 1950s-inspired Rockville.
Each area showcases architecture and ambiance that reinforce its theme—Los Festivales with its Spanish stucco buildings, Spassburg where German tunes fill the air, and the bold art deco lines of the DC Universe, reminiscent of the 1990s Batman and Superman cartoons, accompanied by the sounds of Danny Elfman’s unforgettable Batman score.
Many of the rides at Fiesta Texas are narrative-driven and the lines leading to rides and rollercoasters are part of the experience. This steampunk-themed setting is part of Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger, one of the park’s rollercoasters.
Even the lines for the rides are part of the show. Take Crackaxle Canyon’s Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger. Guests wind through a mad scientist’s steampunk lab filled with gadgets, displays, and mechanical curiosities. On screen, Dr. Diabolical announces her plan to extract fear itself from her subjects. Her robotic assistants conduct riders into the coaster cars, which climb to a 90-degree drop—and pause. As guests hang suspended over the edge, a final taunt from Dr. Diabolical echoes before the plunge.
Immersion continues during meal times, creating authentic experiences once again. In Spassburg, German music plays overhead, and the newly renovated Sangerfest Halle food court features a menu of German dishes along with other favorites. Guests can sit at long, beer-hall-style tables and enjoy a German band on the Sangerfest Halle stage.
On the Stage: Live Performances
Live entertainment is central to the park’s identity—a nod to its Opryland roots and original layout. Six Flags Fiesta Texas features amphitheaters, pop-up stages, and the signature Zaragoza Theater to host great musical productions. Carla Sankey, senior production supervisor, is managing five productions this summer, each with multiple performances daily.
Carla Sankey, senior production supervisor, at the Zaragoza Theater stage, which is currently set for Forever Hollywood, with props and set pieces in the wings.
She explained that cruise lines and some theme park brands might hire a production company to create a turn-key feature show. At Fiesta Texas, everything is produced in-house: sets, costumes, music, choreography. Occasionally, the crew experiences a moment of luck. A recent production at Zaragoza left behind a giant movie screen, and when that show finished, Sankey and the team decided to reuse the screen in Forever Hollywood, the current feature performance.
Behind the scenes, the production process is nonstop, moving from idea to opening in roughly eight weeks. Sankey chuckled when asked about plans for the Zaragoza theater six months from now.
“We do new shows every season,” she said. “We’re going to do four new shows come September, then we’re going into rehearsal to open four or five shows in November. Then we open new shows and probably a parade in February, then new shows in March.”
It takes an extraordinary cast of performers, with members participating in multiple shows throughout the day. The Rockville cast has a 1 p.m. show, then heads to the pop-up stage at Pete’s Diner for a 3 p.m. performance, and afterwards joins the Zaragoza cast to perform with the Forever Hollywood group in the evening. There are three performances of Caliente at the Teatro Fiesta every day, before the cast reunites with the Forever Hollywood ensemble. Costumed characters and their hosts, who meet and greet guests around the park, are often swings and understudies for stage roles, or cast members might swap roles in each other’s shows to fit their schedules.
It’s live theater, Sankey said. Anything can happen, and the cast might notice everything that goes wrong: torn costumes, missed cues, or voice cracks in songs. But to the audience, it’s a seamless, flawless, memorable experience.
Return Visit: Surprise With the Familiar
Six Flags Fiesta Texas is designed for repeat visitors—not just every year, but often multiple times in a season. Its team recognizes that staying fresh is crucial, even for guests who come back. Siebert describes this approach as “surprising with the familiar.”
For last season’s Fright Fest, the park used Warner Brothers IPs The Conjuring and Stranger Things to create terrifying new haunted houses. During holidays like July 4th, the traditional nightly fireworks turn into a full 360-degree show, with multiple launch sites around guests across the park. Sankey mentioned several shows and parades already in development for specific times of the year.
Even rides evolve. Investment, planning, and construction can take years and a lot of resources, but how they are presented can change. For example, the Goliath rollercoaster, which never quite suited the Los Festivales theme, jut got a new look. Giant claw marks now slash through its old logo, hinting at the rebrand: the Chupacabra. A sign featuring the mischievous cryptid lurks just below the old logo.
Y’all Come Back Now…
At its core, there’s a mix of entertainment passion and careful planning. When Siebert visits a park as a guest, he doesn’t hold back—he experiences it first as a fan, then as an architect of unforgettable moments.
“I’m looking to see how we as human beings are interacting with the experience,” he said. “Our guests typically know all the answers. Our job is to interpret what our guests want, and make sure we’re delivering it for them.”
Parks will adapt and refine their ideas, from menu or snack options to building new rides or attractions. The new big rides can attract visitors, and that first experience offers a taste of everything else the park provides, encouraging a return visit.
Whether it’s a summer road trip or a holiday getaway, Texans visit their favorite parks for more than just rides. They want stories, spectacle, and the familiar thrill of entering another world—made possible by a carefully coordinated team working behind the scenes. It’s not just a day at the park; it’s a living production, designed to be unforgettable every single time.