A well used term for amusement parks that have shut down through misadventure or changing circumstances. As with dead people there’s a lot more of them than the living. They’re common targets for urban exploration or ‘urbex’ and enjoy a certain forlorn charm.

But let’s put it this way: would you rather visit the remnants of the original NY Luna Park, or be magically able to see it in its prime? Would you prefer to see the Wurstelprater as it stands now, or wait for a fire to take it?

A sad remnant of a park is often the source of hauntogical musing (as was Ozymandias, King of Kings) but a living park is host to many more fascinating subtexts and surprises. ‘Standing but Not Operating’ is the booby prize, allowing the viewer to shrug their shoulders and say ‘oh well too late’. A living park requires study – sometimes hard study.

I’m lucky to live near to Sydney Luna Park, which ran in Glenelg from 1930, then relocated to Sydney in 1935. A combination of gangsters, wowsers and politicians almost destroyed it in the 80’s and 90’s but it still runs, now protected as a heritage site. Would I prefer to lament over its skeleton? Hell no.

How does that fit with hauntology? The current craze for analogue sound and vision is fed with many reproductions, sound treatments, film stock and the like. It’s a style, a look, a genre. But no matter how you weave it – it’s just a reminder of the real thing. Often because the real thing is real expensive. And the real sound and vision was forward looking – electricity, stereo, technicolor et al. The old parks were built on engineering skill, the latest fashions, a drive towards bigger and brighter – and more modern. The soul of the old parks is in their energy.

This is why we travel to the old parks, to see them while still breathing.

FUN FACT
I was the first person to produce a web site for Luna Park Sydney. A very very long time ago.