Luna Park, Scarborough: The 80-year-old Yorkshire theme park that attracts generations of visitors
A 80-year-old theme park called Luna Park in Scarborough continues to attract visitors from across various generations who have fond memories of the park.
Luna Park on Sandside, Scarborough, was first established in the 1940s, carving a reputation in the Yorkshire coast town for around 80 years.
Dane Crow and his wife Cassie, who live in Thirsk, bought Luna Park in 2019, revamped it and have seen the theme park attract a variety of visitors from different generations.
Mr Crow has been involved with fairground rides all his life as have his parents and grandparents.
“My parents have always been involved with rides and their parents too, so it’s gone through the generations,” Mr Crow said.
“We bought the park in 2019, so this will make it our eighth season now.
“We have rides that used to travel on fairgrounds but we brought our rides to Luna Park to give a different variety of rides to what were here before.
“We get all ages who come here, little toddlers too, grandparents as well who have been here many many years ago when they were children and they’ve come back.
“It brings back memories of many years ago when they were children.”
Luna Park rides are modern compared to what they were before the takeover.
“I think previous years, the rides were quite dated at Scarborough but we gave them a complete revamp at Luna Park,” Mr Crow said.
“Our rides are quite modern and they are the latest rides that are out there at the moment.
“We’ve got rides for everybody, we’ve got rides for families, we’ve got some adult rides as well.
“We’ve even got the games, the small rides and even coin-operated little cars that small children can go on.
“We’ve also got a variety of sweets, candyfloss and all the fairground favourites.”
Scarborough has a lot to offer, Mr Crow said.
“I think Luna Park is good for tourism here, we attract quite a few people down this end of the seafront where we are,” he said.
“We recognise different people who are coming back from year to year, so we’re obviously doing something right.
“We do pride ourselves in everything being as clean and tidy and as up-to-date as we possibly can be to get people to keep coming back from year to year.
“Hopefully, when people come to visit, they will have a good experience and take away nice memories.”