Tivoli versus Disney

The daily royal parade at Tivoli

An exhibit of old posters advertising Tivoli

Denmark's Tivoli Park is one of the oldest amusement parks. It sits right in downtown Copenhagen, across the street from the railroad station. (The map of Tivoli (in Danish) shows how small the park is.

Tivoli has a general tone of aristocratic leisure, with gardens and restaurants that present themselves as upper class. There are open-air theatricals such as you might find at a noble estate. With its "good old days" atmosphere Tivoli resembles the Disney Main Street rather than more fantastic themes. Individual rides at Tivoli have their own character, but there is no attempt to mono-theme the whole experience of the park or to theme the individual rides as thoroughly as the Orlando parks do when they bring the waiting line into the theme.

So is Tivoli a theme park? Not quite, but you can see the idea coming to birth. However, the major change at Tivoli in recent years has not been an increase of theming but the construction of more thrill rides.