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Wicker Man Opens To Public After Weather Delays
Saturday 24th March 2018
After the original open day for the Wicker Man cancelled due to extremely cold temperatures and snowfall. Today Wicker Man has officially opened to guests. With a few. technical issues in the morning the ride stayed open until around 9 pm with guests joining the queue at the very end of the day for an evening /. nighttime ride with the queue time at 4 hours. 

The Wicker Man rollercoaster experience will see the chosen ones lured in by the Beornen, and invited to climb on-board the Beornen’s train passing further into their secretive world, splintering around a labyrinth of twisted track. Burning embers will light the path as the train hurtles towards the six-storey high flaming effigy. Speeding towards the Wicker Man, he will spectacularly ignite into real flames as the train bursts through his torso three times. 

Snow way we are riding today!
Saturday 17th March 2018
So... the day came around, Saturday 17th March, the scheduled opening day for Wicker Man, however... the one thing that Alton Towers can't control stopped this plan right in its path and that is, of course, Weather. Due to the "Mini beast of the east" a spell of cold weather and snow was due to come over the resort which would, unfortunately, mean the ride would be unable to operate.

However, we were able to check out the shop and see Wicker man for ourselves in person and man, this thing looks impressive. We also got to see glimpses of the new coffee shop and games stall on Wicker Man's plaza area.

Throughout the day the Beornen were wandering around the area interacting with guests as well as a band and fire dancers/breathers.

From the pictures you can see everything in place for opening and hopefully next weeks forecast holds up so the ride can open.

Wicker Man Opens 17th March
Thursday 8th March 2018
An opening date for the Wicker Man at Alton Towers has now been announced, via a newsletter published by the park the ride will be opening to the public on Saturday 17th March.

"Wicker Man New for 2018, Opens Saturday 17th March

Ride Wicker Man again and again for only £55 with the 2018 Season Pass.

Wicker Man is the world's most immersive rollercoaster experience to date, unifying cutting edge special effects with classic wooden coaster technology for the first time!"

Join us live from Alton Towers next Saturday from the opening of the ride:

http://live.themeparkguide.biz/?event=Wicker%20Man%20Open%20Day

Alton Towers Wicker Man Revealed
Sunday 7th January 2018
Alton Towers have now confirmed that new for 2018 will be "Wicker Man" 

Previously known as SW8 the ride name will be "Wicker Man" as seen by the 2018 promo artwork. From the construction, we saw when the park was open this year is going to be interesting with Universal Rocks, the company that built the rock work around Taron (Klugheim) at Phantasialand everyone's got high hopes for the theming around the ride. 

The new rollercoaster will be opening Spring 2018 with an opening date for the ride to be confirmed later on this year. 

Being the first wooden rollercoaster at Alton Towers this rollercoaster will be very different to what the park has built previously. Unlike other secret weapons, the park has not advertised the ride as a world's first but instead a world class experience.

The term "World class experience" has been mentioned a lot during press interviews and advertising. The ride is being pushed as an experience rather than a rollercoaster which is something the park used to do back in the 90's with the likes of Nemesis, in fact, until now the fact it is a rollercoaster has never been mentioned to the general public.

The micro site of the website has also changed from TheWelcoming.com to WickerMan.com

We will be live from the opening day of the rollercoaster over on our live blog. More details to follow closer to the time. 

EDIT: More information has been added since this article was added: 

NEW FOR 2018 – WICKER MAN AT ALTON TOWERS RESORT - THE WORLD’S FIRST ROLLERCOASTER EXPERIENCE FUSING WOOD WITH FIRE!

Wicker Man is a multisensory rite of passage guaranteed to get your heart pumping and senses tingling!

Join the chosen ones on the world’s most immersive rollercoaster experience to date, unifying cutting edge special effects with classic wooden coaster technology for the first time!

http://www.wickerman.com

#wickermanride

SW8 - Update (05/11/17)
Sunday 5th November 2017
So the last day of the season arrives and therefore, our last glimpse at the construction site (unless we have any fans at Alton Towers *wink* *wink*) and boy we were in for a treat... Not much has changed around the site, log fencing was prepped ready to go in place around the queue line and a lot more queue line within the turn around section had been put in place. We spotted a certain time-lapse camera on the sky ride support (which we obviously missed all season!) and the ride looked stunning in the winter sunshine. What we were mostly happy about was being allowed underneath the ride itself via the access road that they have opened over the years to help with the queues after the fireworks. This allowed a much better view of the first drop after the lift hill and the queue around the site. It seems to us that most of the queue line will be covered after you pass the queue line shop as the fence seems a lot higher in these areas. 

SW8 - Update (29/10/17)
Sunday 29th October 2017
Today we got a change of scenery around the SW8 site as the Katanga Canyon pathway opened to the public. We could now see the front end of the site a lot clearer such as the station building. We could see the exit of the head chopper through the theming structure and notice the queue line growing and spreading around the site. When looking down the Katanga Canyon path we could get a brief glimpse into the maintenance shed and could see the presence of brakes in place on the brake run. 

SW8 - Update (21/10/17)
Saturday 21st October 2017
Work continues to progress on the site, the most notable difference is a certain logo appearing on the side of the main theming structure. The games stall continues to be worked on and the queue line is starting to get built up more and more. Workers were on the first airtime hill and the turn before going through the main theming structure. Queue line has spread around the site now with fence appearing near the main station building. 

SW8 - Update (07/10/17)
Saturday 7th October 2017
So Scarefest has arrived! We visited the park for the first day of the festivities, so didn't get much of a chance to look at the SW8 site, however what we saw was very interesting indeed. We were given the first glimpse to the head chopper going through the main theming element of the ride. Work was happening on site, some workers were being lifted via crane and taken around the theming element where they were adding an extra cover around the element.

It also seems that track has started to be set in place on the lift hill so will keep our eyes peeled!

SW8 - Update (01/10/17)
Sunday 1st October 2017
Work continues to progress on site, the queue line fence has now started to go in place and the theming structure continues to be worked on. Logs have been put around the queue line further up the site and work on the lift hill has taken place hinting that track could be placed soon.

SW8 - Update (24/09/17)
Sunday 24th September 2017
Lots of change on site this week, the theming structure is now bigger than ever and rock work has started to form around the station.

The station is now painted green as is the building at the bottom of the site. The pathways have been covered in sand and new games stall has appeared.