Jerudong Park

Jerudong Park

Jerudong Park rollercoaster in May 2004
Location	Brunei
Opened	1994 (1994)

Jerudong Park is an amusement park in Brunei. It is the largest and most expensive amusement park in South East Asia, built and funded by the Bruneian government for $1 billion.

It is notable that during its first few years of operation, Jerudong Park featured no admission fees and free rides. It is currently larger than phase 1 of Hong Kong Disneyland. The public only had to queue up for rides. However, recently the number of visitors and tourists has dropped significantly and the administration has started a one time B$15 admission fee, and allride ticketing system. According to the park's website, many of its rides are for sale.

Currently, the theme park has reduced its footprint to Phase 1 and 2, the original Playground. It has introduced a revised system of ticketing called the ticket card system. The park is once again free entry to the general public, but guests have to buy ticket cards to be able to use the rides and attractions. These tickets come in $8 and $10 price range. The ticket cards have slots which can be punched using a single hole puncher - one punch equals one use of any ride or facility for one person. This system therefore gives the guest the choice to choose which ride he or she would want to use, and how many would be able to use the facility using the ticket card. An $8 ticket card has 4 slots and 1 free slot (effectively allowing one guest to use 5 rides/attractions - or 2 guests to use two rides with one extra). The $10 ticket card has 5 slots plus 3 free slots (which means a guest can use 8 rides attractions and so on). The free entry has seen a marked increase in the number of people going to the park, as shown on weekends where one can observe a large group of families having picnics in the field, or long queues on the remaining rides and attractions.

Jerudong Park first opened in 1994.

Michael Jackson performed a free concert at the Jerudong Park Amphitheatre on 16 July 1996, attended by 60,000 throughout the park. The concert was in celebration of the 50th birthday of Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei and was attended by the Brunei royal family, though the Sultan himself did not attend. Followed by Whitney Houston on August 24, 1996 for the wedding of Princess Rashidah, the eldest daughter of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The Setlist was almost the same as The Bodyguard World Tour except encore song was "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" included. She was reportedly paid $7 million to perform for this event. Media stories on the Brunei royal family indicated that Prince Jefri gave Houston a blank check for the event and instructed her to fill it out for what she felt she was worth. Jackson returned to perform another show on New Year's Eve 1997 as part of his HIStory World Tour. Janet Jackson performed a private concert of her Velvet Rope Tour at the park for the twenty-first birthday of Princess Hamidah of the Brunei royal family. An exclusive audio recording of the show was issued to attendees of Hamidah's birthday party.