Location | 22, chemin MacDonald Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 6A3 |
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Coordinates | 45°31′21″N 73°32′06″W / 45.52250°N 73.53500°WCoordinates: 45°31′21″N 73°32′06″W / 45.52250°N 73.53500°W |
Owner | Six Flags & Montreal |
Opened | April 1967 |
Operating season | May – October |
Area | 146 acres (59 ha) |
Rides | |
Total | 40 |
Roller coasters | 10 |
Water rides | 3 |
Website | La Ronde |
La Ronde (Round) is an amusement park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, built as the entertainment complex for Expo 67, the 1967 world fair. Today, it is owned and operated by Six Flags. The park is under an emphyteutic lease with the City of Montreal, which expires in 2065. It is the largest amusement park in Quebec, and second largest in Canada.
It is on 146 acres (59.1 ha) located on the Northern tip of Saint Helen's Island. This is a man-made extension to the island in the space were the small Ronde Island had been. The park hosts L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, a highly regarded international fireworks competition. La Ronde is one of two Six Flags parks not to be officially branded as a Six Flags park (the other being Great Escape in Queensbury, New York).
The park opens from mid-May to late October, with peak admissions in July. Toddlers under the age of 2 receive free admission. Family rides require a height of 36 in (0.91 m), while most intermediate rides require 44 in (1.12 m)) and high-thrill rides require 52 or 54 inches (1.32 or 1.37 m).
La Ronde closes its season in the last weekend of October. To celebrate Halloween, in the month of October, the park hosts its annual La Ronde's Fright Fest. The festival includes four extravagant haunted houses and more than a hundred horrifically-costumed performers, who roam the park looking for new victims to thrill and scare.
The park has 40 rides, including ten roller coasters; among them is Le Monstre, a 40-metre (131 ft) high wooden double-tracked roller coaster which holds the record for highest double-tracked roller coaster in the world.
La Ronde was the entertainment complex built for Expo 67, the world fair held in Montreal from April 27 to October 29, 1967. The exposition was located on 400 hectares (ha) of man-made islands in the St Lawrence River adjacent to Montréal, and comprised six “theme” pavilions, 48 national pavilions, four provincial pavilions, 27 private-industry and institutional pavilions, and La Ronde – a 54-ha entertainment complex with theatres, midway attractions, drinking and dining. Visitors could experience the rides, restaurants and beer halls of La Ronde until 2:30 a.m. nightly. The rest of the Expo site closed down at 10:30 p.m. After Expo 67 World's Fair, the City of Montreal continued to run the amusement park for the next 34 years.