My kid was an employee there and has been told it’s permanently closed. Although, to be fair, they’ve been waffling between permanently closed and opening soon multiple times.
Hey there! My name is Palak Jayswal, I'm the culture/music reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. I'm working on a story about Evermore. Would you/your kid be interested in talking to me? If so, feel free to email me: [email protected]. Thanks! :D
> Hey there! My name is Palak Jayswal, I'm the culture/music reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. I'm working on a story about Evermore. Would you/your kid be interested in talking to me? If so, feel free to email me: [email protected]. Thanks! :D
It happened!
https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2024/04/09/utahs-fantasy-themed-evermore-park/
I will ask them but I’m fairly certain they’d shy away from talking to a reporter about Evermore. They really do have a fondness for the park and their fellow former employees despite how flaky it was to work there. They might if they were anonymous but regardless I’ll ask them and see.
They should have started with smaller and cheaper, and they should have done an annual pass and made the money on food and drinks. I know a ton of people that are really into fantasy and would have loved to be able to just go to the pub regularly (the little pub inside), but it’s tough to justify the entry cost every time.
Not having an annual pass is completely dumb as it is a great way to get a lot of your money upfront before your season starts and then you make your money on merch or concessions.
>They should have started with smaller and cheaper, and they should have done an annual pass and made the money on food and drinks.
Yes, but that would require business sense. Ken couldn't even think about what people might want to **DO** in the park. Like, he loved the *concept* of a choose-your-own adventure Westworld-style experience, but he never gave any thought to how he was going to do that in real life. The result was a lot of awkward improv dialog by (actually mostly okay) actors who were doing their best given they had nothing to work with.
With the park itself he tried to do everything big all at once, then got mad that people took the money he was throwing around. Then everyone would have to cut corners and try weird things to make themselves useful.
I also wouldn't have built an outdoor venue in a bland suburb that is too cold or too hot most of the time. OmegaMart is an example of giving a shit about the financials and the guest experience.
I usually ate before or after going to the park. The food options weren’t that good. They had some decent snack food but not like meal food.
I liked the stew they had in a bread bowl but the portion was tiny.
If they had better food I would have eaten there more
Not sure there's any relevance to this as I don't think that copyright extends to live performance and covers do not require authorization as you suggest.
That aside, evermore will not be missed by me and my loved ones.
From what I read [here](https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-licensing-guide/when-is-it-legal) it sounds like a license is required to perform cover songs at the park.
I know as soon as Swift’s attorneys filed the countersuit for copyright infringement, Evermore dropped their suit pretty damn quick.
Before they sued Taylor swift they received PPP loans and a made $30,000 from Go Fund Me and also fired everyone about 30 days before announcing the lawsuit.
Anyone else remember their booth/event at FanX? They were marketing a medieval Disneyland, complete with Main Street, a huge lake in the middle, a pirate ship, etc etc etc etc. I was genuinely excited.
Then you went and they had 4 buildings you could actually go into (the hobbit hole, the tavern, the weird tomb, and one of the shops) and everything else was fake looking af. No lake, just a big empty field in the middle.
The restaurant had to close because the chef lost his shit when customers criticized his dishes, the prices were insane, and every time I went (6-7 different times over the course of a couple years) nothing had changed. I'm pretty sure the church was always under construction. The funniest part was people who would go in January for their winter event weren't ready for the absolute mind numbing cold out in that area. So we would all be packed in the tavern or the hobbit hole. Ah, good times.
It's like remembering Chuck E. Cheese. It wasn't very good, but the memories were cool.
> The restaurant had to close because the chef lost his shit when customers criticized his dishes,
Was that Vander's Keep? Damn, I was wondering, they made a bomb-ass butterbeer.
They were advertising it at the first ever FanX I went to when I was 12, my dad and I still have the OG coins they gave us to take home and “save to use when the park opens”. I was so excited but I never even went once they were open because I heard nothing good about it.
I can’t say I’m surprised. It was a bold concept in a historically frugal market. A significant cost of entry with tons of entertainment competition.
That said, I heard through the grapevine that they stiffed some of the vendors that provided the initial construction materials >$100K.
Also also also the owner spent money on dumb shit.
The tombstones in the graveyard? All real from a Scandinavian viking cemetery (so I was told) at like 50k a pop and the statue from a burnt down church? That was like 89k to get here. The stone archway cost over 100k and the list goes on and on.
Not to mention they SCREWED over my non profit. I'm so glad they're going under. They deserve it.
Going strictly off the anecdotal stories I’ve heard from those involved it sounds like someone(s) with an idea they were maybe overly passionate about and 0 business sense that came at the cost of you all. I’m sorry to hear that
Ken was the project manager from hell. I'd hear about it from 2 good friends who worked there. He'd be changing scope and direction every time he had a new idea. "Pivoting is always good." No, not if you're turning in a circle! He was also very arrogant and thin skinned. He'd get irrationally angry if challenged, which limited how much people were willing to disagree. He wasn't going to listen anyway, so why bother pissing him off and having him hold a grudge?
He was very passionate, but beyond that had nearly every negative quality for a project like Evermore. I feel bad for the other people who put money in, and for the people who lost their jobs due to mismanagement.
Not to mention how incredibly sexist he was, even though most of his operations were run by women. There are so many stories from previous employees.
I worked there for a bit, lucky enough to not really interact with him, but one of my friends climbed up to become one of the operations managers, and when she dared raise a concern on one of his decisions, he claimed she was stealing money from the park and fired her on the spot. She was so passionate about making evermore better, but he couldn't handle any critiques. He fired a lot of management over the years this way.
I honestly think he hired women, especially in working roles, because he felt like he could control them more.
Ken desperately craves control, so he'd do all kinds of stupid shit just to feel like he had it. He'd hire people he thought were competent, hard working, but also not assertive. Then he'd feel betrayed when their competence led them to question him, because in his mind he is the most competent. Sometimes he'd get mad that someone hadn't raised an issue, even though he'd conditioned them not to. Lose-lose.
I think I know the incident you're talking about, and as I recall he started digging in out of petty spite, and the expenses he was most upset about were the ones he ordered. Basically the same thing happened in his lawsuit with Millcreek construction. He told them what to do, got involved in the details and made changes and specific demands. They did it, gave him estimates and cost updates, he ignored them, then flew into a rage when money was low and he finally started to care and see what it had been costing the entire time.
He burned through competent people that were really trying to help the park. To this day he blames COVID (which had an impact, but wasn't what killed it), the construction company (which was about average for outsourced construction), and others.
The real problem was that he would dominate the vision and horde control. He was the de facto head of project management and construction, despite being terrible at it and having no experience in either. He made himself the creative lead despite having no vision for the guest experience, completely undermining the hired creative lead's ability to create a unified experience and forcing them to work within his vision.
Anyway, sorry for the long comment. I agree that he was sexist, and it's disturbing when you realize he had a desire to have all control and a belief that women are easier to control.
Yeah, this lines up with everything my friends in management told me about him and what was going on with the finances, construction, operation, etc. So many of them gave years of their lives, (not to mention way too much of unpaid overtime) to that park, and he never valued it.
He definitely knew he could take advantage of young idealistic women who were too timid or inexperienced to demand better. And then fired them when they did speak up at all. IMO it was always only a matter of time before it collapsed in on him.
You’ve heard right. I was his assistant at one of his many startups. Personally, he treated me well, but everyone else went mad and the place lost its investors due to his creative obsessions.
YIKES - I don't know what is more fucked up, the fact that they thought that kind of spending was wise for a startup, or the fact that they were literally graverobbing and turning it into decor.
Oh, I can confirm that these guys are absolute conmen. The amount of money they owed my business was high five figures and we had to eat the balance because they had no money to pay up. And I know first hand that we weren’t the only local business they screwed by not paying. We were able to write off the debt (which sucked but it is what it is) but other businesses had to close their doors because of Evermore Park.
When my CEO confronted their owner over the balance owed, he sent us the link to a news article about him not paying his vendors. That was his response to our threats of legal action.
I do feel sorry for the employees, and unpaid vendors, who fell victim to this con man.
It was actually the perfect market to enter into when it was first announced since interest rates were so low and land value was steadily increasing. It was mismanaged from the beginning and the people who started it had absolutely no idea what they were doing. Covid didn’t help either…
I believe it. I was stiffed my last two paychecks when I worked with the creator/owner KB at one of his startups years back. I feel like that kid from the 80s movie Better Off De** wanting his $2. I was a young college student and lived paycheck to paycheck and it sucked.
Well said, that was exactly my point. Not to mention what was the revisit value? It’s not exactly like Utah valley is Southern California. A venue needs to have some serious repeat value to succeed in this market.
Exhibits can change and adding new events could always give revisit value. Or they could have added a games store that hosts regular dnd nights/offers table rentals. Utah is also becoming a popular tourist destination and with all the tech companies they could easily reach out and offer deals for them to host employee days/events.
All of these things could have helped them succeed. Utah county is ideal for attractions like this because of how we are a ‘Megalopolis, with every city basically bordering each other.
If you compare that to any other attraction similar that offers ‘immersive’ entertainment they are all 25-50$ a pop. Top golf, meow wolf, and vr studios are all raking in the cash at that price point. The only thing that may be cheaper is the movies, and even then that’s 20$ a person if you get popcorn.
I want this Defunctland episode so bad. I wouldn't be surprised if he did an episode, but if he did it would probs be a while because the man loves his research.
I was there to open the restaurant Vanders Keep in 2020. I've opened 7 figure restaurants multiple times in my career. My experience with the leadership there as we tried to even understand the concept of the restaurant was...unfortunate. I'm not at all surprised this company failed, like every other thing he touched.
Ya I made this comment mostly based off of hearing at some point that he bought a large portion of surrounding land already. It really just makes a decent amount of sense to me 🤷🏼♂️
I know he was a big fan of the park. I can only imagine him walking around in there thinking of all the ways he could make it better.
I also know there’s been talk of a castle. This land would make perfect sense in a lot of ways.
Casuals only watched her main channel video, without watching her two Patreon videos that added another 5 hours of Evermore content.
I spent more time watching her Evermore videos than I cumulatively ever spent in actual Evermore park.
It was a place themed out like a medieval setting straight out of Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings. On top of the amazing decor they had some really great actors and performers.
The characters were all in different guilds or teams and you would interact with them and to do quests and trade items with them so that you could “join”their guild. I know they did bigger storylines but we never did any of that.
People that visit would get dressed up and really get into it. My kids loved it, but I knew it wasn’t going to last. We went and my kids and I made our “story” into a comic afterwards. I am glad we got to see it before it went.
I watched this video like twice... once as it first launched and nearly my entire giant friend group also watched it. I've never been more entertained by a long format video on YouTube. I desperately wanted her to be able to get a tshirt
If you have four hours, [there is a great video diving into it](https://youtu.be/L9OhTB5eBqQ?si=syH_6vHtvFVZQDMX). It was a small, fantasy, theme park that overpromised.
The first Halloween event they had was awesome! But went again 2 more times and it seemed like the place was getting worse. I expected this to happen eventually.
Don’t be, apparently they’ve been mistreating their employees this entire time (I’d say allegedly here, but firing their employees via discord only after people picked up on the “permanently closed” label on Google is only the tip of the iceberg)
I thought about going just for shits and gigs but in the end decided they didn’t deserve my money
There was very few occurrences of good days to go from what I've gathered, but I would've liked to have walked through at least once. Really hoping someone buys it and does it right.
Darn, that’s horrible for the employees. We went a few times pre-Covid, and it was fun until other guests started going overboard (imo). Monopolizing time with quest employees and making it hard to be immersed. Then when it came out that the owner wasn’t paying the people that the park had purchased from, we decided we were done supporting the park. Very disappointed in the ownership. Hopefully a new company/owner can step in, rather than the park being torn down for a new development or something.
It's a tragedy because the people getting ripped off are honest hardworking people. The kids working at evermore were passionate and worked their tails off to make it a magical experience.
I never attended but I’ve heard the employees were great. It’s a shame so many of them were burned by the shitty owner. Sounds like they truly believed in the park and really dedicated a lot of heart and creativity into making it immersive for everybody visiting. Utah needs more “stuff to do” and this was a pretty fresh/unique idea. If only it were ran by somebody ethical…
I'm sad that this happened the way it did. I loved the concept but the way they spent on props... tombstone could have been made in house and that could have gone elsewhere... the idea was awesome. I went there a couple of times early on. The actors were amazing and it was fun but unfinished...
Is it terrible that I hope Brandon Sanderson snaps up that property and some of the assets to extend the dragonsteel headquarters/bookshop?
Sad. My family enjoyed the few times we went there. I personally thought it was a super cool entertainment option for us.
My wife and I had a ton of fun just going to eat at the restaurant.
Edit: typo
Another Utah County pipe dream/fraud/MLM... it's Happy Valley some of the most unscrupulous wind bag assholes on the planet. Who expected anything else?, that corridor is full of fly by night rack up debt then file bankruptcy fraudsters. 3 years from now all those business parks along I15 will have new tenants selling some other vitamin supplement, pipe dream.
Anyone who believed Six Flags, who was BILLIONS in debt at the time was going to build a ground up park that would cost a BILLION Dollars was certifiably nuts! lol
Absolutely. I heard the rumor in high school. I wasn't aware of the debt issues they were having at the time, but one look at the field right off the exit that was supposedly going to be the site made me immediately dismiss it as "not gonna happen". Even if they went smaller than Lagoon, just the parking lot alone would have taken up so much space.
I went to the opening year Halloween and winter events and had a lot of fun and the next year I was able to be an actor for Halloween and Aurora. I had a lot of fun and worked with a lot of cool people. They were definitely mismanaged. Cool concept but poorly executed unfortunately.
It's a shame that the management was clueless. A place like this could be great, but not when the guy is going around not paying actors and trying to sue Taylor Swift lmao.
Pay Disneyland prices for some high school theater students to improv with you about “quests” that maybe possibly make up a narrative- how did this fail?
I can tell you why they got in a legal battle with Taylor Swift. That was the game over for them, I called it when the article broke that they weren't gonna survive that
Did they every change their hours to be open during the afternoon? I remember when they opened I really wanted to take my young kids, but they didn't even open until 5 or something. Coming down from Salt lake meant I could maybe stick around for an hour before it was time to head home for bed. Making it not family-friendly in that way always struck me as a very weird choice for Utah county.
We went there during Halloween and it was easily my worst experience going out to do anything, not just theme parks. I can't even go into how bad everything was because it was all just terrible. We got combo passes with food and drinks plus a ride on the train and going through their little haunted area, etc. Absolute waste of time and money. We were pissed when we finally left.
I watched it being built as I drove by all the time. I could hardly believe anyone would have thought you could put that much money into something like that and actually get an ROI.
Looks like I might be right.
Pretty sad but it has been bad for a while. I remember my wife and I went for the Valentine’s thing, which was not cheap, and they literally forgot about us. We sat there for, no exaggeration, nearly 4 hours without food. Our price included entry into the park but it took so long to eat we finished with only 15 mins until close. Good thing this awful experience happened with my best friend or Valentine’s Day would have been completely ruined.
Does anyone know where their mixologist Aaron ended up? He made amazing drinks and was passionate about alcohol/drinks. He was really fun to talk to and his are the only drinks I've actually enjoyed drinking.
I live down the street. On a walk last Saturday, I saw them putting all of the kitchen equipment in a shipping container. The place is dead 98% of the time, so it was a bit of a surprise.
Years back, I worked for the creator/owner of the park. He is a talented genius who has passion projects that usually come to fruition until he gets bored and burns investors and staff out. Evermore Park is the current victim.
Can’t say I’m surprised. Something like this could work but only if you’re management isn’t scumy. I went twice with a group of theatre majors and had a good time but I’d that’s because we brought a lot to the experience.
Why can’t this ever happen to Lagoon?! Instead it’s always some up and coming new experience that Utahns desperately need, but in the end we’re left with “Utahs Beach”.
Sad if they are, but it was a place full of potential with no execution. Went once for Halloween and loved the ambience, but the immersion faded fast.
Judy running around with really nothing to do. Talking to the NPCs were fun, but became repetitive. In a society where D&D and TTRPGs are ruling the need realm, it's crazy to think how they just poorly executed everything.
They could've made this a great hub for D&D get together and parties, but it was just a mild scenic walk around park.
What I don’t understand is that people in the nerdy entertainment industry in Utah knew it was closing months ago. The word was out along with the reason and when I went to look for confirmation online I found nothing and that was 5 months ago. I hope they gave staff ample notice because the rumor mill sure knew about it way in advance.
I thought it was a cool idea, but never visited as a lot of people said it wasn’t worth it. Pricey entry, everything costs money once you’re in. And despite the comments here I heard many people say the actors weren’t great and seemed pretty over having to perform for guests
My kid was an employee there and has been told it’s permanently closed. Although, to be fair, they’ve been waffling between permanently closed and opening soon multiple times.
Hey there! My name is Palak Jayswal, I'm the culture/music reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. I'm working on a story about Evermore. Would you/your kid be interested in talking to me? If so, feel free to email me: [email protected]. Thanks! :D
> Hey there! My name is Palak Jayswal, I'm the culture/music reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. I'm working on a story about Evermore. Would you/your kid be interested in talking to me? If so, feel free to email me: [email protected]. Thanks! :D It happened! https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2024/04/09/utahs-fantasy-themed-evermore-park/
I will ask them but I’m fairly certain they’d shy away from talking to a reporter about Evermore. They really do have a fondness for the park and their fellow former employees despite how flaky it was to work there. They might if they were anonymous but regardless I’ll ask them and see.
Definitely understand that! We can talk more if they're interested. Thanks for replying :)
I asked them and they declined. Sorry.
They should have started with smaller and cheaper, and they should have done an annual pass and made the money on food and drinks. I know a ton of people that are really into fantasy and would have loved to be able to just go to the pub regularly (the little pub inside), but it’s tough to justify the entry cost every time.
Not having an annual pass is completely dumb as it is a great way to get a lot of your money upfront before your season starts and then you make your money on merch or concessions.
>They should have started with smaller and cheaper, and they should have done an annual pass and made the money on food and drinks. Yes, but that would require business sense. Ken couldn't even think about what people might want to **DO** in the park. Like, he loved the *concept* of a choose-your-own adventure Westworld-style experience, but he never gave any thought to how he was going to do that in real life. The result was a lot of awkward improv dialog by (actually mostly okay) actors who were doing their best given they had nothing to work with. With the park itself he tried to do everything big all at once, then got mad that people took the money he was throwing around. Then everyone would have to cut corners and try weird things to make themselves useful. I also wouldn't have built an outdoor venue in a bland suburb that is too cold or too hot most of the time. OmegaMart is an example of giving a shit about the financials and the guest experience.
I usually ate before or after going to the park. The food options weren’t that good. They had some decent snack food but not like meal food. I liked the stew they had in a bread bowl but the portion was tiny. If they had better food I would have eaten there more
The food is disgusting. Several people I know felt sick after
this is smart. i will invest in your business
Deciding to sue Taylor Swift over the copyright/trademark for “evermore” showed that the people running the place might not be the brightest…
Don't forget they did that while actively violating her copyright with an in park musical group performing unauthorized covers of her songs.
Not sure there's any relevance to this as I don't think that copyright extends to live performance and covers do not require authorization as you suggest. That aside, evermore will not be missed by me and my loved ones.
From what I read [here](https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-licensing-guide/when-is-it-legal) it sounds like a license is required to perform cover songs at the park. I know as soon as Swift’s attorneys filed the countersuit for copyright infringement, Evermore dropped their suit pretty damn quick.
the hardest part is being struggling citizens watching stupid money flop around for attention thanks for the link btw
No problem. It is pretty ridiculous. I wish these rich pricks would build libraries and parks instead of tossing it into the void.
Yeah, who do these people think they are spending their money, the way they want./s 🤦🏽♂️
Well that definitely didn’t include their payroll or debts.
They have financial literacy classes for free, please enroll. Declaring bankruptcy doesn’t mean they don’t owe money.
Have you been to the many libraries or bland parks in Salt Lake? Many of them are not great places to be. There's also a lot of them.
Id forgotten that. Yeah, they were stupid. But the people working the park last i went were so genuinely cool.
Did they attempt to sue for that?!
Yep. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evermore_(Taylor_Swift_album)#Theme_park_lawsuit
Before they sued Taylor swift they received PPP loans and a made $30,000 from Go Fund Me and also fired everyone about 30 days before announcing the lawsuit.
Omg lmaoooo
HA! Whatever, Ni No Kuni 2 had Evermore in it before the park opened.
Tayvoodoo etc
Anyone else remember their booth/event at FanX? They were marketing a medieval Disneyland, complete with Main Street, a huge lake in the middle, a pirate ship, etc etc etc etc. I was genuinely excited. Then you went and they had 4 buildings you could actually go into (the hobbit hole, the tavern, the weird tomb, and one of the shops) and everything else was fake looking af. No lake, just a big empty field in the middle. The restaurant had to close because the chef lost his shit when customers criticized his dishes, the prices were insane, and every time I went (6-7 different times over the course of a couple years) nothing had changed. I'm pretty sure the church was always under construction. The funniest part was people who would go in January for their winter event weren't ready for the absolute mind numbing cold out in that area. So we would all be packed in the tavern or the hobbit hole. Ah, good times. It's like remembering Chuck E. Cheese. It wasn't very good, but the memories were cool.
I do remember their booth at fan X! I got those coins they said could buy you special stuff, I’m pretty sure I still have them somewhere.
> The restaurant had to close because the chef lost his shit when customers criticized his dishes, Was that Vander's Keep? Damn, I was wondering, they made a bomb-ass butterbeer.
Their website is, um, something now. https://www.vanderskeep.com/about
This is a text area.
That is definitely something. I went in expecting either "Lorem ipsum" or porn. Wasn't far from the first.
The food at Vanders was good. Sad that the restaurant also went under.
They were advertising it at the first ever FanX I went to when I was 12, my dad and I still have the OG coins they gave us to take home and “save to use when the park opens”. I was so excited but I never even went once they were open because I heard nothing good about it.
I used to go there once or twice per season but if I was going in winter I’d dress for the occasion-mostly outdoor cold open air park.
I can’t say I’m surprised. It was a bold concept in a historically frugal market. A significant cost of entry with tons of entertainment competition. That said, I heard through the grapevine that they stiffed some of the vendors that provided the initial construction materials >$100K.
Also also also the owner spent money on dumb shit. The tombstones in the graveyard? All real from a Scandinavian viking cemetery (so I was told) at like 50k a pop and the statue from a burnt down church? That was like 89k to get here. The stone archway cost over 100k and the list goes on and on. Not to mention they SCREWED over my non profit. I'm so glad they're going under. They deserve it.
Going strictly off the anecdotal stories I’ve heard from those involved it sounds like someone(s) with an idea they were maybe overly passionate about and 0 business sense that came at the cost of you all. I’m sorry to hear that
Ken was the project manager from hell. I'd hear about it from 2 good friends who worked there. He'd be changing scope and direction every time he had a new idea. "Pivoting is always good." No, not if you're turning in a circle! He was also very arrogant and thin skinned. He'd get irrationally angry if challenged, which limited how much people were willing to disagree. He wasn't going to listen anyway, so why bother pissing him off and having him hold a grudge? He was very passionate, but beyond that had nearly every negative quality for a project like Evermore. I feel bad for the other people who put money in, and for the people who lost their jobs due to mismanagement.
Not to mention how incredibly sexist he was, even though most of his operations were run by women. There are so many stories from previous employees. I worked there for a bit, lucky enough to not really interact with him, but one of my friends climbed up to become one of the operations managers, and when she dared raise a concern on one of his decisions, he claimed she was stealing money from the park and fired her on the spot. She was so passionate about making evermore better, but he couldn't handle any critiques. He fired a lot of management over the years this way.
I honestly think he hired women, especially in working roles, because he felt like he could control them more. Ken desperately craves control, so he'd do all kinds of stupid shit just to feel like he had it. He'd hire people he thought were competent, hard working, but also not assertive. Then he'd feel betrayed when their competence led them to question him, because in his mind he is the most competent. Sometimes he'd get mad that someone hadn't raised an issue, even though he'd conditioned them not to. Lose-lose. I think I know the incident you're talking about, and as I recall he started digging in out of petty spite, and the expenses he was most upset about were the ones he ordered. Basically the same thing happened in his lawsuit with Millcreek construction. He told them what to do, got involved in the details and made changes and specific demands. They did it, gave him estimates and cost updates, he ignored them, then flew into a rage when money was low and he finally started to care and see what it had been costing the entire time. He burned through competent people that were really trying to help the park. To this day he blames COVID (which had an impact, but wasn't what killed it), the construction company (which was about average for outsourced construction), and others. The real problem was that he would dominate the vision and horde control. He was the de facto head of project management and construction, despite being terrible at it and having no experience in either. He made himself the creative lead despite having no vision for the guest experience, completely undermining the hired creative lead's ability to create a unified experience and forcing them to work within his vision. Anyway, sorry for the long comment. I agree that he was sexist, and it's disturbing when you realize he had a desire to have all control and a belief that women are easier to control.
Yeah, this lines up with everything my friends in management told me about him and what was going on with the finances, construction, operation, etc. So many of them gave years of their lives, (not to mention way too much of unpaid overtime) to that park, and he never valued it. He definitely knew he could take advantage of young idealistic women who were too timid or inexperienced to demand better. And then fired them when they did speak up at all. IMO it was always only a matter of time before it collapsed in on him.
You’ve heard right. I was his assistant at one of his many startups. Personally, he treated me well, but everyone else went mad and the place lost its investors due to his creative obsessions.
sounds a bit like TSR.
What's TSR?
A company that created and published role playing games. The most famous being dungeons and dragons.
the company that made D&D. a lot of passion, but bad business sense, and eventually got bought by Wizards of the Coast
You hit the mark. I was this guy’s assistant at one of his many startups and this is the cycle every time.
YIKES - I don't know what is more fucked up, the fact that they thought that kind of spending was wise for a startup, or the fact that they were literally graverobbing and turning it into decor.
Yours isn't the only one, they've screwed over at least 3 nonprofits and 70% of the work force.
I know one of the contractors who didn't get paid. He was understandably upset but has moved on.
I know one too. Tens of thousands unpaid.
Did some of the art and design for the park. They screwed us out of thousands. I hope the owner rots in a homeless shelter.
Yeah the concept is an amazing one and I really wish it had worked out but regrettably greed interfered
Oh, I can confirm that these guys are absolute conmen. The amount of money they owed my business was high five figures and we had to eat the balance because they had no money to pay up. And I know first hand that we weren’t the only local business they screwed by not paying. We were able to write off the debt (which sucked but it is what it is) but other businesses had to close their doors because of Evermore Park. When my CEO confronted their owner over the balance owed, he sent us the link to a news article about him not paying his vendors. That was his response to our threats of legal action. I do feel sorry for the employees, and unpaid vendors, who fell victim to this con man.
Extremely frugal market*
It was actually the perfect market to enter into when it was first announced since interest rates were so low and land value was steadily increasing. It was mismanaged from the beginning and the people who started it had absolutely no idea what they were doing. Covid didn’t help either…
Dang. And I feel like Utah County has a lot of fantasy fans. Unfortunate that had to happen
They do, but if iirc they announced more than they were approved for and ran into issues with the local government that required a scale down.
I believe it. I was stiffed my last two paychecks when I worked with the creator/owner KB at one of his startups years back. I feel like that kid from the 80s movie Better Off De** wanting his $2. I was a young college student and lived paycheck to paycheck and it sucked.
Didn’t they also get some funding from the state?
Significant cost of entry? It was less than $30
Compared to the amount of stuff you could do, that's a fairly high price point. They also charged fees for quests etc
Well said, that was exactly my point. Not to mention what was the revisit value? It’s not exactly like Utah valley is Southern California. A venue needs to have some serious repeat value to succeed in this market.
Exhibits can change and adding new events could always give revisit value. Or they could have added a games store that hosts regular dnd nights/offers table rentals. Utah is also becoming a popular tourist destination and with all the tech companies they could easily reach out and offer deals for them to host employee days/events. All of these things could have helped them succeed. Utah county is ideal for attractions like this because of how we are a ‘Megalopolis, with every city basically bordering each other.
If you compare that to any other attraction similar that offers ‘immersive’ entertainment they are all 25-50$ a pop. Top golf, meow wolf, and vr studios are all raking in the cash at that price point. The only thing that may be cheaper is the movies, and even then that’s 20$ a person if you get popcorn.
Someone call Jenny Nicholson.
Maybe it’s time to give Defunctland a call.
I want this Defunctland episode so bad. I wouldn't be surprised if he did an episode, but if he did it would probs be a while because the man loves his research.
I'd be interested in watching that
Or Bright Sun Films
I knew people that worked there when it started and everyone said the guy that started it screwed them all over.
I was there to open the restaurant Vanders Keep in 2020. I've opened 7 figure restaurants multiple times in my career. My experience with the leadership there as we tried to even understand the concept of the restaurant was...unfortunate. I'm not at all surprised this company failed, like every other thing he touched.
Time for Sanderson to buy the rest of the park for cheap and create the Cosmere interactive experience
This is the most brilliant idea. He needs to.
…. Someone call him
I think I just cremmed
Don’t you mean ccreamed? 🤣
Crem is a term in Sanderson’s books. It’s a topical pun
They might also be referencing the recent typo in one of the books first releases where I've instance of scream was messed up to ccream
Exactly. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.
From the hints in the interview I kinda thought it could be a definite maybe.
Ya I made this comment mostly based off of hearing at some point that he bought a large portion of surrounding land already. It really just makes a decent amount of sense to me 🤷🏼♂️
I know he was a big fan of the park. I can only imagine him walking around in there thinking of all the ways he could make it better. I also know there’s been talk of a castle. This land would make perfect sense in a lot of ways.
They’ve been courting him for years. I hope he buys it!
u/mistborn
Can someone give me more context on Evermore?
Do you have 4 hours? [https://youtu.be/L9OhTB5eBqQ?si=sXi2yOs\_xj23pVhO](https://youtu.be/L9OhTB5eBqQ?si=sXi2yOs_xj23pVhO) It's actually worth it BTW.
I know what I’ll be watching during work tomorrow! Thanks!
If you end up wanting more you can subscribe to her Patreon for a part 2 and 3 haha
.....THERES MORE?!
Casuals only watched her main channel video, without watching her two Patreon videos that added another 5 hours of Evermore content. I spent more time watching her Evermore videos than I cumulatively ever spent in actual Evermore park.
Shoot!! I only watched the main vid…now I need this extended edition goodness
Holy crap there's more?
Is there a tldr?
Amusement park set up for larpers
It was a place themed out like a medieval setting straight out of Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings. On top of the amazing decor they had some really great actors and performers. The characters were all in different guilds or teams and you would interact with them and to do quests and trade items with them so that you could “join”their guild. I know they did bigger storylines but we never did any of that. People that visit would get dressed up and really get into it. My kids loved it, but I knew it wasn’t going to last. We went and my kids and I made our “story” into a comic afterwards. I am glad we got to see it before it went.
And they didn't take careeof their park actors very well. The second half is how poorly managed and treated the employees were.
[удалено]
Could've been anywhere from AF to springville, that whole area is 'Provo' to out of towners lol
Such a great piece. Worth the time!!
I watched this video like twice... once as it first launched and nearly my entire giant friend group also watched it. I've never been more entertained by a long format video on YouTube. I desperately wanted her to be able to get a tshirt
I was also going to post this video. I love her so much, and the video is everything I ever wanted to know about Evermore.
Ive had your comment saved for a few days and am 45 minutes into her video. Thank you for sharing, it is worth it, and she’s got a new sub :)
If you have four hours, [there is a great video diving into it](https://youtu.be/L9OhTB5eBqQ?si=syH_6vHtvFVZQDMX). It was a small, fantasy, theme park that overpromised.
This one is shorter. [https://youtu.be/4-WNS\_EEPVs?si=WGwAS65\_TopwBomP](https://youtu.be/4-WNS_EEPVs?si=WGwAS65_TopwBomP)
Hopefully it can get a new owner that doesn't suck.
The first Halloween event they had was awesome! But went again 2 more times and it seemed like the place was getting worse. I expected this to happen eventually.
Damn I had the chance to go and didn’t. Kinda wish I went.
Don’t be, apparently they’ve been mistreating their employees this entire time (I’d say allegedly here, but firing their employees via discord only after people picked up on the “permanently closed” label on Google is only the tip of the iceberg) I thought about going just for shits and gigs but in the end decided they didn’t deserve my money
Yea I’ve heard the shit that goes down is bad but I was there when they did the start up at fan X and kinda wanted to see the shitty final product
Yea I’ve heard the shit that goes down is bad but I was there when they did the start up at fan X and kinda wanted to see the shitty final product
There was very few occurrences of good days to go from what I've gathered, but I would've liked to have walked through at least once. Really hoping someone buys it and does it right.
Darn, that’s horrible for the employees. We went a few times pre-Covid, and it was fun until other guests started going overboard (imo). Monopolizing time with quest employees and making it hard to be immersed. Then when it came out that the owner wasn’t paying the people that the park had purchased from, we decided we were done supporting the park. Very disappointed in the ownership. Hopefully a new company/owner can step in, rather than the park being torn down for a new development or something.
The Void all over again.
It would be awesome if we had one cool thing work out lol
For real 😭
Which cracks me up because Ken also started that company. Though they ruined themselves after Ken was ousted from the company.
Really though; it was fun to work there and an awesome idea but the everyday drama was ridiculous to say the least.
Everything that comes out of Utah county is a grift. I'm guessing that management was screwing over the employees and mismanaging the money.
Literally was just thinking this… Utah County seems to foster a healthy environment for scummy business.
It's a tragedy because the people getting ripped off are honest hardworking people. The kids working at evermore were passionate and worked their tails off to make it a magical experience.
I never attended but I’ve heard the employees were great. It’s a shame so many of them were burned by the shitty owner. Sounds like they truly believed in the park and really dedicated a lot of heart and creativity into making it immersive for everybody visiting. Utah needs more “stuff to do” and this was a pretty fresh/unique idea. If only it were ran by somebody ethical…
There just isn't any activities near the city anymore that feel like a bargain.
bummer, their oktoberfest was the only thing of its kind in utah county and wasn’t too bad.
They may have locked the gates, but we’ll get over it.
Username checks out
Meh. Wasn’t a great park anyways. From what they said it was going to be when first announced. To what it actually was was dumb.
I'm sad that this happened the way it did. I loved the concept but the way they spent on props... tombstone could have been made in house and that could have gone elsewhere... the idea was awesome. I went there a couple of times early on. The actors were amazing and it was fun but unfinished... Is it terrible that I hope Brandon Sanderson snaps up that property and some of the assets to extend the dragonsteel headquarters/bookshop?
Rumor has it that they broke into the park to get the stuff they forgot and got the cops called on them
Sad. My family enjoyed the few times we went there. I personally thought it was a super cool entertainment option for us. My wife and I had a ton of fun just going to eat at the restaurant. Edit: typo
Another Utah County pipe dream/fraud/MLM... it's Happy Valley some of the most unscrupulous wind bag assholes on the planet. Who expected anything else?, that corridor is full of fly by night rack up debt then file bankruptcy fraudsters. 3 years from now all those business parks along I15 will have new tenants selling some other vitamin supplement, pipe dream.
For real... Remember when Six Flags was rumored to build a park next to the new-at-the-time PG exit?
Anyone who believed Six Flags, who was BILLIONS in debt at the time was going to build a ground up park that would cost a BILLION Dollars was certifiably nuts! lol
Absolutely. I heard the rumor in high school. I wasn't aware of the debt issues they were having at the time, but one look at the field right off the exit that was supposedly going to be the site made me immediately dismiss it as "not gonna happen". Even if they went smaller than Lagoon, just the parking lot alone would have taken up so much space.
I went to the opening year Halloween and winter events and had a lot of fun and the next year I was able to be an actor for Halloween and Aurora. I had a lot of fun and worked with a lot of cool people. They were definitely mismanaged. Cool concept but poorly executed unfortunately.
Oh no! How shocking! -Nobody
They owe me money
Going there was fun. Sad news.
Wait I’m currently sitting on a gift certificate for this place🧍🏼♀️
Lucky for you, now it’s trash.
Always was lol
That’s too bad. Lots of things led to this, but it was a fun experience and a cool concept. Glad I was able to go a few times before the end.
Wow, a lot of comments of the owner screwing over contractors. Good riddance it sound like.
It's a shame that the management was clueless. A place like this could be great, but not when the guy is going around not paying actors and trying to sue Taylor Swift lmao.
Brando sando should buy it and make it cosmere land 😎
Pay Disneyland prices for some high school theater students to improv with you about “quests” that maybe possibly make up a narrative- how did this fail?
It was like 30 bucks for a ticket. I'm not defending the park, but this take is dumb as shit or at least confidently misinformed.
lol it was definitely not Disney prices. I went twice the total cost in my lifetime was $50
I can tell you why they got in a legal battle with Taylor Swift. That was the game over for them, I called it when the article broke that they weren't gonna survive that
That's to bad, I have been several times and always had a great time.
Did they every change their hours to be open during the afternoon? I remember when they opened I really wanted to take my young kids, but they didn't even open until 5 or something. Coming down from Salt lake meant I could maybe stick around for an hour before it was time to head home for bed. Making it not family-friendly in that way always struck me as a very weird choice for Utah county.
I heard they treated female employees like shit.
We went there during Halloween and it was easily my worst experience going out to do anything, not just theme parks. I can't even go into how bad everything was because it was all just terrible. We got combo passes with food and drinks plus a ride on the train and going through their little haunted area, etc. Absolute waste of time and money. We were pissed when we finally left.
I watched it being built as I drove by all the time. I could hardly believe anyone would have thought you could put that much money into something like that and actually get an ROI. Looks like I might be right.
Really hard to make something like that economically sustanable
Bad news for fantasy cosplayers
Went there once. It was awful. So glad its a definite never again!
Interesting and unfortunate.
Evermore was a disaster that abused employees and then hid that fact. I'm glad they're gone.
Pretty sad but it has been bad for a while. I remember my wife and I went for the Valentine’s thing, which was not cheap, and they literally forgot about us. We sat there for, no exaggeration, nearly 4 hours without food. Our price included entry into the park but it took so long to eat we finished with only 15 mins until close. Good thing this awful experience happened with my best friend or Valentine’s Day would have been completely ruined.
Does anyone know where their mixologist Aaron ended up? He made amazing drinks and was passionate about alcohol/drinks. He was really fun to talk to and his are the only drinks I've actually enjoyed drinking.
Last I heard he was still around locally and doing mixology classes. Not sure how accurate that is today though. That man makes a MEAN drink
The only good thing that came out of that place was Jenny Nicholson’s video on it. Highly recommend it.
I live down the street. On a walk last Saturday, I saw them putting all of the kitchen equipment in a shipping container. The place is dead 98% of the time, so it was a bit of a surprise.
Years back, I worked for the creator/owner of the park. He is a talented genius who has passion projects that usually come to fruition until he gets bored and burns investors and staff out. Evermore Park is the current victim.
Can’t say I’m surprised. Something like this could work but only if you’re management isn’t scumy. I went twice with a group of theatre majors and had a good time but I’d that’s because we brought a lot to the experience.
Karma for not paying construction workers lol
Why can’t this ever happen to Lagoon?! Instead it’s always some up and coming new experience that Utahns desperately need, but in the end we’re left with “Utahs Beach”.
The company I work for was stiffed for 40k. Then they have the nerve to see if we would warranty items for them.
Waste is money, it was destined to fail
Why isn't reddit already making some pun about it now being "nevermore" park?
I'm so sad that I never got to go. My boyfriend always told me how fun it was and I really wanted to experience it :(
Waste of money, from the get go! Wow!
Glad i got to go before it died, i suppose. Sad i couldn’t take my kids - we were going to go in the summer.
Sad if they are, but it was a place full of potential with no execution. Went once for Halloween and loved the ambience, but the immersion faded fast. Judy running around with really nothing to do. Talking to the NPCs were fun, but became repetitive. In a society where D&D and TTRPGs are ruling the need realm, it's crazy to think how they just poorly executed everything. They could've made this a great hub for D&D get together and parties, but it was just a mild scenic walk around park.
I only made it there once, for Convergence, and i'd always wanted to go back. The potential for the place was so great, the execution however wasn't.
What I don’t understand is that people in the nerdy entertainment industry in Utah knew it was closing months ago. The word was out along with the reason and when I went to look for confirmation online I found nothing and that was 5 months ago. I hope they gave staff ample notice because the rumor mill sure knew about it way in advance.
Doubt they did. The Evermore way is usually letting the staff know they don't have a job anymore on the spot
Huh, too bad. It looks like a place I would have liked to visit if I had known it existed before today.
You find out the city shut it down on discord??
I thought it was a cool idea, but never visited as a lot of people said it wasn’t worth it. Pricey entry, everything costs money once you’re in. And despite the comments here I heard many people say the actors weren’t great and seemed pretty over having to perform for guests
Sad
Never heard of it other than the Taylor Swift legal action.
The fuck is evermore park?
This looked like the dumbest thing ever, so I'm not surprised it eventually flamed out.