Six Flags Great Adventure Celebrates Summer Vibes And Medusa's Return

JACKSON, NJ — Medusa has returned to Six Flags Great Adventure, and the transformation is nearly complete, just in time for the Summer Vibes Festival this weekend at the amusement park.

Medusa, which was the world's first floorless top-rail roller coaster when it opened in 1999, had been known as Bizarro since 2009. But it has been rebranded with its original name and returns with a back story that mixes the Greek mythology of the snake-haired Gorgon with the Gold Rush era in the "Lost Town of Medusa," park officials said.

The Summer Vibes Festival includes specialty food offerings, a massive pinwheel tunnel, drumming painters, air dancers and a cool-down zone that includes a spraying fire truck like you might find in the city.

There will be the "Skull Mountain Six Remix," where riders on the indoor, in-the-dark coaster will ride to party music and synchronized lights, and "Showcase Vibes" in the theater, an interactive experience with lights, sound and photo opportunities.

There will be DJs and street acrobats, a jump-rope brigade and a street dance troupe.

The Summer Vibes Festival runs from Saturday through Aug. 17.

Medusa takes riders on a climb up a 146-foot lift hill and then a 13-story drop at a speed of 61 mph. The ride flies through a 114-foot vertical loop and then a 96-foot dive loop as flame bursts from the town’s coal fire explosion ignite around them. There is a zero-gravity roll, a cobra roll (two inversions) 78 feet above the ground, a nearly 90-degree, high-speed helix, a speed hill and ends with two interlocking corkscrews over a ride that lasts 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

For those who love the folklore Six Flags creates around its rides, it says the legend of “The Lost Town of Medusa ... surrounds Greek immigrant brothers who traveled to California during the Gold Rush in 1874. ... Their harrowing quest for riches led them to Death Valley and an unforgiving town of outlaws named Exile Canyon. Earth tremors, mineshaft collapses, a rattlesnake infestation and underground coal fire plagued the outpost and its dwellers. The brothers were convinced that Exile Canyon was cursed by an evil sentinel holding sway over the settlement. Their whispers took hold and earned the town the nickname “Medusa” — the Greek word for “guardian.” The town met an unfortunate end as it was wiped off the map in a ferocious flash flood. While the brothers were never seen again, the snakes remained as a solemn reminder of the legend that gripped this doomed outpost."