Colton, CA—On Saturday November 9, 2024, Fiesta Village held their 50th anniversary at their park open to the public per usual with a few additional festivities for this special occasion.
Fiesta Village Family Fun Park is an amusement park located in Colton that features waterslides, batting cages, rides, mini gold, laser tag, roller skating, go karts and arcade games.
In 2002, the current owners Michelle and Patrick O’Brien bought Fiesta Village. Michelle explained, “So one day one of our managers, Vanessa, came in to let us know that she noticed that Fiesta Village was closed down. So that piqued my interest.”
“We had no idea what we were getting into,” she continued. “So we signed the paperwork on March 10th to buy the park and we opened the doors just 10 days later, on March 15th, with a team of only 10 employees when we really needed 20.”
VIP wristbands were given to guests personally invited by Fiesta Village Staff. The attendees who received these wristbands were selected because of their connections to or support of Fiesta Village throughout the years. However, the general public was welcome to celebrate as well.
One of the attendees, Marquis Richie, came to the event to celebrate with her son. She said, “My son had his birthday party here in September and then we got an email for the 50th celebration which invited us back so we came and we really like it here. It’s really fun.”
Some of the festivities unique to the event were a light show over the skating rink, shoutouts to former employees, a scavenger hunt in which attendees searched for golden 50’s around the park in order to receive arcade credits, and cake for the VIP guests.
Colton alumni and owner of Nickelodeon Pizza Gary Grossich was also there in celebration of the event and shared his story of how he got involved with Fiesta Village. “I was going to San Bernardino Valley College, and I needed a part time job. I started out working after the gentleman I eventually became partners with; washed dishes, bussed tables, baked pizzas, and I just worked at it for quite a few years and became very good at it.”
Today, Grossich shares this story to motivate his employees. “That’s why I try to try to motivate our young people out of high school because I had no special skills, and I became older in the company with, at the time, five stores and 100 employees.”
The event overall brought the community together to share this local amusement park full of life and laughter for 50 years now.
