Ghost Town Alive!

"The hootin'-hollerin allure of Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town Alive!"

Todd Martens · Los Angeles Times · August 12, 2024

"People's lives are deeply impacted by the work that we do here," says actor Rachel Roman. Ghost Town Alive! treats Knott's Ghost Town as a stage, allowing guests to become actors. Rovin Jay, show director, employs 45 actors for the performances.

Jay describes the appeal: "It's the thing we used to do when we were 7 and on the playground. Friends come up and you just create. We're able to do that on a daily basis."

"People's lives are deeply impacted by the work that we do here... The moment you step into Ghost Town Alive!, it's, 'Hi! It's nice to see you.'" The experience (part live-action roleplaying game, part improvisational theater) has become a Knott's staple since 2016 and one of the most unique and creative theme park offerings in Southern California.

Jay on the technology-free magic: "It's the thing we used to do when we were 7 or 8 and on the playground... We're able to do that on a daily basis." Guest Janey Ellis, a regular, called it "the future of theme park entertainment."

"Summer Comes Alive at Knott's Berry Farm!"

Scott Attula · MiceChat · May 27, 2023

Ghost Town Alive is a choose-your-own-adventure where your actions have consequences in the story. The experience is carried by the peculiar cast of Calico townsfolk (lawmen, outlaws, post office workers, rappers, bankers, teachers) with tons of paths to choose from.

"Ghost Town Alive is a lot like completing side quests while avoiding the main quest — except the outcome is the opposite. While you're attempting to complete tasks and follow story threads between the townsfolk, the main story comes in and changes everything."

"Knott's Kicks Off Summer 2023 with Ghost Town Alive's 6th Year"

Chris Glass · Inside Universal · June 1, 2023

Since 2016, Knott's has celebrated the summer season with Ghost Town Alive, an award-winning live-action role-playing event for all ages taking place in the semi-fictional town of Calico. Each year the story progresses, giving incentive to visit regularly. By count, 45 citizens this year.

"Ghost Town Alive is simply the best way possible to spend your summer. And that's totally due to all the fantastic folks working in front of and behind the scenes."

"Calico Revealed! The Untold Stories of Knott's Ghost Town Alive"

Scott Attula · MiceChat · July 2024

A deep-dive feature enlisting Rovin Jay as guide through the intricate world of Ghost Town Alive. Attula notes that Rovin has taken over stewardship of the event from its original creator, Ken Parks, and that the characters begin as ideas on paper before becoming "developed and rounded citizens of Calico" as actors mature with them over seasons. Some are written on a specific path; others find their own way entirely.

All portraits in the piece were shot on orthochromatic black and white film with a 70-year-old medium format camera, chosen, Attula notes, because it approximates the photography equipment a mining town in 1893 would have actually used.

"The Untold Stories of Ghost Town Alive 2025 — Echoes of the Past"

Scott Attula · MiceChat · July 2025

Attula returns for a second deep-dive feature, this time with Rovin guiding him through the 2025 season's storyline, drawing directly from the real history of Calico, California, coming full circle to the origins of Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town. Attula describes Rovin detailing character backstories like "a proud father gushing about the achievements of all his children."

The piece highlights Rovin's approach to layering the experience: major set pieces like the shootout, election, and hoedown provide narrative scaffolding, while more intimate moments, ones that reference events that actually happened earlier that same day, make the world feel genuinely alive. "These little moments are happening so often," Rovin explains, "that not only are you unlikely to run into all of them, but they can happen simultaneously."