Vilex

I believed myself to be at a Harry Potter amusement park, and I was going to a ride that had something to do with dragons.

A lot of people were just sitting around on a plaza, but a few were sitting by a screen repeatedly tapping a single large button. I joined in the tapping, and one could see the number of taps you had placed, as well as the number of taps from others. People were, of course, treating this like a competition, and we kept trying to outdo each other.

Finally we reached some sort of maximum taps, and the show began.

An airplane rolled out onto the "stage", which was simply an extension of the plaza surrounded by walls. It looked like a small Learjet, and it turned to face the wall. Then it simply took off, straight up into the air after a short taxi!

I was astonished to see the wings of the aircraft flexing in impossible ways, as it looped, dived, and rolled about the the audience. I considered that perhaps it was a hologram, but then I came up with a different explanation. It was a balloon!

Yes it was propelled by its own escaping air, and all that tapping was equivalent to a single "pump" to fill the balloon up initially. And indeed I saw the plane was becoming flatter and flatter, until finally it floated down back to where it came from.

This was a very cool trick, and I wondered how they could get such fine control out of it.

Back to tapping, now there were additional tapping booths (in a swimming pool that was suddenly there). These were for a couple auxiliary balloons, and I helped fill one up.

This time, the show began with a kid being lifted by one of the auxiliary balloons and being deposited right outside a nearby fence. How did they do this on? Obviously the kid had to be in on it.

I couldn't understand what the point of the next balloon was, a kid dropped a water bottle or something after seeing it.

Then the main balloon came out, this time it was a giant butterfly, with something about "science" written on it in that Harry Potter font. I didn't really get this, didn't they use magic, not science? But maybe Hermione wanted wizards to be open to science as well.

Well it didn't matter, because the way it fluttered and flipped was even more beautiful than the aircraft. And at the end, it landed upon a member of the audience, made a minor error, and then corrected itself, like a living thing.

The balloon show was over, but there was one final part. Some poll went up, with the announcer asking if we wanted to do a couple options I don't recall, or "60:41". There was a unanimous cry for "60:41" and the announcer seemed almost irritated that nobody ever chose anything else. I was pumped, whatever this was, it was gonna be awesome.

A bunch of tiny pink boats started rolling out, one by one, in a channel carved into the plaza. They were only about 18 inches long. People were being called by name to take a boat (a guy in a Shrek costume obviously took priority), and we rode the tiny boats into the swimming pool. For some reason this was the most fun thing in the world.

People kept funneling into the pool, until the boats were pressed up so tightly it was impossible to move. Seemed dangerous. But I didn't care. 60:41 was amazing!