With Summer Celebration in full swing, it’s a bubble battle royale with kids choosing between the Foam Zone and the Gazillion Bubble Show at Dollywood

You know you’ve reached a certain point in life when given the option of joining a summer foam and bubble party and your first thoughts are not of bubble-filled mayhem and a cooling, drenching rinse. But rather of chafing, wet socks and, frankly, hygiene. 

“They’ve got a bubble show, too,” you tell the kids. Adding that it’s not very far and it’s indoors. You tell them there are bubbles but you won’t have to get all soaked for the rest of the day. 

But it’s too late. The Foam Zone has beckoned them. So, before you know it, they’re in the pits, being blasted with foam. DJs of varying enthusiasm also make Foam Zone puns to peppy pop songs which everyone else seems to know.

The next thing you know they’re washing the foam off. That is when they get as soaked as if they’d gone swimming in the River Rampage’s water. And you’re doing the mental math on the best ways to dry them out without having them lay directly on the hot pavement in the sun. But all the while, you realize that 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago, you’d been right in the middle of the mess, doing the same thing. 

This was our experience recently with the Foam Zone. Afterward, we played arcade games until the weather turned dark. Then we – somewhat ironically – sought refuge in the Gazillion Bubble Show in the Celebrity Theatre.

It was an accidental confluence of epic foam and bubble events. But it got me wondering. Which liquid-filled with gas experience at Dollywood is the best? 

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s an all things bubble battle royale. A Bubble Royale, in a manner of speaking.

Contestant No. 1 – The Foam Zone

Located in the back of the Country Fair section of Dollywood, the Foam Zone is a fairly simple concept. Open daily from noon to 6 p.m., it includes two bubble play areas. There is one for little kids and one for bigger kids and parents who forgot this isn’t a rave and they haven’t dropped E.

There are Foam Guards – people whose job it is to patrol the foam zone like lifeguards at the pool. Each Foam Zone is a roughly 25-foot rectangle enclosure into which a whole bunch of foam bubbles are pumped through these big hoses. A couple of DJ’s play music and try to keep the energy up. One of them made a Foam Man while I was there. And the other kept singing along to the songs but replacing the regular lyrics with “Foam Zone.”

Despite my old person grouchiness, my kids confirmed they had a good time. It’s actually kind of a smart way to get added theme park summer value without a lot of investment in space or materials. It also – I would guess – is a great way to keep guests cool in the humid Dollywood summer.

Guests are encouraged to take off their shoes and socks. That is, unless they have Foam Zone friendly footwear. The kids don’t’ get especially wet in the Foam Zone itself. But going through the Foam Zone portal to wash the surprisingly clingy and long-lasting bubbles off left the vast majority of guests I saw drenched. Like Splash Country levels of drenched. 

Contestant No. 2 the Gazillion Bubbles Show

Since 2017, the interactive Gazillion Bubbles Show has made appearances at Dollywood and is back for the Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration.

This show features Bubble artist Melody Yang. She performs a variety of bubbly tricks, set to New Wave mood music that might put some dads of a certain age in the mood to take a nap in the dark and well-air-conditioned theater.

However, this ain’t that kind of show. The interactive experience requires audience participation and – at varying times – a massive number of bubbles are unleashed upon the audience. There’s some accompanying video about nature and some of the science between the bubbles. But mostly it’s Yang charmingly entertaining the crowd, interacting with kids and families that keeps everyone alert along with a wide variety and volume of bubbles. 

Then, just when you think you’ve had all the bubble fun, the scream comes up asking if we want some more. The music gets more intense. The lights go from friendly, happy beams to a little more Pink Floyd-y style lasers.

At that point we’re treated to a video about a little girl getting lost by following a butterfly into the woods. She gets imbued with the butterfly’s spirit and powers to become a super hero person that I think they called the “Iron Butterfly.”  I couldn’t quite make it out. But as someone who grew up hearing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on classic radio whenever the DJ needed to take a break, I was ready for a little late ‘60s guitar riff heavy Hippie Rock.  

Alas. Instead, we got a pretty intense switch to some techno new wave business. And Yang performed some cool tricks with the laser before closing with an epic number of bubbles just inundating the audience. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” indeed. 

Declaring the winner

In this Battle Royale of Summer Celebration bubble attractions, there may not be any losers. However, there is a clear bubble winner. The Gazillion Bubbles Show is really quite something. I want to be cynical about it, I mean…. bubbles, ya know? But danged if I wasn’t sitting there poking smoke-filled bubbles as they fell from the ceiling right along with everyone else. I don’t know the mechanics of it – or really understand the attraction. And a very large crowd was having a great time in the air conditioning watching a nice lady dance around with bubbles. We all enjoyed it immensely. 

If you have to choose between one of Dollywood’s two bubble attractions – and there’s really no reason why you should – the Gazillion Bubbles Show is obvious choice.

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