Theme Park Asks Riders to Not Scream on Rollercoasters to Prevent COVID Airborne Spread

Theme park Fuji-Q Highland, near Tokyo, is asking it's customers to refrain from screaming on rides to avoid spreading COVID-19.

Instead "scream inside your heart," read the park's marketing materials in their new 'keep a serious face' campaign.

Like other theme parks around the world, some of which have just reopened post-lockdown, all riders at Fuji-Q are required to wear masks on the park's attractions, but the Japanese executives have taken things further. By asking its patrons to not scream it's hoped fellow riders will be even safer, and will help prevent potential mouth droplets traveling through the air at 80mph.

The theme park has also started the hashtag #KeepASeriousFace, and encourages customers to put on their most stern facial expressions for ride photos. The most compliant serious faces posted onto social media will be in with a chance of winning free day passes at the park.

The park released a bizarre video with two of its smartly dressed executives taking a very serious ride on the Fujiyama, an enormous elevated railroad track ride, with tight turns and steep slopes – the eight tallest and 10th fastest rollercoaster in world.

The pair, both holding on tightly, barely move or flinch throughout the entire ride which is 79 meters tall (roughly 260 feet), and travels at speeds of up to 80mph. One of them only moves to adjust his mask after getting windswept on a big drop.

The unusual serious face competition will run until July 17. The park representatives know that they won't be able to fully combat screaming on rides, and those who do let out a shriek by accident will not be fined or punished.

Examples can be seen below on social media of riders posting their uncannily stern expressions while riding:

Japan had managed to hold off high infection rates, but cases in Tokyo have increased recently. The latest Johns Hopkins University data states that the whole county has 24,400 confirmed cases and 982 deaths.

Fuji-Q Highland is a theme park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, near the base of Mount Fiji, around an hour and a half from Tokyo, and has been open since the 1960s. It has a series of rollercoasters and the world's largest 'haunted' attraction, named the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear, and also known as the Haunted Hospital. Inside there are 900 meters of terrifying mazes, trap rooms, and dark corners, plus operating tables and pickled 'organs'.