Evermore Park built a fantasy village with no rides — and no repeat business

Evermore Park opened on 29 September 2018 in Pleasant Grove, Utah: a year-round, immersive fantasy adventure park with no traditional rides, where guests roleplayed with trained actors in a medieval and Victorian-style village. It was the project of Ken Bretschneider, founder of the cybersecurity company DigiCert, who poured money into building a living story-world that critics compared to a fancier renaissance fair.

The model never made money. The park faced financial trouble from the start — contractors had sued by June 2020 over unpaid construction work, actors were laid off in 2021, and buildings were left unfinished. In 2021 the land and buildings were sold to Brandon Fugal, reportedly just to let the operators break even. A daily cast of actors, year-round running costs and a small, niche audience hollowed out revenue, and COVID made a scene built on packed crowds harder still.

On 8 April 2024 the landlord announced the operators had defaulted and been evicted, and the park shut permanently. A plan to sell the property and relaunch it as 'The Realm Town' collapsed in January 2025 amid lawsuits.