‘It’s kind of silly’: Calaway Park appears to threaten legal action due to online comments

CALGARY — What started as a series of snarky videos from a local man could possibly end up in court, after he criticized ticket prices at Calaway Park.

Earlier this week, Callum — who did not want to say his last name — posted a video on TikTok expressing his confusion over the cost of tickets at the amusement park just outside Calgary and couldn’t understand why ticket prices are more expensive than at Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario.

https://twitter.com/Tommy_Slick/status/1420937075986108419

The video garnered some attention and was reposted on a popular Instagram page where it gained more steam. He said this was a bit of a surprise and many people agreed with the point he made.

“I was going to go (to Calaway Park) with my girlfriend and her daughter, and then we looked up the prices and I just thought it was a little outrageous,” he told 660 NEWS. “I decided to just share it to TikTok and I didn’t expect that to be, like, defamatory in any way.”

Calaway Park

Negative comments can be seen on Calaway Park’s Instagram page following the incident with Callum.

The video compares the two parks, as Callum said it was strange that it would be cheaper to go to Canada’s Wonderland since it has more rides and is in a bigger space. When someone unfamiliar with the area asked what Calaway Park was, he sent out another response.

“And said Calaway Park sucks,” he said. “But, I only said it sucks. And I actually think that I shared a lot of really unique character traits about Calaway Park and I think I kind of sold the park a little bit.

“Many times as a kid I used to go with my family a lot … I thought it was amazing! I never really realized how comparatively different it was to other amusement parks until I went to Ontario and was able to compare it.”

He said people were amused to hear about some of the features of the local attraction, including the trout pond. But then it turned sour when Callum commented on the Instagram post and tagged Calaway Park asking for free tickets.

The park’s official account responded, asking him to email his name and phone number. At this point, he thought he had scored a sweet deal.

“I thought I was gonna get free tickets! I really thought I was going to get on the phone and they were going to be like, we saw your TikTok we want to give you free tickets. Maybe it would be a marketing thing. And I did not get free tickets.”

The call quickly turned negative and he recorded the interaction on his webcam, which he also posted online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdlhAg_cB0c

During the call, an unidentified staff member of the park seemed to issue vague threats of legal action and accused Callum of being defamatory towards the amusement park.

“Basically they said there would be consequences if I decided to proceed, and when I asked what it meant to proceed, they said any comments that I’m posting about Calaway Park. I asked if it meant specifically posting more videos, but they said a lot of it was more to do with the comments.”

It left him rather confused about the whole situation, and with the video of the call getting shared online Calaway Park is now being subject to many negative comments on its own page.

660 NEWS has reached out to Calaway Park for comment but it did not respond before this story was published.

Callum, for his part, is remaining fairly calm about it all as he doesn’t think they have any grounds to enact legal action. He is hopeful that it will blow over and maybe he can actually get the tickets he was hoping to get in the first place.

“It’s kind of silly,” he said with a laugh. “I’m hoping it ends in free tickets somehow, actually. I don’t know how it’s going to go yet, but I’ve been told the owners of Calaway Park are very, very nice.”

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