{"id":321738,"date":"2026-08-15T00:20:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321738\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T00:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:20:48","slug":"coney-island-is-hosting-a-wild-rollercoaster-race-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321738\/","title":{"rendered":"Coney Island Is Hosting a Wild Rollercoaster Race This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">There are plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/things-to-do\/coney-island-beach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ways to spend a Sunday at Coney Island<\/a>: eating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/restaurants\/best-hot-dogs-in-nyc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a hot dog<\/a> on the boardwalk, lounging on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/attractions\/best-beaches\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the beach<\/a> or voluntarily getting jostled around on a nearly century-old roller coaster. This weekend, a few particularly fearless New Yorkers will be choosing option three\u2014over and over and over again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">On Sunday, August 16, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/attractions\/luna-park\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luna Park<\/a> is celebrating National Roller Coaster Day with its annual Charity Coasterthon, a two-hour race that will send teams from seven local nonprofits scrambling around the amusement park to ride as many roller coasters as humanly possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The competition\u00a0starts at 11am, when each organization will field a three-person team tasked with tackling Luna Park\u2019s eight roller coasters repeatedly until 1pm. Riders receive a stamp after every completed ride and when time is called, officials will tally them up to determine which team managed to spend the greatest portion of its morning upside down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/attractions\/day-trips-amusement-parks-worth-the-admission-arcades-amusements\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The best amusement parks near NYC for summer fun<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The winning organization will receive a $10,000 donation from Luna Park, while second place gets $5,000 and third place gets $3,000. Nobody goes home empty-handed either, since each remaining participating organization will receive $1,000.\u00a0This year\u2019s competitors are Art\u2019s House Schools of Music, Dance, and Fine Arts; Brooklyn United; Children of Promise; Coney Island Sharks; The B.R.O. (Brothers Redefining Opportunity) Experience; Coney Island USA; and the Wildlife Conservation Society.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">\u201cThe Coasterthon is one of our favorite traditions here at Luna Park, and there couldn\u2019t be a more fitting time to host it than on National Roller Coaster Day,\u201d Alessandro Zamperla, president and CEO of Central Amusement International, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">There\u2019s another reason for coaster obsessives to celebrate this year: The Coney Island Cyclone is turning 99. The landmark wooden coaster opened in 1927, meaning Sunday\u2019s festivities also begin the\u00a0official countdown to its centennial next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">You don\u2019t have to be competing for $10,000 to get in on the action. Admission to Luna Park is free, with individual ride prices starting at $4, so spectators can watch the Coasterthon and then test their own stomachs on the park\u2019s rides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plenty of ways to spend a Sunday at Coney Island: eating a hot dog on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1739,9,24,3953,63,134,136,135,904],"class_list":["post-321738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news-weird-wonderful","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}