Tempesto

Busch Gardens Williamsburg began construction in August 2014 on a compact new launch coaster for Festa Italia, confirming that fall that Premier Rides would supply a Sky Rocket II — the same launch-coaster platform the manufacturer had already installed at several other parks, including a near-twin at Busch Gardens Tampa's Tigris. The park revealed the ride's name, Tempesto, on March 21, 2015, framing it around a daredevil-performer persona rather than a generic Italian setting, and it opened to the public just over a month later on April 25, 2015.

The layout launches trains out of the station, up into a partial twist, then reverses them backward through the launch track before firing forward a final time to a top speed of 62 mph. From there, trains climb to 150 feet for a non-inverting half-loop, a heartline roll — ranked among the tallest inversions of its kind in the world — a second non-inverting half-loop, and finally a full non-inverting loop before returning to the station, all within a tight 883-foot footprint and under a minute of ride time.

Tempesto gave Festa Italia its second launch-format coaster after Apollo's Chariot's more traditional hyper-coaster layout, rounding out the area with a shorter, more intense complement to its taller neighbor.

Tempesto remains one of Williamsburg's most compact but highest-intensity credits, its back-and-forth launch sequence packing several distinct inversion-style elements into well under a minute of ride time.