Scarefest 2014

I would reserve judgement on this, but it does have hints of "marketing" rather than "entertainments" about it...

Right, my thoughts on Scarefest 2014. I have been unapologetically critical of Towers leading up to the event. A maze had been cut, we had two others that looked like they were going to remain exactly the same, one scare zone the same as previous years and one new scare zone that appeared to be hashed together at the last minute. It really was not looking good and I had absolutely no excitement for the event.

I will start with what is the main draw of the event: the mazes. Thankfully we had no queue for either of them for the 2pm time slot we had. We did The Sanctuary first and to be honest I found it completely boring. I’ve done it so much over the last couple of years that there are no surprises. You know what the actors are going to do and where they are going to be. Just so predictable. It needed a big refresh this year, a pity that couldn’t happen.

So then it was TotT, and on the whole it was the same story as The Sanctuary. Exactly the same maze as last year; it’s been very similar ever since 2009. However the big bonus here was the actors, particularly at the start of the maze. The actors in the box room were fantastic and very different to previous year. At one point they split up our group, and then held it later on so we joined up again. The acting was very enthusiastic right through the house section and into the banqueting hall also; this somewhat made up for the maze itself being the same. My favourite part of TotT has always been the incredible strobe finale, yet it was not quite up to standard this year. The actors appeared to give up on scaring us half way through. Also there was more light than normal in the room; as soon as you entered you could see the light from the exit (drapes have usually prevented this) and you could see a small amount of light through the windows which has not been blacked out as effectively as in the past. TotT is still a great maze but like The Sanctuary it needs reworking now.

We only paid to do the mazes once and I would not even have considered paying to do them again. It is just not worth the money for mazes that I have done so many times in the past. Addressing this issue has to be the priority for Scarefest 2015.

Now the scare zones. Zombies was much the same as before, a good scare zone with some decent scares from the actors. We didn’t have the best run through thanks to a bunch of screaming kids in front of us drawing all the attention from the actors. I can’t say I’ve ever been a massive Zombies fan.

I had very low expectations for Scary Tales. The blatant spelling error on the information sign for the scare maze (you do not spell rewriting as rewriting) did not help with this. Towers, I have said it before and I will say it again and again, check your SPG before sending things to print, it is so unprofessional and happens so frequently.

Anyway, I digress. The entrance to Scary Tales actually has theming, so we are already up on expectations. I actually quite liked the entrance. Then once in the scare zone the theming is pretty good for such a late addition. A lot of it may well be re-used theming but there is nothing wrong with that if it fits in, which it all did. You have different ‘scenes’ relating to different fairy tales and actors that are from the fairy tales, yet they are all somewhat more evil than we know. The scare zone is also of a good length, going indoors for a mirror maze sections as well as through a shed. The actors dressed as pigs at the end were very freaky. I wouldn’t say the scare zone was overly scary; it was more weird and freaky. I did however really like it and it was far better than I was expecting.

Park lighting is far better this year but not up to the standards of 2010 when it was so atmospheric. Coloured bulbs in the generators have made a really big difference. Towers Street is also slightly better this year followed the addition of themed Scarefest signs to the various outlets. Guest Services is Ghost Services, Towers St Bar & Grill has become Bar & Ghoul. Little things like this do make a difference. The same can be said for the witch hats that all F&B and retails staff were wearing.

Finally I must speak about the new street entertainment, the Alton Ancestors. These are brilliant; wonderful costumes and a great interactive show. Pete should get a lot of credit for improving the street ents over the past year or so.

So overall I do agree with people who say that Scarefest is a better overall event this year. However I ultimately rate it as the worst Scarefest I have visited and I will not be visiting again this year (partly thanks to Phantasialand/EP, partly because I wouldn’t be bothered about going again anyway). Although Scary Tales is a good addition it does not come close to making up for the lack of a maze. Next year Towers need to bring back a third maze and keep the two scare zones. As well as this The Sanctuary and TotT need major revisions. If they do this and keep up the park lighting improvements then 2015 could be the best Scarefest to date. That is a very big if at the moment though.

With regards to what I said about Scary Tales and not being able to tell that it was about fairy tales after the first scene, I will take that back.

It may be because I was too focused on escaping the most intense experience I have ever been through at the time, and it may also be because of the dark that you couldn't tell what things were meant to be. I have just watched a POV of a daytime walkthrough, and you can see the theming much more clearly.

Thoughts are almost identical to @Rob

Sanctuary was dull, I've done it a lot but actually I look forward it's familiarity. I should have already been "bored" of it, but wasn't, but I don't know it's just lacking something. (Well Dr K wasn't there for a start, and I always genuinely find he starts the thing off with an air of authority, no offense to the other actor he was actually very good but didn't have the same subtle "something isn't quite right" air, it was more direct and obvious).

Didn't do ToTT for time. Queues were short but it was "hurricane day" so all queues were, crazy day to be on park but entertaining with some "extreme" riding as I like to call it.

Park lighting? Yes it's nice, does it add to feeling "Halloween"? No, because there is so little else backing it up.

Zombies, usual scare style "BOO!". The theme is quite decent though and the fogged room entertains an atmosphere that's hard to get outside to well done on that IMO.

Scary Tales. What? You know what may help this, characters that don't make the same clicky "BOO" noises etc as they do in ToTT, Sanctuary and Zombies - there's no variation in the scares? I'm not usually critical of Ents but I have to say, this was an opportunity to invoke character led experience and it's failed, miserably. I expected to be in a story, instead I couldn't focus on the theme so much because I was getting occasional jump scares or the intimidation style. It's not too bad presentation wise, but when you think about belly button guy, the beginning of Carnival maze *brilliant that*, the statues at the end, it's definitely gone backwards. And why have wraith looking people at the start, why not a "story teller" or something, come on this is easy stuff. I was looking forward to doing this and it left me more than disappointed. I feel a little bad saying that, given it's apparently been put together quickly, but I really think it's gone the wrong direction.

Towers looked beautiful as always lit up. Night rides are fun. Towers Street does has a nice feel to it, but it's not exactly overwhelming.

A word for the "Ancestors", they are rather brilliant and probably the single best edition to Scarefest. They genuinely freak people out around park and definitely feel like a well oiled team, much as did The Sanctuary team last year!

What's happened? The park looks prettier with the lighting no doubt, but this? For Alton Towers?

I can't even be arsed to be angry about it. The lack of third maze and obvious moving of budgets to do one thing or the other is slowly destroying the atmosphere of the event based on the time I visited, maybe it will be better in full swing next week, but I doubt it.

I don't mind quiet parks, I think they can have an eerier atmosphere, and I love night rides so it isn't that. I did the Sanctuary in the middle of the day last year at the start of the year and still got right into it.

I came out of that maze thinking, wow, I just paid that cash for a wander around the Towers, and frankly felt ripped off.

Yeah. From "The Sanctuary's" No1 fan boy.

Such a shame Towers, like I say not feeling angry or ranty, more utterly disappointed and dejected by how disjointed and rushed MOST of it feels.

Oh dear me.

TheMan said:

Scary Tales. What? You know what may help this, characters that don't make the same clicky "BOO" noises etc as they do in ToTT, Sanctuary and Zombies - there's no variation in the scares? I'm not usually critical of Ents but I have to say, this was an opportunity to invoke character led experience and it's failed, miserably. I expected to be in a story, instead I couldn't focus on the theme so much because I was getting occasional jump scares or the intimidation style. It's not too bad presentation wise, but when you think about belly button guy, the beginning of Carnival maze *brilliant that*, the statues at the end, it's definitely gone backwards. And why have wraith looking people at the start, why not a "story teller" or something, come on this is easy stuff. I was looking forward to doing this and it left me more than disappointed. I feel a little bad saying that, given it's apparently been put together quickly, but I really think it's gone the wrong direction.

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To be fair, I'm really not sure a story/character led scare zone would work. You have a continuous stream of people being sent through, and people naturally go through at a different pace. Without patching into groups it would be difficult to immerse everyone in a story. Yet if you batched into groups it wouldn't really be a scare zone. Maybe the name Scary Tales didn't help and gave you the impression that it could/should be story led? We were all able to make out the fairy tales that were being depicted and the characters associated with them. I agree that some variation in the acting could improve it further, but not actually a character led story.

Yeah Scary Tales would struggle to be story lead as Rob said. Scarezones are about atmosphere and intimidation scares. For story based scares you need a maze and if you want to go all out on story then they tend to have awful throughputs.

That's the balance theme parks have to make as they have higher guest numbers than the smaller event. Do you sacrifice throughputs for story, Bloodfest banquet TotT was very stop-start story lead and it struggled to get 200pph, sanctuary mixes it up a bit and gets about 300-400pph. Scarezones have no story but can easily get 1000pph.

Don't get me wrong the maze state this year is due to budget, not strategic maze planning. But even if budget was huge a park like Towers would still want some scare zones that wouldn't be hugely story based as they are high throughput, and huge story driven mazes would drop throughputs so probably wouldn't be suitable.

I'm pleased to see that Scarefest as an overall thing is getting positives coming from it - such as the lighting, the signs on Towers Street and the ancestors.

However no matter what nice incremental touches have been made, the whole thing will still leave a sour taste due to the lack of mazes and changing up the headline attractions.

Ideally we would have kept three mazes and begun a three year development cycle for them by now. Replace one a year at minimal expense and tweak the other two... Now the park has a massive amount of work for the future if they want to change or add mazes as they need two or three whole new concepts.

Dave said:

Yeah Scary Tales would struggle to be story lead as Rob said. Scarezones are about atmosphere and intimidation scares. For story based scares you need a maze and if you want to go all out on story then they tend to have awful throughputs.

That's the balance theme parks have to make as they have higher guest numbers than the smaller event. Do you sacrifice throughputs for story, Bloodfest banquet TotT was very stop-start story lead and it struggled to get 200pph, sanctuary mixes it up a bit and gets about 300-400pph. Scarezones have no story but can easily get 1000pph.

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Very true indeed. Bloodfest Banquet was amazing. But as you say, it had huge queues and low throughput. So its a balance AT have to strike up isnt it. Do they have a maze which has a low throughput, which would mean a higher ticket price to make up for the lost numbers going through it, plus complaints from people who cant get into it once the tickets have sold out, or have something which would make the GP happy, at a reasonable cost, that most people visiting the park can get into?

Really is a very fine line. We have to remember we are just a minority of people who will visit the park every scarefest and many, on more than one occasion during the event. For Joe Bloggs, the scarefest event and the mazes will probably suffice.
I'm not saying thats right, because i'd love to have new stuff, but, AT have to consider 95% of their visitors, which will be the GP, not fanboys (and girls).

I agree with the overall consensus that there should be a third maze and an update of the other two as well as a three year development cycle. However if they did reintroduce a third maze do you think they'd struggle to update/change the other two? Due to budget and other constraints I think both would be unlikely in the same year

Would they also be able to come up with a new and unique idea for a scare maze EVERY year though, as well as updating the other 2 mazes. I think not.

I have no problem with the sanctuary and ToTT returning again this year - BUT - they should have at least changed the interior layout at the very least to make it different to last year.

Tom.B said:

Would they also be able to come up with a new and unique idea for a scare maze EVERY year though, as well as updating the other 2 mazes. I think not.

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Would they be able to from a creative point of view? Most certainly yes! Other parks do so no reason the talented folks at Towers couldn't. Would they be able to from a financial point of view? With current budgets probably not no.

During the Q&A on Sunday it was said that ideally, they would have three mazes of which they update two each year, whilst swapping one out for a new one. It's what they want to do, but as always budgets prohibit the desirable and correct thing to do from happening.

Danny said:

During the Q&A on Sunday it was said that ideally, they would have three mazes of which they update two each year, whilst swapping one out for a new one. It's what they want to do, but as always budgets prohibit the desirable and correct thing to do from happening.

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Glad to hear this - it is the direction that the park needs to take with the event...

Tom.B said:

Would they also be able to come up with a new and unique idea for a scare maze EVERY year though, as well as updating the other 2 mazes. I think not.

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Quite easily yes. The park has a fantastic team of very creative people with hundreds of ideas and plans... They're not some small time, backstreet operation - despite what budgets they may be given. It's all to easy to forget that Alton Towers is a park recognised across Europe and even around the globe (at least by enthusiasts) for its hardware and setting, and has the means and basis to compete at the highest levels with events like these... it just doesn't come to fruition unfortunately.

The ideas revealed to us this weekend have been staggering and would truly put Towers on the map, offering genuine competition and would make the Resort the undisputed ruler of any Halloween event originating from our UK theme parks (I'd have to run a double check on what we can and can't say). There's a lot to be desired from both us and the powers above, but they simply can't swing their superiors into the right mindset.

Danny said:

The ideas revealed to us this weekend have been staggering and would truly put Towers on the map, offering genuine competition and would make the Resort the undisputed ruler of any Halloween event originating from our UK theme parks (I'd have to run a double check on what we can and can't say). There's a lot to be desired from both us and the powers above, but they simply can't swing their superiors into the right mindset.

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I've posted details of various talks we've had in the past so I can't see it being a problem. Would be interesting to hear what was said, espeically as many of us had to leave early on Sunday for various reasons!

No direct quoting on some aspects on very small matters which we happened to agree on as far as I'm aware

One of the proposed ideas would see Towers run as a normal park until 5pm, followed by a park wide sweep and then staying open until midnight (yes you read that correctly) as an all out Halloween event. Roaming actors everywhere, a significant rise in park wide entertainment but would likely only run with the coasters and other thrill rides with one or two exceptions. This was the standout point made as it sounds the most ambitious and I'd certainly love to see it happen, but we all know it'll never see the light of day (or the dark of night).

The Sanctuary being a free flow maze was once again discussed, with the issues surrounding it raised but the potential to trial it out and see how it works. A scare zone taking up a pathway rather than being confined to a normally inaccessible area was also discussed, but isn't likely any time soon unless a solution is created to counter the excessive flow of guests through it as well as wanting to keep it thrilling for our audience, but also suitable for young children who will inevitably have to walk through it.

Staff are being encouraged to approach entertainments with their own ideas particularly for their own attractions (such as the Hex team supposedly wanting to dress an actor up as a ghost in the queue, but this idea being shot down as it has no direct link to the attraction).

What we all want to hear about entertainment up at the hotels is also being considered, with ATH becoming strictly a more classy venue with Splash taking the loud and brash party atmosphere even more to an extent than present (there were talks of the Band on a Ship scheme being relocated).

The Sleepover event features guests dining alongside those on the dining experience down at the Swiss Cottage, before being subjected to a 45 minute show in the basement of the Towers in a huge show room that is reportedly similar to something at Warwick (I've never been so I can't really recollect or compare). For the price we've been offered as a forum, it certainly sounds worth it and had I been treated to a clear schedule the following day, I'd have certainly taken the offer up.

Opening till midnight sounds fun.

With regards to the path, could they not use say the path from Battle Galleons through to the Towers as a scare zone with those not wanting to go through the scare zone being sent the other way?

The location stated was actually the pathway between Sonic and X Sector (next to Fairy Tales). Regardless of where it goes, it would cause guests who don't wish to pass through it to take a longer diversion, just for the sake of not being scared. It's a tall order, but there are some locations (the path across the lake from Mutiny Bay to Sonic) that could work.

Could it not work in the way that the scare path is going along the main pathway from Sonic to X-S, but an "escape" path could be where the scare zone is currently?