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Scarefest 2014

Some of the ideas sound great, others not so much. I like the open until 12am idea, although it is extremely unlikely to ever happen, and I would be worried about how that idea would affect the normal hours of the day. Having nothing during the day but Halloween stuff only at night could cause some problems with guests I think, especially families.

A free flow maze would be great at Towers, but i don't think Sanctuary or TOTT could handle that. I think a new maze designed for that would only work well. I like the idea of a scare zone taking up a pathway, there are plenty of areas around the park they could utilise for that and still allow other guests to bypass it.

The Hex team wanting to dress up a ghost sounds like a weird idea. They can easily create characters to walk around the queue surrounding the actual legend. The old beggar woman would be the easiest. Get someone to wear some old cloth over them covering their face and they can easily creep people out and add a lot. Even get out the Wraith materials if they still have them. The Earl of Shrewsbury would be another easy character (but would involve more make up, detail etc..).

Hate the hotel ents ideas. I understand the idea they're going with. Although I see ATH as their premium hotel, the headliner, therefore it should have the best entertainment on resort. The band fits that just fine. Splash and the lodges can still have great shows, although something as big as the band outside of ATH seems all a little silly really. All they will end up with is the scenario of Splash heaving with guests and ATH dead. Which isn't too much of a bad thing although I think the band suit the hotel nicely. You can view the band from multiple levels and seating capacity isn't too bad. Splash is one floor and it could get pretty messy when half your guests cannot see the show clearly.

It's a shame with the lodges we're not seeing a second building solely designed as a quiet bar or full out entertainments venue. They desperately need more venues and more happening on the resort side of things. I'd rather see the ents team look at adding more shows and variety to the hotels. Rather than moving one set of entertainment to another hotel. Maybe some market research could be conducted to see other types of variety entertainment that could work for hotel guests?

The Sleepover thing sounds better. Although with a lack of facilities I'm still not sold with the full price. The offer for fansites though isn't too bad. I guess it depends how much you value a shower and extra comfort... and privacy.
 
Certainly some interesting ideas being considered among the creative teams at towers by the sounds of it, and I do not doubt for a minute that given the correct budget they could pull them all off without any issues. However, that requires the correct budget to be given... Which, as we know isn't always as easy as it sounds!

I terms of the future of the event I personally would take no issue with them going down the Thorpe route of a 'gate-price' increase and Annual Pass pre-booking, if it were to mean that we received more mazes in the long run! In an ideal world we would have a 4 maze event on our hands by now, Scarefest is now after all in it's 7th season... Fright Nights is in it's 12th and has had 5 mazes for 4 years now. But as I said, things aren't always as simple or easy as they seem.

Another option that I've been thinking about for a couple of days now would be similar to the idea mentioned above with the separate ticketed event and staying open later! This idea would involve the park set up remaining pretty much as it is currently, 2 mazes and 2 ScareZones, though with both mazes having being either replaced (The Sanctuary) or in the case of Terror of The Towers, suitably refreshed but keeping its name as I feel the 'brand' so to speak is quite iconic in terms of the Towers and the entire event! All 4 of these attractions would keep their current opening hours and would be included in the main gate price, and along with further improved park wide lighting, continued additions such as Street Theater and a slightly increased/improved family offering would form the bulk of the main event, 'Scarefest'.

Then on top of that would be a number of separate ticketed attractions forming an additional paid for event! This would be located somewhere off park in a similar style to the bulk of 'Horror Nights' at Europa Park, the Air car park for example? Ideally it would incorporate one central plaza which would act entirely as a scare zone with two or three mazes around the perimeter housed in marquees and a stage in the middle for more adult aimed entertainment, again very much like Horror Nights. This area would be marketed entirely as an adult event with more extreme scares. As said above it would be accessed via ticket only, either from the bottom end of Forbidden Valley or from the Hotel/Resort end and would open at dusk ie. around 6/7pm and run until late, maybe 11pm similar to the old resort mazes. However the park would still close at 9pm, so access at the Valley entrance would stop at that time. The ticket could be priced at around £15-20 and would allow unlimited use of all attractions. I'm aware this would throw up a fair few logistical issues such as the loss of parking space and controlling the flow of guests in and out of the separate area, but we can all plan and dream can't we!

Anyway, that's just a idea... As for this years event, I am making my first and only Scarefest visit of the season tomorrow. So I will report back then with my views and opinions once I have experienced it for myself. I must say, though I am not really excited about the mazes, I am looking forward to the event as a whole having seen the mainly positive reviews of park lighting, Scary Tales and the street theater! :)
 
If the park was open until 12 it wouldn't attract me more than it does now, I think 12 is too late and the place would be quiet, plus complaints from locals, I dont see it ever happening. Plus, it may put people off staying in the hotel. I priced up the hotel for this scarefest, but given its cost, there was no point me staying there as I would miss the evening entertainment, not have chance to eat in the restaurants there and basically, im just going to get back to the hotel, maybe have a drink, then off to bed. Hardly worth 200 quid a night. Ive opted for the holiday inn down the road for 50 quid.

I was also interested in the sleepover, but not at 280 quid for essentially 7 hours of my time. Yes its unique, but its priced way too high and id be really interested to find out how many people stayed over.

Basically, scarefest is simple. First and foremost is atmosphere, lighting is key to this and its great to see alton putting effort in this year, so well done. Also, the people walking around, like those on Towers street are great. With regards the scaremazes, they just need a refresh every year or two, two paid mazes and two free ones are fine, but i also remember just how popular and easy to do the LIVE additions to the rides were. Duel for example was excellent when it was live, with 7 or 8 people at certain points it really did make people jump. The Thirteen girl wandering around the woods with green lighting and smoke, excellent. Hex live, again easy to do but not really much scope for places for people to jump out at you. I keep saying it but Haunted Hollow is under utilised.... theres a lot of scope where things could easily be added to existing rides/areas without much cost, without much effort which would give Joe Public the scares they want for free, while still having the two scare mazes for those who want to pay.
 
It's interesting that they've banded the idea of a paid for 'after hours' event around - similar to Universal or Europa's.

Whilst this would give them more freedom and a larger budget (in theory) to spend on the event, I think it would be more suiting to somewhere like Thorpe which is smaller and easier to access.

Opening til 12 would make for an amazing event but I think the parks location would hamper it.
 
Duel live received complaints from the GP, because the lasers where turned off (mad I know)

Don't understand why they don't use Haunted Hollow, it would be perfect as a scarezone, (scary tales would be great there. They can't be avoiding it due to guests movement as they managed for years without having that path open.
 
Some interesting ideas were talked about.

Going back to Scary Tales, I think people have mistake my meaning. We were still "batched"! It was not everybody just wantering in, it's definitely setup more like a maze than a zone. I also didn't mean a story based experience all the way through, I meant setting a tone at the start, and then having more relevant scares on the way through, actors referring to their "zone" in character - it wasn't anything like that, and I think variation of scare tactics can work.

I take the point on more thorough story based mazes, but it wasn't quite what I was referring to, I had just gotten home when I wrote it so perhaps I wasn't exactly overly clear lol!!

Why not have a "minstrel" style guy at the start to batch you rather than the typical hooded black robe for example? More recognisable characters through the maze, for me it just had - well - nothing. Made no sense. There's only so many times people say "BOO! Click click click" before it becomes a bit yawn.
 
Towers really have no clue what a scare zone is. What they actually have is free flow open air mazes.

I like the idea of closing the park at 5pm, clearing out, then reopening for a proper scare event in the evening. This worked perfectly fine at Canada's Wonderland at the weekend. Not to mention the countless other parks outside the UK that do this.

If the Paramount park goes ahead, hopefully they will run a decent Halloween event and kick Merlin up the arse a bit.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Towers really have no clue what a scare zone is. What they actually have is free flow open air mazes.
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That's exactly how it felt to me, Zombies and Scary Tales, just felt like a maze without a roof that more people go through without having to "conga line". We were still batched, it was still very thin, it still had the same scares, and actors who could have easily swapped between any mazes in my opinion and hardly noticed a difference.

Wow, I hate feeling like I am being this hard on a creative event, if most read my posts I am usually "it needs backing, but ents doing well under duress" this is the first time I feel the need to be critical and suggest that these aren't all budget issues - most are, but this is the most disappointed I have been in a Scarefest so far. The park looked beautiful, I reiterate, but it DIDN'T make it feel like Halloween because there was a spark missing.

Just cannot put my finger on what it is. It felt. Stale.

And still why make me wear my bag ON MY FRONT through The Sanctuary? I have a bag that's hard backed so I can carry things for me plus one, when I put it on my front firstly, I felt like I was testing it for suitability for pregnant ladies, and second it was darn uncomfortable.

Not helped I may add by THE jumpiest man I have ever known behind shouting I DON'T LIKE JUMP SCARES and shaking.

The more I think about it, the more I realise it's the WORST run through of any maze anywhere I have done so far. Given conversations I've had with others though, I am not alone in thinking it's just not very good.

EDIT:
In the interest of fair balance, I have been thinking... could it be because there weren't so many on park, so therefore less intensity/actors/entertainment - but then I think, well it COST ME THE SAME what how is that fair? So that didn't help :D
 
A real scare zone is very simple. It's an area of the park with spooky theming / lighting, and roaming actors. You walk through it as you would normally, in either direction. It's not an attraction in itself, just something to add to the overall atmosphere.
 
TheMan said:
And still why make me wear my bag ON MY FRONT through The Sanctuary? I have a bag that's hard backed so I can carry things for me plus one, when I put it on my front firstly, I felt like I was testing it for suitability for pregnant ladies, and second it was darn uncomfortable.
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I think thats fair enough though - unless your at the very back in which case fair enough, but if you have a backpack on, and someone is behind you, they have to hold on to your shoulders, then if you jump back at a scare, you hit the person in the face behind you with your pack. Fair nuff i think.....
 
Alton Towers will not run a "real" Scare Zone due to having young children on park.

In truth, Zombies and Scary Tales are actually better themed than 'normal' Scare Zones.
 
Dunno if it was just for preview night or something, but I did both mazes with a backpack on my back, with people behind me.
 
I think we just accept at Alton that their idea of a scaremaze is different to the rest of the industry. :p It works for them though!

The only way they could provide a 'real' scare zone is by using a large path somewhere on the park, but making sure it's well signed that it's a scare zone and it allows other guests to get past it and not go straight in. I don't see why they wouldn't bother just because of families. Towers is a massive park, not like they have one path for the whole park. With a bit of thought and money they could make it work.

Going back to the mazes with stories idea. I love deep stories although for mazes it just does not work. I think The Sanctuary is a good middle ground of having a maze with a loose story that you can follow, but it doesn't damage throughput or stop you ever two seconds for you to listen to a script. Sanctuary is quite clever in getting it just right.

GaryH said:
I think thats fair enough though - unless your at the very back in which case fair enough, but if you have a backpack on, and someone is behind you, they have to hold on to your shoulders, then if you jump back at a scare, you hit the person in the face behind you with your pack. Fair nuff i think.....
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Yeah it's just a health and safety thing. Aside from potentially swinging around and hitting the person behind you, having a bag on your back could damage props, sets, actors etc.. Safer to have a bag on your front (even though it can be uncomfortable).
 
I have never ever been asked to do that in a scare maze before, and in actual fact, when little kids have been behind me who cant REACH my shoulders, I've given them the straps on my bag to hold onto.

Don't buy the health and safety explanation, I jump back WITHOUT my bag on and I am more likely to crack someone in head with the back of mine. It's a soft backpack not a concrete slab. It also makes it EXTREMELY awkward to walk downstairs in semi light conditions!
 
I don't see how children have anything to do with the major difference between Alton's version of a scare zone and the real world versions of a Scare Zone. Proper scare zones still have alternative/escape routes so wimps and children can avoid them.
 
From the latest snapchat upload it looks like you can't film the ultimate sleepover. Boo that's not fair. How else do I show you guys what this rather expensive event was like, on YouTube. :(
 
Not allowing recording is pretty standard for just about any kind of live performace.
 
That's fair enough I would never record a pop concert, but there are plenty of vids of past towers scareroom events online. Must have got permission somehow. I would never post a video until well after the sleepovers are done to avoid spoilers.
 
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