• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Travellers Day Scarefest

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.

Zippy481

TS Member
Does anyone know for sure, which Sunday during Scarefest will be "Travellers Day". Made the mistake of going at Easter and do not want to repeat it. I've got young children and they don't need to be subjected to that again.

I've read it is usually the first weekend but Scarefest dates seem to be split. The first Scarefest weekend on opening times is Friday 7th to Sunday 9th October but then Scarefest doesn't seem to be on the following weekdays, Monday 10th to Thursday 13th October. After that it is daily from Friday 14th to Monday 31st.

I want to go on Sunday 16th October, which in theory is the second weekend.

Thanks
 
There's no guarantee when they will turn up. Even if Alton Towers set aside and incentivise a specific day for the travelling community to visit they may just decide to visit on a different date.

Anecdotally I've heard it often coincides with the Uttoxeter races. There's a race on the 14th so it could be the second weekend.

You'll know if you've picked a scheduled traveller date when you see signs like this (not that it's much help when you're there):

1662981571150.png
Credit: TowersStreet
 
Last edited:
It's normally not a problem for me as I usually visit midweek first or second week. But my mum wants to go and can only do the Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th. For some reason I assumed it was usually the following weekend?
 
I know this isn't related to towers but when I went to Thorpe park 8th of may this year on a Sunday, I went with no idea it was traveller's day, I got to the park around 2pm which the second I got out the Uber it got swarmed by a group of young adults and children desperately trying to make him drive them away.

They were shouting and trying to make him do it even though he was saying he couldn't, we told a member of staff to send over security.

As walking over the bridge we saw security escorting people out of the park who were shouting 'I AINT INVOLVED'

After 5 minutes in the park we realized the majority of guests were travelers and all staff members seemed very fed up and operations were suffering as a result.

In the queue for inferno for the front row whenever the airgates opened a group of 6-7 kids went out and started fighting eachother over who's turn it was, a few of them kept getting kicked out for doing this and some were refusing to get off the ride and they wouldn't send the ride until they left, they were refusing and kept pulling down their restraints in protest.

Security presence was very big which definitely stopped things from getting too dangerous, myself and my friends were not in any harm at any point though.

And this post is not being made to direct any hate to any groups of people but I do recommend if you can avoid these days then you should just to avoid the headache, my only advice if you do find yourself on a 'family/traveler's day' is just keep yourself to yourself for the day and you should be fine.

And if you do see anyone in trouble just alert a member of staff and they should alert security.
 
There's no guarantee when they will turn up. Even if Alton Towers set aside and incentivise a specific day for the travelling community to visit they may just decide to visit on a different date.

Anecdotally I've heard it often coincides with the Uttoxeter races. There's a race on the 14th so it could be the second weekend.

You'll know if you've picked a scheduled traveller date when you see signs like this (not that it's much help when you're there):

1662981571150.png
Credit: TowersStreet
Let's hope they don't show up for Oktoberfest then!
 
Oh god, I didn’t even think of this. Planning on staying over night and going on the 23rd and 24th Oct for a birthday celebration. Fingers crossed that Sunday isn’t travellers day.
 
It used to be the first Sunday of Scarefest like clockwork, however in the last few years it hasn’t always gone that way. A couple of times the ‘family friendly’ status has been dropped half way through the day and alcohol has gone back on sale etc.

It has been on a Friday a couple of times, and with the Uttoxeter races being mentioned in another post as 14th, my money would be on Friday 14th October this year.
 
I think there is a link to it being 'Gentleman's Day' at Uttoxeter Racecourse, as the kids and mums tend to go to Alton Towers while the dads go to the races.

From what I can see, it would be Sunday 2nd October would be my best guess - https://www.uttoxeter-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on/bresbet-gentleman's-day

No guarantee of course, but they've never really caused much of an issue at Alton Towers when I've been on a 'family fun day' - Thorpe Park on the other hand is another story!
 
We're looking at booking for 20 or 21st which is the Thursday or Friday before most kids break up for half term. I expect it will still be busy though.
 
At Alton Towers, I've only experienced this Sunday once (I only get to visit Alton once a year, always Scarefest). We stay for 4/5 days at a time, and when we last stayed over a Sunday, we remember the day before being told no alcohol would be served and it might get quite rowdy. I remember being quite anxious on the Sunday, but the worst I saw was a couple of families queue jumping right at the beginning, then the rest of the day was like normal. Alcohol was resumed being served in the evening if I remember rightly (this was a couple of years ago!). Since then, we've always gone during the week (including this year), so haven't encountered it since.

Thorpe Park is another story. We are planning our Fright Nights to be the first weekend of October (we would go during the week but our schedules never allow it), and every Sunday we go to Thorpe is a nightmare. By the afternoon the place is overrun, the violence, the intimidation, the queue jumping. For those who go purely for a love of rollercoasters and scare mazes (us), it really ruins your day. We have no choice but to go over a weekend, and I am really nervous.
 
It's a bit more tricky at Thorpe as there are a lot of Traveller communities in the local area. Not sure what it's like these days but it used to be pretty much every Sunday at Fright Nights.

One year our ghost walk down the CCR track was interuppted by them hopping over the Monks Walk fence.
 
At Alton Towers, I've only experienced this Sunday once (I only get to visit Alton once a year, always Scarefest). We stay for 4/5 days at a time, and when we last stayed over a Sunday, we remember the day before being told no alcohol would be served and it might get quite rowdy. I remember being quite anxious on the Sunday, but the worst I saw was a couple of families queue jumping right at the beginning, then the rest of the day was like normal. Alcohol was resumed being served in the evening if I remember rightly (this was a couple of years ago!). Since then, we've always gone during the week (including this year), so haven't encountered it since.

Thorpe Park is another story. We are planning our Fright Nights to be the first weekend of October (we would go during the week but our schedules never allow it), and every Sunday we go to Thorpe is a nightmare. By the afternoon the place is overrun, the violence, the intimidation, the queue jumping. For those who go purely for a love of rollercoasters and scare mazes (us), it really ruins your day. We have no choice but to go over a weekend, and I am really nervous.
If it ruins your enjoyment on those days, vote with your feet and don't go. The park will be forced to do more to crack down on bad behaviour if they are routinely losing money as a result of it.

There's a reason they're called Fight Nights...
 
It’s ok saying don’t go and I completely agree ….

But it’s difficult when you don’t know the exact date of their visit.

Alton (and other parks) being on private land should refuse them admission the same way a football stadium will refuse admission to certain fans who have caused trouble in the past. The public will back them in this if they ever decided to do it (which I know they won’t)
 
It’s nearly always when Uttoxeter races is on.

That said if you avoid the ruins around sunset and are not bothered about the bars being closed it’s not the worst day in the world to go.
 
It’s ok saying don’t go and I completely agree ….

But it’s difficult when you don’t know the exact date of their visit.

Alton (and other parks) being on private land should refuse them admission the same way a football stadium will refuse admission to certain fans who have caused trouble in the past. The public will back them in this if they ever decided to do it (which I know they won’t)

The thing is though if Towers and Thorpe were to refuse admission to travellers these days I suspect that it would be perhaps a case that they were breaking certain laws regarding racial discrimination or something along those lines.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top