I n a business built on thrills and chills, it’s not shocking to learn that some adventure parks are making a killing with Halloween-themed events. Demand for Hallow- een-themed fun is incredibly high, and aerial adventure operations are ideal venues to provide a unique, memorable experience. Operators take a variety of approaches to amp up the freight factor come fall, from hiring scare actors and installing animatronics to using darkness as the primary attraction. Efforts range from big budget to low budget, and from super scary to kid-friendly. The reasons operators have launched a Halloween event or theme, and how they got started, vary, too. Regardless of the approach, though, or why or how it came to be for certain operators, all agree that it’s well worth doing.
Darkness is the scariest element
of the Zombie Zips at Mountain Ridge Adventure, N.Y.
continuous belay systems allow guests to fully immerse themselves in the Halloween experience. “They know they don’t have to worry about their own safety,” she says, adding that the scare actors “lend unexpected twists and turns throughout.”
successful, she says, but the Hallow- een-themed nights—begun in 2020— usually sell out. There are plenty of variations on this approach. At Take Flight Aerial Adven- ture Park in Kittery, Maine, Zombie Zip “walkers” guide guests through the park’s six-station zip line course in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Likewise, the Halloween Tree Top Tour at Empower Adventures in Middleburg, Va., is the usual tour augmented with glow sticks, music, and—during the day—a Pumpkin Drop where guests aim gourds at targets as they zip line above. The Creepy Glow program at The Adventure Park at Storrs in Connecticut and the HallowGlow Glow Nights at Michigan’s TreeRunner Adventure Parks closely parallel the parks’ usual glow night events, further demonstrating that Halloween events needn’t be built from the ground up.
A NATURAL FIT
“Adventure parks can be intimidating; it’s not every day that the average person is zip lining through forests and over rivers or dangling over suspended obstacles,” says Chrissy Very, senior regional site manager at Go Ape, which runs “Frights at Height” at various park locations each fall. “What can feel ‘scary’ on its own organically lends itself to Halloween events.” Go Ape’s Halloween program evolved out of a non-themed evening program launched in 2015. “We had incredible demand for daytime activities, and didn’t want to end the fun just because the sun went down,” explains Very. “Plus, experiencing a ropes course at night feels entirely different than the same course during the day. It seemed a natural path from invigorating night- time zip lining to increasing the ‘scare’ factor and aligning with our audience’s want of haunted attractions in October. Halloween has a mass following.” Go Ape adds actors and animatronics to its regular Treetop Journey course, along with Halloween lighting and décor.
SIMPLE ADJUSTMENTS
Many parks take simpler, less elaborate steps at Halloween. Existing programs as well as extant attractions can be re-themed for the holiday, according to Colleen Tyler, assistant general man- ager at The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring, Md. The park’s long-running “Glow in the Park,” which offers evening visitors an opportunity to zip line and clamber the ropes course amid neon lights, is adapt- ed and enhanced for “Halloween Glow in the Park” with scary music and decor as well as costumed staff. A costume contest and candy handouts encourage guests to dress up for the event. Halloween Glow in the Park is held on the Friday and Saturday nights closest to Halloween—although not on Oct. 31 itself. “It’s hard to get people to come out on the day of Halloween,” explains Tyler. The regular Glow in the Park events held throughout the year are
FILLING A VOID
The UK’s Zip World, which operates seven adventure parks in Wales and England, got into the Halloween game when it saw the opportunity to offer something special. It launched the haunted carnival-themed “Ffear Fforest” event in 2018 at its Betws-y-Coed
Very says that the security of the parks’
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