Which park started the halloween gimic?

I've only ever been to 1 park's halloween events... Hersheypark in the Dark. From what I have read of other events... Hershey's is probably one of the lamest. Nothing scary at all... just select rides renamed for Halloween. They put up stations where children in costume can get candy.

Then again, this is a family park... so it does fit in with their philosophy. And I am not complaining... reasonably priced wrist bands for unlimited rides and low crowds if you go on a Thursday night mean MANY rides on the Great Scare, sooperdooperBOOper and Icabod's Train (more commonly known as Great Bear, Sooperdooperlooper and Comet).

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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE on 10/11/2002. ***

Not to mention these events keep the parks open longer for us to enjoy before the long winter!

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Men are like parking spaces... the good ones are all taken and the rest are handicapped or too far away.
www.TiggerMan.com

Colonel Sanders said:
He said fright fest not fright nights.

Look brainiac, the question was which Six Flags started their particular corporate Halloween program. Before there was Fright Fest there was Fright Nights, it's the same thing, but the name changed when Time Warner bought Six Flags. If he is correct that Great America started theirs only 12 years ago, then they aren't the first Six Flags to institute Fright Fest because I know Astroworld's first Fright Nights (now called Fright Fest) was thrown in 1986. This doesn't mean another Six Flags might not have had one before 86, I don't know, but it does mean Chicago wasn't first.

Jeff said:

It's not an advertising gimmick... it's the product itself!

My point was, "gimmick" doesn't always have a negative connotation. The advertising part was an example on behalf of the definition.

Oh well, it should have been pretty obvious what I meant.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

Knott's markets its Halloween Haunt event as the "World's first and Scariest Halloween theme park event in the world." And the tagline on posters this year? "Often imitated, but never surpassed" or duplicated something like that.

I dunno, is Williams Grove open for Halloween? That would be pretty scary.

About the only thing I know about it is that it wasn't instituted at GAdv until 11 years ago (which would be '91). At least, that's what they're claiming in radio ads in my area..."11th annual Fright Fest at 6 Flags Great Adventure..."

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"The moose says you're closed, I say you're open!" - Clark W. Griswold
Proud member of the Walley World Park Security

I went to Knott's Scary Farm about 25 years ago and it was pretty good back then. I can't imagine what it must be like now.

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Fierce Pancake said:
I dunno, is Williams Grove open for Halloween? That would be pretty scary.

Nope, sorry to dissapoint, but WG closes at Labor Day... however at Williams Grove every day seems like Halloween. Sometimes you just gotta catch a ride on Dante's Inferno just to get away from the scary stuff on the outside!

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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"

After 30 years, it not surprising that KSF is still the best out there! It has just kept growing every year, and now boasts 11 mazes this season, plus many shows just for the event. :) If anyone gets the chance, it is certainly worth a trip.

Here is a resource in case you are interested in the history or current happenings of Knott's Scary Farm.

http://www.ultimatehaunt.com

And also the most profitable halloween event. This year even sunday nights are selling out (in addition to saturdays and sundays), and a sell out means 40,000 paid admissions, and they sometimes oversell because of ticketmaster and come back free apology tickets. Thats about 1.5 million a night just from ticket sales, I'm sure there are 10000 cars lined up to pay 10 dollars for parking, thousands and thousands of glow sicks sold, 10000 3-D glasses sold, and an endless line at the Chicken Dinner Resturant, which is another Cedar Fair cashcow (at 16 bucks a person fixed rate, with thousands and thousands of meals served a day). Add that onto the millions made during 10am-5:30pm, and during the saturday and sunday Waterpark openings, and Independence hall tours w/ parking, Knotts is making probably 5 million a day, for 21 days.