Haunted Attraction Magazine: What was the inspiration to do a Christmas Horror attraction?
Kelly Collins: We’ve been wanting to do this for years, but we’ve never been in a building where it was permitted. Now that we have the space and opportunity, the Friday the 13th seemed like the perfect chance.
HAM: How did the winter weather effect your opening dates?
KC: It wasn’t an issue on Friday, but it was a problem on our second date (Saturday). Rain, sleet and then snow at opening time. Even some of our actors couldn’t get to us. It defi- nitely was a problem and was reflected in our attendance on Saturday. One reason not to consider opening in December. This has been
an unusual snowy season in December. We don’t normally get much snow until January, but this year has been different.
HAM: What has been the biggest challenge in opening an attraction in the middle of December?
KC: There are permit costs ($1000) that have to be dealt with. Then advertising costs ($1000). Hard to oper- ate and make a profit for just a night or two. As already mentioned the weather is also a big problem. We’re an inside attraction, but the snow covered roads kept many people at home.
HAM: What has been the biggest challenge in promoting the event? (Did you have to educate your customers on what you were doing?)
KC: We advertised on two radio stations and our web site and Facebook. We were fortunate the local newspaper picked up the story and mentioned us. Next year we will promote this event while open in October. This year was more of an operational test.
HAM: How was the response to the attraction?
KC: Our customers have been very appreciative. For some they weren’t available to tour in October and they were excited to finally get a chance to visit. We had oth- er haunt operators and actors who drove up to four hours away just to see our haunt. They were very impressed. HAM: Was there any negative reactions to doing a horror Christmas attraction?
KC: We didn’t have any negative comments from our cus- tomers. We thought we might have a problem with our Krampus character, but no one said anything negative about him.
HAM: Your attraction uses Krampus. Are you finding that
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