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was released in 1997 and it got kids excited about the season, then when Walmart bought Asda, it flooded it with cheap Halloween costumes, party plates etc. Soon all the other supermarkets followed suit.” Back at the farm, The Spooky Wagon Ride, for children,
opened in 2002, and the scarier Haunted Hayride, for older children and adults, along with the creation of the Spooktacular festival in 2003. That year, Tulleys welcomed 15,000 visitors over the Halloween period. The Haunted Hayride was a major step forward for the
event, the Halloween Festival at that time. The ride was launched with 12 movie scenes, brought to life by real actors and special effects. “We had people waiting 2.5 hours to get on it,” says Stuart. “We weren’t used to running a park or rides, we were learning very steeply in the early days. We would go along and give them chocolates while they were waiting. But they were quite happy waiting for it, because the end game, the product they were going to was really cool. The following year we upgraded it and built a station and gradually every year, we have added more attractions to it.” Between 2003 and 2009 new attractions were built, with
strong influences from attractions in America and Canada. The infrastructure improved, allowing the Tulleys name to become truly synonymous with Halloween. In 2009 it became Shocktober Fest Scream Park and had a
Spookfest that ran as a daytime event, in the same space and with the same layout but toned down for kids. Visitor numbers have since grown every year, except for last
year when it had a drive-thru cinema event instead. “I think we are up to around 80,000 visitors for Shocktober Fest over 24 nights this year; with around 4500 visitors a night we make it so everyone can get on everything,” says Stuart.
Competing nationally, and internationally The infrastructure continues to build around Shocktober Fest with a lot of the attractions permanently there. “It pops up like a county show and it’s got all the moving parts of a theme park – safety, maintenance queue line screens, supply chains. It takes 500 people to put on Shocktober Fest,” says Stuart.
The event has attracted brilliant and creative people, who are considered the pioneers of the UK scare industry, creating an extraordinary team that continues to push the boundaries of Halloween entertainment.
Stuart agrees, “I think we win over the big UK theme parks in terms of a dedicated Halloween event. What a traditional theme park can put on is basically
a candyfloss or a topping to the rides. With Tulleys everything about it is purpose made for Halloween, everything in the DNA of the event is about that, which I think is what sets it apart.” Tulleys Farm is quite a unique space, “because we are in farm and woodland it’s quite spooky getting out to us as well,” says Stuart. “This, together with the history we have got with Halloween and pumpkin growing means Tulleys is seen as the major destination in the UK for Halloween. As a dedicated Halloween event, it’s also the largest in Europe. If we were positioned in the US, we wouldn’t be the largest event, but we would probably be in top 10.”
2021 sees Tulleys celebrating 50 years of Pick Your Own and 25 years of screams. With this, the team has created a mini horror show franchise of three stories, each with a subtle reference to 25 released at 18.25 on selected Fridays throughout September. “If you know, you know,” says Stuart smiling.
The hashtag #WeDareYou, which was launched four years ago, now has an iconic status and is whipping up fear and excitement on social media ahead of gates opening, together with news of its latest scare maze – The Island. Reflecting on the epic journey he and the team have taken from selling those first few pumpkins to the beast that is now Tulley’s Shocktober Fest Scream Park, Stuart says: “It’s grown naturally and organically. I think I would have frightened myself if I had known what I would be running today!”
I think we
win over the big UK theme parks in terms of a dedicated Halloween event. What a traditional theme park can put on is basically a candyfloss or a topping to the rides. With Tulleys everything about it is purpose made for Halloween, everything in the DNA of the event is about that, which I think is what sets it apart.
IAAPA EXPO EUROPE EDITION
57
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