Dark Out NIght

[drfrightner]

I wanted to report that our last night of being open we promoted a DARK OUT night where we gave out glow sticks with all the lights turned OFF.

Our business went up about 50% at Darkness same night and Lemp was about 75% up from last year. We had huge lines of people who wanted to go through the haunted house with all the lights OFF! It works.

We found that the glow sticks are too bright so we had to turn the fog on, we started off with no fog but then turned it on after realizing it wasn't dark enough. We left lights on around anything dangerous like step ups and downs, anything with a moving floor, blah, blah.

This really worked.

Larry

[Boni]

Larry, is that the first time you have tried this?

How about on a outdoor haunt? I was thinking of using flashlights for outdoors but maybe glow sticks would be better.

[zombietoxin]

Our Lights Out Night was received pretty well too. Being our first- I was a little worried when people I bumped into on the street made comments like- I probably won't come that night because: I won't be able to see everything- or- that will be waaay to scary for me.

We didn't tell anyone that we were controlling the # of sticks to each group to 1 per 5 people, 2 for 6 or more (which didn't happen often) Everyone looked a little worried when we handed out just one stick as they went in. There were quick and heated discussions about who was going to hold it and where they were going to be in line- it was really funny for everyone.

Turns out 6" sticks are pretty darn bright, especially in close quarters and lightly colored rooms.

Our exit interviewer also collected the sticks at the end- with no objections- and recycled them to the front of the line.

I caught a few groups in the haunt without a stick at all... I don't know what they did with it, but they were freaking out! Between the stair lights, and the red exit sign lights they were able to navigate pretty well.

We will be doing that again, probably on two nights.

[MorgueofDoom]

This is our 2nd season for glow stick night. We only do this particular show on the last 2 sundays in October because of the amount of time it takes for us to completely flip our shows. Our shows were never really designed to do a lights out event because we like to keep the stairs lit, and leave all air pneumatics and prop lights active for when props go off. Scares the crap out of customers and blinds them at the same time, which allows our actors to steal their glows tick. We're a touch haunt and our monsters are allowed to steal the sticks from the patrons, but we only taunt them or throw it in the next room. It's a fun interaction with walking around in the dark. This particular event is a favorite among our actors as well as customers. Every year this event gets bigger. Lots of fun and a good way to entice customers to get a different kind of show on a sunday. We see a lot of repeat customers because of this.

[Jim Warfield]

When They Can't "See It ALL"

They need to come back again.
We have areas and corners and behind the scenes places that get discovered during "Hyde & Shriek" Partys here as patrons explore, sneak around trying to scare one another, sometimes they even will play Hide & Seek!!
We give them the simple rules at the begining. we have motion lights that will light up dark areas for them, they just have to be brave enough to take that one- more- step (or two?)
They may have been through here for numerous house tours but they have never seen some of the places and things they get to see during this event, and they realise this and this makes it popular, so popular that we have had certain groups come here time and time again to do this thatsome of them have never had a regular house tour.. yet.!
The cost is $10.oo per/person/per/hour, min. charge of $100.oo whether they have ten bodies or not.
A mere hour goes very quickly here for most people (a lot to see and do)so some rent it for 1,11/2, 2 or 3 hours./
As a real perk for Jim, I patrol the house as they are wandering about and often get some new fun from being in new "scare" locations that I can't use at any other time, and of course most all of the lights are "On", so they feel braver , just before I make them jump and scream!
They didn't realize until that moment that this is my therapy and I need it! Thank you.

[spookologist]

Thanks for the input Larry and everyone, we are doing a lights out/glow stick tour in 2012. Did you have a full staff of actors or did they all scare themselves? Sounds like a lot of fun.

Wayne

[monsterwax]

6 inch sticks are too big and too bright. We give them 1.5 inch sticks to everyone and tell them to go slowly. We like it dark in most areas, but there are a few open areas where action occurs that still had some light. I think we're going to make those areas dark next time too. We also killed a lot of the strobes. We're finding that less light is more. We also discourage any kids from coming that night, unless they're wearing adult diapers. In all seriousness, we did have some people wet themselves and had to roll out the pee-bucket. Haw-haw!