Valentines Day

[Joe P]

I know a lot of Haunts run on V-Day, I was curious as to how drastic of changes are made for your event if any? Props costumes pricing ETC.
Love to hear what you have tried

Thanks

[terrormasue]

Check out Dark Hour in Plano Texas. They are open every holiday of the year and then some. I know they change it up pretty good. Check out their website for times and prices. Allen Hopps would be a great person to ask.

Sue

[Farmer]

Sue beat me to the punch! Yes, we at Dark Hour open 7 times during the year outside of halloween season. And the changes are a fairly large undertaking. With halloween season, we present 8 totally different experiences in the same haunt throughout the year. To achieve this, we employ many traditional theatrical principles, have a warehouse in the back that's full of props & scenery, and about 90% of the light fixtures in the show are color mixing LEDs controlled via DMX.
Valentine's day is our only "lights out" or "glow stick" show but even so, the changes are substantial. We add a lot of tactile elements you have to feel your way through in the dark, and there's still a couple of carefully lit areas to display some pretty neat effects but not kill the darkness element.

[Joe P]

lights out

I have wondered about that for awhile, I know every municipality is different but do you have the exit lights on? Our FM made us put so many in and on the same circuit as the emergency lights so they stay light all the time. It looks like a damn Christmas tree in some scenes. And do you lower or raise prices due to the nature of the event?

Thanks

[Badger]

Allen Hopps is on the latest Big Scary Show (episode 70) and discusses his haunt being open at other times of the year. Check it out. www.bigscaryshow.com

(End of shameless plug)

[Farmer]

I have wondered about that for awhile, I know every municipality is different but do you have the exit lights on? Our FM made us put so many in and on the same circuit as the emergency lights so they stay light all the time. It looks like a damn Christmas tree in some scenes. And do you lower or raise prices due to the nature of the event?

Thanks

Regarding the exit signs- that totally depends on the local authority. If he says they have to be on, they have to be on. We are fortunate to have ours as part of the emergency system.
As far as pricing, we still deliver a full length show that's highly entertaining, so we hold the exact same prices as Halloween season.

[haunter1313]

I think any time a haunted house can open and generate income is a great day! We are considering opening for special events simply worried about the cost to promote and pay the staff. Not sure if its a great concept or not.

[drfrightner]

We have never tried to open other than for Transworld tradeshow outside of the typical Halloween season. I've talked to several haunters over the years and they will tell me oh we did like 400 people, 200 people, 1000 people for an entire weekend whatever. If you put a lot of work into changing the attraction for the holiday I really can't see how you can make money. To me it sounds like a TON of work and a TON of commitment... I say hands off to those haunts with that kind of dedication to make it happen! Kudos to you guys.

We have chosen to simply focus on the Halloween season. Let me also say this the work that we put into renovating The Darkness OMG... after the haunt show I'm ready for a mental and physical break from haunts. The stress from trying to get open for Transworld is incredible clearly the stress from Halloween season is taxing as well... at this stage of the game I couldn't take that stress 4 or 5 times a year for so little return.

Larry

[gorezone]

To some degree I agree with Larry after just reading his reply. However I think it comes down to how big is your show. If your haunted attraction is smaller then the effort and cost is lower. I can see a big attraction like Netherworld or Headless Horseman being a monumental task but a haunted attraction of our size easy to make the transition. We will open for special events and modify the attraction to suit the holiday but our attraction doesn't take the same level of financial commitment to open. GZ

[Mike Danielson]

Sue beat me to the punch! Yes, we at Dark Hour open 7 times during the year outside of halloween season. And the changes are a fairly large undertaking. With halloween season, we present 8 totally different experiences in the same haunt throughout the year. To achieve this, we employ many traditional theatrical principles, have a warehouse in the back that's full of props & scenery, and about 90% of the light fixtures in the show are color mixing LEDs controlled via DMX.
Valentine's day is our only "lights out" or "glow stick" show but even so, the changes are substantial. We add a lot of tactile elements you have to feel your way through in the dark, and there's still a couple of carefully lit areas to display some pretty neat effects but not kill the darkness element.

I live in McKinney and was thinking about going to Summer Spirits this year. Is it already booked up, or can you get tickets at the door?

[Farmer]

tix at the door

I live in McKinney and was thinking about going to Summer Spirits this year. Is it already booked up, or can you get tickets at the door?

You can get tickets at the door for any of our shows during the hours we are open.
However, the Paranormal Prom does require reservations online in advance. (This is for the Prom only, not the Summer Spirits Haunted House)
www.darkhourhauntedhouse.com

[drfrightner]

We are going to give this a try next year. Larry