I'm Alive !!!

[Xeverity]

Hey don't gang up on me! We did nothing of the sort.

I ONLY DO HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween here is barely celebrated here in the UK. Where as Guy Fawkes is the major holiday.

People like fireworks and build bonfires in their own backyard.

We just happen to rent space from a major firework display company and are on council property. Our Halloween event is seen as the 'sinister element' while they are mainstream. If you read my posts we are actually very tame.

The guys who put on the Fireworks displays are completely separate to me. What they did has nothing to do with me.

I do Halloween only especially being of Canadian origin!! However it is always one of our busiest nights because everyone is out and about watching the fireworks.

Hence my post for us it was a night of madness!!

Yes you were correct I was merely reporting it and didn't mean to upset anyone. Practically every corner shop seems to have bonfire night displays complete with effigies. Especially with the movie V for Vandetta if anything it is more popular that ever. In the UK Guy Fawkes and Halloween are in the same vein with Halloween as the much poorer and less celebrated cousin.

All the attractions Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Chessington world of adventure had fireworks. Our contract for getting liscencing was dependent on us remaining open until Bonfire Night as part of the celebrations. We wouldn't have gotten permission as a stand alone haunt.

You can't blame me for that!!

There is a small piece of justice though....some individuals every year injure themselves by lighting 'industrial size rockets' in their back gardens and injuring themselves or worse - their kids.

Even with that Halloween is still not regarded as well and we only captured 20% of the crowd. Most people were there for the fireworks only. It is huge!! http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/firework...don_index.html

[haunter112]

Sorry, if it seemed like we were ganging up on you, Xeverity.

I think your post would have been okay in the FRIGHT FORUM section, which is open to virtually anything remotely related to haunts, halloween, horror, etc.

Unfortunately the PROFESSIONAL HAUNTED HOUSE CHAT ONLY section was created SPECIFICALLY for professional haunt industry topics.

Your timing (the day before our Election Day) seemed a little suspicious as well.
If I mis-read your intentions, I apologize.

Charles

[MDKing]

Hey Charles,

I agree with you. But if this is for PROFESSIONAL HAUNTED HOUSE CHAT ONLY, wouldn;t that wipe out more than half of the people who post here? No offense, just thinking out loud....

[haunter112]

Nope.

Anyone can post here... as long as the subject of the post is about the haunt industry.

Concerning the term PROFESSIONAL, you know as well as I that very, very few people earn their living with a haunted house.

Probably less than 200 or 300 in the U.S. (with amusement park and carnival darkride operating staff being the majority).

[Jim Warfield]

That word, "Professional" is usually used as a bludgeon over the heads of the inexperienced in the lessons of this world, usually hoping to help hide the actual fact that the person called a professional is actually either a work-a-holic or someone that just doesn't know any better.
Sure, I guess that I'm a professional in the haunt field but I have to work all the time, most of every single waking hour to make it happen, so maybe that "P" word is just there to hide this fact and give me some mystical assumed ranking.
.......Then there is that "I" word....Idiot. hahahaha!
When I filled out a marriage license I was telling the truth when under occupation I put "Village Idiot".
I knew I sure couldn't fool anyone in this small town.
I have lived here almost my entire life, they know me.
If nobody shows up soon for a house tour I will be in the basement drilling holes in concrete for the re-bar for the form for the concrete I carried down into the basement this afternoon, all 1,000 pounds of it.
I wish it was in more than one bag!
hahahaha! (There were numerous bags)

[Greg Chrise]

Just add water and it will weigh 1400 pounds!

Lets see, 2.5 cubic feet per bag, 10 or 11 bags depending on exageration of weight calculation eagles 27.5 cubic feet Hmmm, that is something. Sliced 3 ways thats 82 square feet or 8 to 9 inches wide it's 55 square feet.
Something 5 x10, how odd. 4x13.5 Hmmm.

I've got it. A Nazi Bunker Puppet Theater! Cool!

[Xeverity]

Don't worry Jim even a part time doctor who works one day a week is still a professional. Do school teachers become amatures when they have the summer off? My boyfriend is both a lawyer and architect but because he works mainly as an architect these days does that make him an amature lawyer??

At the heart of this ..... it the difference between how Halloween is celebrated in the US compared to the rest of world...

Most permanent attractions in the UK like London Dungeon, The Tower and Clink Prision (in the clink) have a historical slant and aren't meant to be that scary.

Other Haunt professionals such as ourselves operate from a number of locations such as Hever Castle, Warwick Castle, Bedlam Asylum, Bayham Hall, Nutfield Proiry during specific dates throught out the year to co-incide with specific events (including the blitz) and provide fright entertainment, murder mysteries, horror walks, highwayman's suppers, etc... of which Halloween and Guy Fawkes are obvious examples and the busiest times and co-exist as in 'rolled into one' weekend long event.

Then there are the theme parks who operate all year and put on a Halloween/Guy Fawkes event.

The professional haunt industry is alive and well in the UK and Europe and has been steadily growing for a number of years.

If anything it is the small haunters and home haunters that are missing here.

However, I think we have it easier than you in a lot of ways to earn a full time living because of events that happen all year round at halls, castles, dungeons, ruins and other sites of historical interest that request our sevices. We also don't have to lug around 1,000 panels and trailers as most of these places just need 'creeping up'!

There are also other differences...We can't get away with extreme horror and gore (anythng too viseral)... but satanism is ok esp. the old Alistor Crowley themes.... We can't have characters that are specifically 'racial' - gypsys, muslims, etc. but we can use historical and polictal figures from past or present. Our most popular character was the V character!

Each year we spend tens of thousands of pounds on props (often resourced on this site and shipped from the US) and put on lots of shows. On Halloween we ran our big show as usual but also handled requests for about 30 mini shows all running at the same time.

As I said before we don't have the option of separating out Halloween from Guy Fawkes night. They happen together!! Our special event/business liscence is the same. Maybe one day I will be able to actually buy up all the castles, locations etc... and then I can say what happens on bonfire night in our haunts.

So the question shouldn't be, "Are we professional haunters or not?" but...

"Do you want to limit this forum for american Halloween haunters only or should this be allowed to be an international forum???".

[Xeverity]

Hey Craig!

The Nazi Bunkers are doing well. In Jersey there are a number of them and they are well worth the visit. Wasn't to keen on the beach bunker but the German underground hospital is truly amazing!! I have visited it numerous times.

As a fright location you can't get better. Perhaps they would be interested in your puppet theatre?

Despite all the seemingly frivality of the some of the attractions throughout Europe there are serious undertones of course.

Tasteless jokes aside the ability to objectively look at the facts, maintain a sense of perspective, a stiff upper lip with a sense of humour are what gives people their dignity and resiliance.

[haunter112]

"Do you want to limit this forum for american Halloween haunters only or should this be allowed to be an international forum???".

Xeverity,

This forum welcomes ANYONE to post as long as they follow the rules.

I am well aware that everyone lumps the Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day celebrations together in the UK. However, your "report" on the Guy Fawkes Day America-bashing had NOTHING to do with haunting. It was about kids burning effigies as a political statement.

This section is reserved for PROFESSIONAL HAUNTED HOUSE CHAT ONLY!

That means NO POLITICS!

If you follow the rules, you will always be welcome here.