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Fright Fest
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The 1992 Season
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With the new ownership of Six Flags by
Time Warner, the various Halloween events held at parks throughout
the company were given a unified name, Fright Fest.
As in the past, the park saw more decorations, more shows, and more
events to cater to the larger and larger crowds coming for Halloween.
This year saw the park's first character brunch as part of Fright Fest
and time Warner's attempts to leverage its licensed properties with the
Looney Tunes characters. The brunches were held near Bandstand on the Lake.
Showcase Theatre hosted Thriller, the first of the parks musical
Halloween shows, which was a precursor to Dead Man's Party. |
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The 1993 Season
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The
1993 season saw drastic changes throughout the park as Six Flags
management as a part of Time Warner worked bring theme back tot he
parks and restore their family appeal. Fright Fest adopted a
chain-wide logo featuring Bugs Bunny, and was billed as the "World's
Biggest Halloween Party"
Fright Fest evolved into an elaborate event, with more and better
decorations added throughout the park, as well as additional shows and
events.
This was the first season the park's fountain was filled with red dye to
make it look like blood. |
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The very popular Thriller show came back
for a second season as Thriller II, and played to packed houses in the
Showcase Theatre.
These photos show some of the elaborate sets created for the show, and
the incredibly popular skeleton dance number. The skeleton
dance was the most memorable part of the show for many guests, and it
featured adance routine performed
to
Harry Belafonte’s
Jump In Line (Shake, Shake Senora) under blacklights.
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Pictured are some of the decorations including
ever more elaborate pumpkin men, props and other seasonal displays.
One of the most popular shows was the Execution, which had a very
realistic looking guillotine.
The biggest change for the 1993 season was the Hayride. Up
to that season, hayrides were family friendly, but the new version was a
much darker and scarier affair.
The new version of the hayride took guests outside the confines of the
park, and into the backstage areas, that had been transformed into a
tour of the weird and scary.
The park's staff was encouraged to be creative and built simple sets and
props to create a storyline.
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The "Camp O'Neill" sign
is a tribute to the driving force behind much of the innovations made
for Fright Fest at Great Adventure, Bob O'Neill. |
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Many of the props for the hayride were created from bits and pieces
laying around the park unused. Some, like the alligator were
created for attractions which were removed or never installed.
Others came from other parks, like the closed Six Flags Power Plant.
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The 1994 Season
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By 1994,
Fright Fest was really hitting its stride, and Halloween events at Six
Flags and other theme parks were becoming big business.
As a result, a "Halloween Industry" which supplied more and more
elaborate props for theme parks was also really starting to takeoff, and
Great Adventure was often one of the first park's to add these new
things.
The park was covered in webs along with the usual pumpkins and
cornstalks to an extent never seen before.
The Thriller show came back for its third season.
Granny's received some of the most elaborate props, as the loading
station for the Hayride. Granny's also featured hot cider and
apple dumplings as part of its menu, just for Fright Fest. |
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The Hayride
was immensely popular in its first season, and was back with even more
props, more sets and more performers.
It's interesting to note that it ran even before the sun set in order to
help accommodate the crowds. |
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The 1995 Season
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Some of the
new events for 1995 included "Legend of the Lost Diver" in the Aqua
Stadium which featured a stunt dive with the diver on fire.
More new props were added, including a cemetery in the Viper queue area.
Showcase Theatre was taken over for a new show, staring the Crypt Keeper
from the show Tales From the Crypt. |
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Back for a second season was the
Frightworks Fireworks show on the lake.
The Hayride To The Unknown continued on for a third season, despite
construction had begun for Skull Mountain in the same area.
The props for the hayride continued becoming bigger and more specialized
as the crowds grew larger and expected more and more sophistication.
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The 1996 Season
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The
1996 season was the first to offer a different film in the Right Stuff
simulator for Fright Fest, and introduced Dino Island.
The former queue form Shockwave was utilized as a Halloween attraction
called "Halloween Happenings" |
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The fourth season for the
Hayride continued to use the same back road, now with Skull Mountain in
place where Rotor was.
The train storage track behind Skull Mountain was incorporated into the
Hayride, using the old fiberglass train bodies from the Great American
Scream Machine.
The densely wooded lakeside was a perfect spot for a horrific
camping scene as part of the hayride. |
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The 1997 Season
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After not being able to get Batman &
Robin: The Chiller operating for most of the season, the queue line
became home to skeletons and cobwebs for Fright Fest (and it wouldn't be
the last time that happened in Chiller's history).
With Six Flags under the new ownership of Premier Parks, things began to
change in subtle ways, mostly involving reduced staffing, and reduced
availability of rides. |
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The 1998 Season
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As an added attraction for the 1998
season, several small stages were setup around the park and local bands
were brought in to perform. The close proximity of the
stages to one another made the park sound like a battle of the bands.
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The 1999 Season
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A major investment was made in more and more elaborate props and stages
for the Outer Mall and fountain area, including a stage that covered the
fountain itself.
One milestone of the 1999 season was the introduction of the Dead Man's
Party stage show at the foot of the Big Wheel. This show has
remained popular with crowds ever since, and has become a Fright Fest
tradition for many of the park regulars.
To kick off Fright Fest, Alice Cooper performed in a special stage
setup at the rear of the Garden of Eatin' (now Old Country Picnic
Grove). This concert was part of the launch of Alice Cooper's
Brutal Planet, a walk through attraction setup in the Picnic Pavillion.
The fountain stage would be the setting for the Prepare for Madness
show, and at the end of each night, Dr. Fright's Final Freakout show,
which drew guests to the exit.
Some of the new props introduced for this season were the park's fleet
of Hearses, and a bunch of oversized figures and tombstones.
This was also the first season for Elvira's Superstition show in the
motion simulator theatre. This 3-D motion picture has remained
popular with families with its mix of humor and thrills, plus a welcome
break from the weather on cold October nights. |
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The 2000 Season
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Brutal Planet was back for a second season in
2000, this time located around the old Shooting Gallery building behind
Best of the West. Guests entered through a spinning tunnel next to
Super Teepee, and exited under the flume track near the Arena.
The Castle Escape up-charge virtual reality attraction was also introduced this season,
taking over the Chicago Shootout shooting gallery next to the Big Wheel.
Castle Escape would eventually be moved to a new location on the
opposite side of Dream Street as a full time park attraction.
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The 2001 Season
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Fright Fest
2001 was a kind of subdued affair in the weeks after the real horrors of
September 11th. Crowds were lighter than usual, as people
were still trying to cope with the events of real life that happened so
close to the park, and worrying about what would happen next. The
usual gore of the event was toned down in response.
There was a special show by "Robosaurus" in the Northern Star Arena,
which was subject to a $1 a person up-charge, and offered a car
crushing, fire breathing half truck/half dinosaur. |
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