Click on a year to jump to that season's Fright Fest
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The 1989 Season
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For the 1989 season, the park
launched Halloweekends, a small and simple Halloween celebration.
Prior to that, the only celebration of the holiday involved employees
being encouraged to wear costumes to work on the final day
of the season, which usually fell right around Halloween. |
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The early event was
simple, with some fall decorations like pumpkins and cornstalks being
added around the park, and simple store-bought Halloween party
decorations added here and there.
One of the first "attractions" added for Halloweekends was a simple
hayride which ran through the park.
The event was primarily run by the park's Show Operations Department,
and featured several small Halloween themed shows around the park.
The performers for these shows were sometimes hired specifically for the
seasonal shows, and sometimes regular park employees who took on special
roles for the event. The park's Adventure Theatre which normally
showed an action film on a dome which surrounded the audience showed
cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Ghost Busters instead.
The park's "Map Boxes" which were also part of the Show Operations
Department were decorated along with the signs on the show facilities
that had closed for the season.
One of the first major investments the park made in the even was a set
of Halloween banners to hang on Dream Street.
This was also the beginning of the parks "Pumpkin Men" which have been
created every year since. |
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One of the more unique
events of the first Halloweekends celebration was the King Kong
Encounter. |
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The 1990 Season
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The
second year of Halloweekends was more of the same as the first, but with
more props, more decorations, and more events.
The Monster Magic show took over the Bandstand, and was the first real
Halloween show the park offered.
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The 1991 Season
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The 1991
season added even more props and events throughout the park, and
introduced the Battle of the Sorcerers complete with its own stage which
was built for the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves show the park hosted over
the summer.
In these early years, few people thought about coming to the park to
celebrate Halloween, so cheap tickets were offered to entice guests.
The end of the season was also a good time for the park to clear out
merchandise, so many of the park shops offered sales.
At the time, there was a rising fear among parents about letting kids
trick-or-treat door to door, and the increasing popularity of Halloween
celebrations everywhere led to further growth of the event each season.
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