Violence, riots and absolute chaos breaks out across the country at Theme Parks such as Busch Gardens to multiple Six Flags. Last year theme parks didn’t open their Halloween attractions due to covid and local haunted house felt the grip of violence with multiple shootings and at least one person dead. This year a Pittsburgh haunted hayride had a shooting in the ticket line resulting in two people shot and one person dead.
Violence in America is off the chart, mostly due to the main stream media, and liberal politicians’ vilification of police. Many cities and national politicians have called for a complete defunding of the police, while rampant crime, violence and complete lawlessness rack our communities.
Violence at any gathering place seems common now, but what can haunt attractions do to stop the violence at theme parks and local haunted houses. Haunted attractions are meant to entertain people, a place to go to scream with delight not run-in fear from gunfire. Let’s be clear haunted attractions aren’t the cause of the violence as this has been happening at all gathering places year around. Just take five minutes on youtube search for fights at Chuckie Cheese or even your local amusement park. But now that October has rolled around haunted attractions have to deal with the complete lack of respect for law and order.
(WATCH VIOLENCE SIX FLAGS FRIGHT FEST)
(WATCH ANOTHER RIOT AT A DIFFERENT SIX FLAGS)
Here is a list of things you should consider to make your haunted attraction SAFER!
Hire only local police for security: You should strongly consider doubling your police. Not only that but have a meeting with the local police and ask about patrol cars parked in the parking lots with their lights ON! You need a show of force.
NO DROP OFFS: Post on your website you’re NOT allowing teens without a parent or proof of a ride after their event. Parents have been dumping their kids off and pick them up hours later. Avoid this problem by not allowing drop offs of teenagers.
ENTRY CHANGE: As you see teenagers enter your haunt tell them on the spot you need to call for your ride NOW. You want teenagers GONE off the property immediately.
CLOSE ATTRACTIONS: Do NOT open most of your midway attractions this year. Open your haunted house and close anything that keeps people hanging around. At The Darkness we are not allowing bookings of our 5-minute escape online. Furthermore, at Creepyworld we have closed our zombie paintball. We need people to leave after experiencing the haunted house.
METAL DETECTOR: Wand everyone who enters and check purses you don’t need guns on your property. Furthermore, post signs telling people no weapons allowed.
Patrol Parking Lots: This year you need to patrol your parking lots because most of the fighting occurs in the parking lot.
Shorten Hours/Dates: Do NOT open your haunt past 11 to 11:45 pm. If you notice the line is super long just SHUT DOWN any additional entries. Put cops up at the front and turn away all new guests. In other words, limit the number of guests. Do NOT be open past midnight it’s simply unsafe.
Operational Changes: You want to give guests a great show, however you need to change how you operate the haunted house. For one you should be running people thru your haunted house faster. Do not space people out by more than 30 to 45 seconds and send in 10 to 15 people at a time. You want to get your guests into the haunt as quickly as possible. To offset the speed, add additional air cannons, and animations and actors if you can find them.
OPEN EARLY: Who cares if its light outside OPEN EARLY! We’re opening at 6:45 light or day and we will put people into the haunted house as fast at 6:45 as we would at 9:45. Do not open slow then go faster later, pace your guests the same at 6:45 as you would at 9:45.
Put Safety Over Show: Safety is your #1 objective not scaring people, not putting on a great show, just safety. If you can’t operate your haunted house safe nothing else matters. When debating to do something or not to do something pick SAFETY FIRST!
If I was operating a massive theme park I would strongly consider cutting out at least 1/3 of the park if not half to double the amount of security where people interact with rides and attractions. Furthermore I would limit the number of people who could enter Fright Fests by at least 50%. Lastly I would ask the local police to patrol the parking lots with lights flashing one hour prior to closing until everyone has left the parking.
(WATCH VIOLENCE AT BUSCH GARDENS)
(MORE VIOLENCE AT SIX FLAGS FRIGHT FEST)
Good luck this season and remember have a SAFE Halloween!
Your Friends at Hauntworld.com
PS: THIS ARTICLE WAS RUSHED IT WILL BE PROOFED AND EDIT LATER
