Scarefest

[JoshC.]

Some more information about Project 42...

 

Quote

This year will see the introduction of Project 42, a new scare maze hidden in the Forbidden Valley.

Those brave enough to enter will need to find a vaccination for the human test subjects, which have been infected by a mutant antidote and escaped.

But they will have to be careful and make sure they get out without contracting the infection themselves.

Source - https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/alton-towers-reveals-terrifying-brand-15098674

 

Expect some more official stuff soon I guess.

 

Confirms that it will take place in Sub Terra (not that this is a surprise given the construction going on around there). No word on how much of Sub Terra they'll use though

 

Similar-ish theme to Sub Species in some ways I guess, but still a different and interesting setting. Looking forward to what they have planned though!

[JoshC.]

A Scarefest video...

-More "scares" in the Dungeons

-3 returning mazes

-2 new "frights"

 

Sub Species containers have returned and are in place, so that's likely staying. There's work happening around Nemesis Sub Terra so presumably Project 42 is staying. I reckon The Welcoming will go. 

 

Assuming they're classing House of Monsters as a maze, it's a toss up between that and Skin Snatchers going as well. In any case, I expect either HoM or a very similar style experience to remain, and one of these new things to be a scare zone..

[JoshC.]

And just like that, the line up:

 

https://www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest/thrilling-frights/#mazes

-Sub Species, Skin Snatchers and Project 42 all return, and are part of the 3 maze combo ticket.

-The Attic: Terror of the Towers is new, with an £8 charge (much like Welcoming, which has gone)

 

https://www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest/family-fun/

-House of Monsters is NOT returning

-New family attraction Darkest Depths: located in Mutiny Bay (possibly where Welcoming was?)

[Martin Doyle]

This on paper could very well be the best Scarefest yet. The welcoming to me was the only bit of deadwood in the line up last year so to see that gone is a big plus. I am quite delighted to see the return of Terror of the Towers with a refreshed story line. I loved Terror of the Towers but it did desperately need a change from the “What Lies Within” story as that long overstayed it’s welcome. I wonder if Thorpe Park will now bring back a certain much loved horror maze after a years absence.......

 

 Altonville mine tour and Sub Species are both brilliant horror mazes (the latter being the best in the country in my book) and I actually found Project 42 to be pretty good too for a maze with limited space to work with. 

 

All in all a pretty solid looking line up.

[Mysta Ghoul]

If they give all the existing mazes a big kick up the rear to get them back on top form, plus a great new version of TOTT, this could be the best Scarefest ever. If they just drag the old mazes out again then it could be a big disappointment, they were starting to slide a bit last year and P42 needs a rethink in my opinion.

House of Monsters was brilliant, surprised that it's disappeared when it was such a good production. But I suppose it's just in the deadest corner of the park now.

[JoshC.]

An interesting sticker has appeared over by House of Monsters:

From Towers Street FB

 

The sign previously said 'this' instead of 'next'.

 

If there's a plan for a maze to return in 2020 but not in 2019, there's some (fair) speculation that it could be because the building / surrounding area could be receiving some work. Given it's in Cloud Cuckoo Land, could we maybe finally be seeing the illusive, long-rumoured CCL retheme?

[Han30]

Had a look on the link but does anyone know if you can get single shot tickets for the mazes? - asking because the one and only time I did Sub Species I ended up in tears, had a panic attack and then an asthma attack eeek!  Also wondering how strict they are with ages?  I know they are 15+ and my niece is 15 but often gets mistaken for being younger and she has no ID at all.

 

Looks a decent line up for this year - not even sure I’ll be able to get there for Scarefest but fingers crossed ? 

[JoshuaA]

7 hours ago, Han30 said:

Had a look on the link but does anyone know if you can get single shot tickets for the mazes?

I'm pretty sure you get single shot on the day. I don't blame you to be honest, Sub Species is bloody brutal!

 

8 hours ago, Han30 said:

Also wondering how strict they are with ages?  I know they are 15+ and my niece is 15 but often gets mistaken for being younger and she has no ID at all.

I went to Scarefest when I was 13 in 2015 and did it the year after too. If they ask her for age just say 15, they can't really ID 15 year olds at a theme park anyway. Like what are the chances someone is bringing their passport and driving license to a theme park at age fifteen Lol?

[MattyMoo]

That quick fix on that poster is laughable.

[yeah]

Surprised nobody has posted any of this yet:

From TowersTimes:

 

“The Attic: Terror of the Towers” will invite guests to venture into the head spinning heights of The Attic, which is said to be haunted by the Governess. Legend says she is trying to avenge the death of her charges by taking the spirits of the living as penance. “The Attic” promises to provide a new, unique and truly chilling experience, using the sensation of colour in a clever and masterful way to add an additional layer to the multi-sensory terror and provide an unforgettable experience.

 

 

Also new for 2019 is Darkest Depths, a maze cleverly developed for families and thrillseekers alike. Guests will be invited to board the infamous ghost ship, “The Mutiny” and journey into the darkest depths to earn their piece of eight. Guests will encounter treacherous sirens who will try and lure them into the depths of the ocean as they dodge the swords of mutinous ghost pirates and come face to face with the sea’s meanest legend of all, the Kraken.

 

https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/blog/2019/09/12/further-scarefest-details-revealed/

[Martin Doyle]

I can see Terror of the Towers having one heck of a duration this year given it looks set to be spread across 3 floors of the ruins. Quite happy with that given I found its final route to be very short and underwhelming compared to its previous location. 

 

Really is good to then bring back a much loved maze for Halloween after it had a year away!!

[yeah]

I was at Scarefest over the first weekend, and I think the event's looking really good.

 

I still won't do the mazes, but my friend did and he thought they were all good. Favourite was Sub Species and he also loved Darkest Depths which I've heard is quite a bit scarier than a family maze (it was very loud from outside!) Apparently nothing was different inside the Dungeons.

 

Atmosphere around the park was good, only saw very few roaming actors, the Dungeons lot outside the Dungeons, including a very intimidating Plague doctor, and some plague victims who were both good at scaring the older ones, and with the kids (I saw one encouraging a kid to stare at an adult with him). I think I saw the Ghost Pirates too, that or some cast members from Darkest Depths. Park audio was good, the same parkwide audio as last year with the addition of a Thirteen section was playing deafeningly loud on Towers Street and Dark Forest had the same audio as last year with the vocals. Darkest Depths has a full 15 minute long song with vocals as it's exterior soundtrack and it's one of my favourite theme park soundtracks ever, and Project 42 had some brilliant audio blasting around the Gun/Drill area of FV. Other than Towers Street, with the usual decorations + some brilliant pumpkins themed around the Big 7, there wasn't much theming around the park, all that really sticks out was some black, white and grey bunting for The Attic around Hex, some body bags on carts around the Dungeons that the actors were interacting with, and A LOT of smoke machines. I can remember one by the Dungeons, one on the bridge between Mutiny Bay and Fountain Square, one under the car in Katanga Canyon, one on the RMT tunnel, one on Oblivion's tunnel exit, one behind the demon things in Haunted Hollow, and one in the Attic queue that can also be seen from the pathway below as well as the permanent ones. I may even be forgetting some. Lighting was also decent, although there was quite a few generators at least the ones that were there were mostly coloured. Oblivion looked really good with it's oranges, and Wicker Man was missing alot of it's lighting from last year although I hear the full lighting package is coming a bit later on. The only thing I have about lighting, is some new bright white sting lights everywhere. It was worst at Wicker Man, where they're all over the queue and way too bright, although I suspect this might be to do with H&S with the stairs. Also there was a bright white generator light directly at eye level in the Oblivion queue which almost blinded me 😂

 

Operations were good around the park, saw a couple of rides closed over the two days and two hours we were on park, mostly Oblivion, but they were, for the most part, open fairly quickly after and with the exception of the second day when Oblivion, Smiler and Wicker Man were shut at the beginning of the day (possibly down to the rain), Oblivion seemed to be having the most issues, as well as Rita which was closed for a couple of hours the second day. Dispatches were pretty quick everywhere, especially at Thirteen and Oblivion. As for the actual rides themselves, they were phenomenal. I had some of my best rides on Nemesis and The Smiler, my first go on Thirteen in the proper dark was good,  Oblivion in the dark was way better than we thought it was going to be and Wicker Man in the dark, wow. While it doesn't look as good without the lights, we were FLYING round that track and it was so dark that I didn't even know what was happening and I know the layout off by heart! I also had two actually decent rides on Rita, and Galactica is there also.

 

Hex was great as always, we didn't see the dreaded "actor" at all apart from one ride, where he apologised for what happened in the octagon and made a joke in the vault, something about "if you have a bag keep it under the seats, if you have a drink hold onto it, and if you need the toilet tough". That may have been the same ride where it felt like it was spinning way faster than usual, creating a very disorientating experience. I think the "actor" is just a ride host taking things maybe too far.

 

Overall, Scarefest opening weekend was one of the best I've ever had at Towers. 

 

 

[Martin Doyle]

A very strong performance from Scarefest this past Sunday!!

 

All five of the mazes performed absolutely brilliantly on my goes through them. They all excel in their own ways, all have some brilliant set designs and all had magnificent actors in all of them. I couldn’t call a single one of them weak. No wonder M£rlin have since told the team to help Thorpe with mazes in the form of Creek Freak Massacre. Altonville mine tour was very physical this year, Sub Species had its intensity back, Project 42 was much improved from last year, Darkest Depths had some of the best looking sets I have ever seen in a maze and The Attic was absolutely incredible and in my opinion the best incarnation of the legendary Terror of the Towers. Queue management for all of these was on top form and not one maze had a longer wait than 5 minutes from having the tickets scanned to entering the maze. Sometimes Alton Towers can still find mazes having long queues despite the paid for timed slots but this was not the case Sunday. Massive thumbs up to the mazes all around.

 

On a more negative note, there has been a decrease in park wide decoration in comparison to recent years. However, Towers Street still looks brilliant and the little features such as the ghosts near mutiny bay and the skeleton projections in the banqueting hall window of the towers add to a very solid atmosphere. This was also helped by the children’s mascots and indeed the brilliant Alton ancestors who really added to the feel of the event.

 

Another solid year for Scarefest and once again it absolutely blows Fright Nights out of the water in every single department. As far as the “Oh Thorpe Park you get mazes for free!!” argument goes, I personally would much rather pay for something that has quality in it than I would queue for an excessively long time to do the likes of Do or Die or Platform 15 for free.

 

Alton Towers and every one involved with Scarefest this year can take massive pride in this year’s event!!

 

[JoshC.]

Some shipping containers have been set up near the Goal Striker tent:

 

And another photo from the comments:

 

As noted, these containers have been used for Sub Species and Darkest Depths in the past. At the very least, that suggests neither of those mazes are returning for this year.

 

The area has been used for Scarefest stuff in the past, in particular the final year of Carnival of Screams and also for Scary Tales. So it could well be used for a scare zone, or even an outdoor scare maze.

 

Whether the containers will actually be used is unclear, but I'd be surprised. Obviously it's still unclear what will happen at Scarefest this year.

 

The Attic appears to have remained largely untouched from what people can see too.

[JoshC.]

So the line up has been revealed by some fansites (presumably the park will make an official announcement at some point today..). And I have to say, I'm surprised at the line up.

 

New for 2020

Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard. An outdoor scare maze taking place where the containers are currently, based on the old scare zone.

Garden Lights Walk: Whispering Souls. Free family-orientated attraction using the Gardens.

 

Also returning, somehow, are three mazes from last year...

Darkest Depths, The Attic and Skin Snatchers.

 

I've only done Skin Snatchers from that trio, but I remember it being a very tight maze, and I'm genuinely surprised that's going ahead. This means that Sub Species and Project 42 have left the line up.