Fright Nights - What would you do if you were in Thorpe's position?

[Inferno]

With the mixed reviews Fright Nights have received this year, I thought it might be interesting to hear what you'd change about the event if you were given the task by the park.

 

I'm not talking about wild aspirations here - no Halloween themed RMCs built for FN '22 please! 😂

 

Imagine you're in Thorpe's position, and this is your brief:

• You have a limited budget (same budget as 2021) to deliver Fright Nights 2022
• There must be "something new and unique" that can be marketed by the park
• There's limited resources to get this done - imagine how this is in reality, a small team to deliver the event

 

What would your realistic Fright Nights '22 look like?  What would be different, and what would you keep from this year?

 

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My 2022 Fright Nights would look like this!

• Creek Freak would return as Creek Freak Extreme, and would receive a boost in actor numbers from the closure of Unchained.
• Trailers would return, and somehow marketed as a sequel, with a new room 21 and small changes  throughout.
• Hell Cell would open in the events space - I mean, we've seen the trailer, this is the real deal! The front of the marquee would be themed to a prison, and it would be a heavily red lit, strobe-filled nightmare  search lights throughout the beach area.
• A new scare zone would open where the stage currently is, based mainly on whatever the 2022 attraction is going to be (a bit like the Welcoming), and would be used as a marketing tool showcasing the new theme.
• Nemesis Inferno and Colossus would get some sort of Hell themed overlays because of hell cell, taking advantage of their enclosed indoor stations.
• The Crows would return.
• The fire/Light Show, birthday bash stage area and Swarm Invasion would go for budget reasons. We can’t have it all!
• Flat rides would have smoke machines and/or coloured lighting, along with new music and dispatch audio
• The 3 main Mazes would be max £5 each
• Parking would be free to improve guest experience (perhaps ticket prices are slightly raised to compensate?
• Better coloured lighting around the park pathways.

[Marc]

I agree with lots of the little points, better park lighting, fright nights audio for every ride more smoke machines would be good to see, they are quite cheap and easy things to do too in the grand scheme of things.

 

Creek Freak maybe I’ve been lucky but my run throughs have been actor heavy (not just press night) but obviously this does seem to vary a lot.

 

Id bring in a new maze to replace platform, use the lost city space again and make it a original theme / indoor maze. I do think they lack a maze they can just throw people though, they are all very story based now and when you throw through huge groups you lose abit of the experience, mazes like the Asylum were effective even when they were throwing in huge groups quickly when queues got large.

 

I don’t think lowering the price of mazes is really realistic at this point, they are clearly selling too many as it is and with fastrack it’s all about supply and demand, we saw fastrack start off cheaper than it is now with far too much of it, over the years they have tweaked pricing to the point where generally it’s less of an issue (not all the time granted) but will still make a tidy profit for the park. I suspect we will see them playing with maze prices too till they get the balance right (I hope so anyway!)

[Glitch]

It’s an interesting one. TBH I think Thorpe take the money and run for the 4 or so super peak nights where everything is oversold, at the result of a handful of complaints on social media.