Halfway To Halloween
Seasonal events have always been used to encourage FOMO and drive attendance – and they work. Despite the staffing concerns we discussed last week, attractions are pushing Fall 2021 for all they’re worth. Attractions, restaurants, and streaming services are jumping on the Halfway to Halloween bandwagon – and you should too! This is the perfect time to begin pre-sales and get audiences a preview of the Fall. Clearly they’re ready for it.
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Disney is Digging In
- Disney After Hours BOO BASH to Replace Halloween Party in 2021. The event runs on select nights from August 10th through October 31st.
- Disney conjures up recipes for a ‘Halfway to Halloween’ celebration. Two of the Halfway to Halloween recipes come from the soon-to-be-released “Disney Villains: Devilishly Delicious Cookbook” featuring recipes inspired by iconic villains from Disney’s film library, including Cruella de Vil, Ursula, Hades, and Maleficent.
- The Muppets take The Haunted Mansion with new interactive YouTube world tour and Disney+ show. Disney hosted its first-ever interactive YouTube experience “featuring a few familiar, felted faces as they tour the many Haunted-Mansion style attractions at Disney Parks around the world. And if that’s not enough spooky Muppet fun for you, cue the light(ning)! Mayhem takes a chilling turn this fall with “Muppets Haunted Mansion,” an original special, coming to Disney Plus.”
It’s Spooky Season in Japan
“Inferno Lodge: People Living in the Red Forest,” is a one-night, two-day immersive horror experience in a remote outdoor resort in Central Japan held three weekends, once in May, June and July. It’s put on by two area haunted attractions. You and up to 10 people staying in one of the 14 “lodges” (or cabins) get to experience a unique story limited to your lodge. The story changes according to what you say and do and the result of the missions you are given, with the story and ending being unique to the “lodge” you are staying in. The horror event features live actors interacting with you in your lodge, which comes with all the amenities you would expect of an air bnb.
The cost is 32,500 yen ($300) per person and includes dinner the first night and breakfast on the second day. The video is pretty intense!
Another haunted attraction called “The Forbidden Wedding” is billed as Japan’s first overnight haunted attraction that uses a wedding venue. This 2-day only event held on May 4th and 5th (and again in July) at Hotel Terrace Garden Mito, just north of Tokyo. Organized by the same haunted attraction, Kowagarasetai (roughly translated as “Scare Squad”), that created Tokyo’s drive-in haunted house that went viral last year, this immersive event offers you an overnight stay at a ritzy hotel with six scary missions to perform during your stay as you become part of an intertwining story that unfolds inside the hotel. The story revolves around the spirit of a dead bride who haunts the hotel and a mysterious wedding invitation that you receive. You are given missions to explore the story and find out what happened at the hotel and to the bride…
The cost is 25,000 yen ($230) for a single room or 44,000 yen ($400) for 2 people and includes dinner (if you can stomach it). Video here.
