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Click on any thumbnail for the full-size pic
 (Minor events also held in the late 1970's) |
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Click on a date to jump to that year's highlights, or scroll down to
view the year-by-year history of Great Adventure's Fright Fest 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 |
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The 2000 Season |
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Brutal Planet was back for a second season in
2000, this time located around the old Shooting Gallery building behind
Best of the West. Guests entered through a spinning tunnel next to
Super Teepee, and exited under the flume track near the Arena. The Castle Escape up-charge virtual reality attraction was also introduced this season, taking over the Chicago Shootout shooting gallery next to the Big Wheel. Castle Escape would eventually be moved to a new location on the opposite side of Dream Street as a full time park attraction. |
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| The 2001 Season |
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Fright Fest
2001 was a kind of subdued affair in the weeks after the real horrors of
September 11th. Crowds were lighter than usual, as people
were still trying to cope with the events of real life that happened so
close to the park, and worrying about what would happen next. The
usual gore of the event was toned down in response. There was a special show by "Robosaurus" in the Northern Star Arena, which was subject to a $1 a person up-charge, and offered a car crushing, fire breathing half truck/half dinosaur. |
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| The 2002 Season |
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For the 2002
season, the park eliminated the enclosed haunt "mazes" and instead
offered the Terror Trails running through the park. The stage built for the Summer of Festivals saw use for Fright Fest as a venue for rock cover bands, and featured a large mausoleum set. |
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This year was the debut season for many of the props still in use today, including the flaming torches on Dream Street, the Boardwalk portals, and the Terror Trail portals. |
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The fountain stage doubled as
a movie screen at night showing classic black and white horror movie
clips all night. In the Outer Mall, a tent was setup with produce and decorations for sale as guests left the park. |
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| The 2003 Season |
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The major new attraction for the 2003
season of Fright Fest was "Dee Snider presents Van Helsing's Curse", a
pyrotechnic show presented at the Great Lake Grandstand.
Fright Fest attendance continued to climb as the event grew in popularity. The weekend before Halloween saw some of the largest crowds of the season.  |
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| The 2004 Season |
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The
2004 Fright Fest was unique in that many last minute additions to the
lineup were made, including an additional haunted house and a second
hayride. These late additions suffered from a lack of substance due to their last minute nature, but were needed to help alleviate the huge crowds the event was drawing. |
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New
attractions for 2004 included the Carnival of Clowns 3D Funhouse,
Disturbed Silence Hayride, and the later additions of Area 6 and the
Doom & Gloom by the Flume hayride. Originally, Bugs Bunny Land was to have been closed by the start of Fright Fest so construction could start on the Golden Kingdom, but complaints from parents led to the park keeping it open until the end of the season for one final Fright Fest. |
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| The 2005 Season |
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For 2005, the
parked literally pushed the boundaries when it came to Fright Fest,
introducing two walk through Terror Trails that extended into areas which
had never previously been open to the public. Horror Hollow extended out the peninsula under the Log Flume, and The Junkyard went out behind the Arena into the storage area with the stables previously used for the old Wild West and Gladiator shows. Carnival of Clowns returned for a second season, and the former Area 6 became New Nightmare. |
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Other new attractions for 2005 included Zambora of the Amazon, and the Hollywood Ghoulevard and Disco Inferno
shows which were setup at a new stage on the plaza in front of Batman
the Ride. This was also the first season for the Awakening Procession to start the night's Fright Fest activities. |
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| The 2006 Season |
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For 2006, the new Six Flags management wanted to stress the
family side of Fright Fest, and new emphasis was given to the family
friendly daytime events. One new show for the season was Captain Keelhauls Casting Call, a family show which utilized the round stage used the previous season in Movietown, this time setup on the old Evolution spot near Looney Tunes Seaport. |
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Many of the most popular attractions from previous
seasons returned including Bob the Bone Butcher, the Lakeside Cemetery,
and Dead Man's Party. The Junkyard Terror Trail came back for a second season, and a new Haunted Bridge attraction was added on the bridge between El Toro and Medusa. One of the most popular entertainers over the years at Fright Fest was Professor Zombini who performed side show acts along with Haunted Heather and Demented Donny in the Boardwalk area of the park. Adding to the lineup of sideshow acts was the Mystery Man Medicine Show which took over the Runaway Country Stage in the Frontier Adventures area of the park. |
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| The 2007 Season |
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For the 2007 season the park
simultaneously went big and kept it simple with the big new attractions
in the largest park venues for maximum capacity. The Night of Shadows Show took over the Stunt Arena at one end of the park, while the Arena of Doom took over the Northern Star Arena at the other end. The Runaway Country Stage hosted the Cavalcade of the Odd, and the Circus Sideshow stage in the Boardwalk hosted a series of performers. The former location of Freefall was home to the Movietown Cemetery Statue Garden. Returning were the Hypnosteria, Revenge of the Marshmallow Man, Elvira's Superstition, and Zambora shows, along with the always popular Dead man's Party, with some new songs for 2007. The Hayride and Terror Trails which ran outside of the park's boundaries were discontinued in favor of adding more inside the park itself. A new Terror Trail called the Demented Woods was placed between the Carousel and Dolphin Stadium, and additional scare actors were added throughout the existing scare zones of Circus Psycho, Lakeside Cemetery, and Bone Butcher Terrortory. |
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The 2008 Season |
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 For 2008, the park received a boost with the new sponsorship of Fright Fest by M&M Mars and their family of candies. The individual brands sponsored varying attractions around the park, with the Snickers brand as the overall sponsor of Fright Fest nationwide. Two brand new walk-through attractions debuted, the Demented Forest coming back for a second season in a new location and with new scenes, and the former Chiller ride area hosting Escape From the Asylum. After last season's somewhat chaotic lines for the haunts, 2008's were better managed, taking advantage of existing queues. The Congo Rapids queue worked well as the line for the Demented Forest, with the trail itself running through the abandoned path to Koala Kanyon and into Looney Tunes Seaport. The former Chiller queue was utilized for Escape From the Asylum, though the coaster's former station building was unused. Returning favorites included Elvira's Superstition, Monster Mash Bash, Zambora, the Wheel of Fright, and the incredibly popular Dead Man's Party. Once again the night's festivities began with the aWAKEning procession, which once again took place on the Big Wheel stage, allowing the maximum number of guests to watch the show. Another change for the 2008 season was the addition of an upcharge for the 2 Terror Trails. The $5 upcharge for each was subject of much grumbling among some of the Season Pass holders who are used to getting a lot for so little money, but the fee was not unprecedented, with the Brutal Planet walkthroughs of the 1990's also being upcharge attractions.  |
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| Coming Soon! |
The 2009 Season |
Coming Soon! |
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