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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 Halloween Events 1991 1990 1989 |
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The 1989 Season |
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For the 1989 season, the park launched Halloweekends, a small and simple Halloween celebration. Prior to that, the only celebration of the holiday involved employees being encouraged to wear costumes to work on the final day of the season, which usually fell right around Halloween. |
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The early event was
simple, with some fall decorations like pumpkins and cornstalks being
added around the park, and simple store-bought Halloween party
decorations added here and there. One of the first "attractions" added for Halloweekends was a simple hayride which ran through the park. The event was primarily run by the park's Show Operations Department, and featured several small Halloween themed shows around the park. The performers for these shows were sometimes hired specifically for the seasonal shows, and sometimes regular park employees who took on special roles for the event. The park's Adventure Theatre which normally showed an action film on a dome which surrounded the audience showed cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Ghost Busters instead. The park's "Map Boxes" which were also part of the Show Operations Department were decorated along with the signs on the show facilities that had closed for the season. One of the first major investments the park made in the even was a set of Halloween banners to hang on Dream Street. This was also the beginning of the parks "Pumpkin Men" which have been created every year since. |
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One of the more unique events of the first Halloweekends celebration was the King Kong Encounter. |
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| The 1990 Season |
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The
second year of Halloweekends was more of the same as the first, but with
more props, more decorations, and more events. The Monster Magic show took over the Bandstand, and was the first real Halloween show the park offered.  |
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| The 1991 Season |
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The 1991
season added even more props and events throughout the park, and
introduced the Battle of the Sorcerers complete with its own stage which
was built for the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves show the park hosted over
the summer. In these early years, few people thought about coming to the park to celebrate Halloween, so cheap tickets were offered to entice guests. The end of the season was also a good time for the park to clear out merchandise, so many of the park shops offered sales. At the time, there was a rising fear among parents about letting kids trick-or-treat door to door, and the increasing popularity of Halloween celebrations everywhere led to further growth of the event each season.  |
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