Go To The Official Six Flags Great Adventure Website For Current Park Information

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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 2007   2006   2005   2004   2003   2002   2001   2000   1999   1998   1997   1996   1995   1994   1993   1992   1991   1990   1989
The 1989 Season
	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.
	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.
	One of the more unique events of the first Halloweekends celebration was the King Kong Encounter.
The 1990 Season
	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.
The 1991 Season
	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.
The 1992 Season
	With the new ownership of Six Flags by Time Warner, the various Halloween events held at parks throughout the company were given a unified name, Fright Fest. As in the past, the park saw more decorations, more shows, and more events to cater to the larger and larger crowds coming for Halloween. This year saw the park's first character brunch as part of Fright Fest and time Warner's attempts to leverage its licensed properties with the Looney Tunes characters.  The brunches were held near Bandstand on the Lake. Showcase Theatre hosted Thriller, the first of the parks musical Halloween shows, which was a precursor to Dead Man's Party.
The 1993 Season
	The 1993 season saw drastic changes throughout the park as Six Flags management as a part of  Time Warner worked bring theme back tot he parks and restore their family appeal.   Fright Fest adopted a chain-wide logo featuring Bugs Bunny, and was billed as the "World's Biggest Halloween Party" Fright Fest evolved into an elaborate event, with more and better decorations added throughout the park, as well as additional shows and events.  This was the first season the park's fountain was filled with red dye to make it look like blood.
	The very popular Thriller show came back for a second season as Thriller II, and played to packed houses in the Showcase Theatre. These photos show some of the elaborate sets created for the show, and the incredibly popular skeleton dance number.   The skeleton dance was the most memorable part of the show for many guests, and it featured adance routine performed  to Harry Belafonte’s Jump In Line (Shake, Shake Senora) under blacklights.
	Pictured are some of the decorations including ever more elaborate pumpkin men, props and other seasonal displays.   One of the most popular shows was the Execution, which had a very realistic looking guillotine. The biggest change for the 1993 season was the Hayride.   Up to that season, hayrides simply ran through the park, and were for children and families only. The new version of the hayride took guests outside the confines of the park, and into the backstage areas, that had been transformed into a tour of the weird and scary. The park's staff was encouraged to be creative and built simple sets and props to create a storyline.
	The "Camp O'Neill" sign is a tribute to the driving force behind much of the innovations made for Fright Fest at Great Adventure, Bob O'Neill.
	Many of the props for the hayride were created from bits and pieces laying around the park unused.   Some, like the alligator were created for attractions which were removed or never installed.   Others came from other parks, like the closed Six Flags Power Plant.
The 1994 Season
	By 1994, Fright Fest was really hitting its stride, and Halloween events at Six Flags and other theme parks were becoming big business.   As a result, a "Halloween Industry" which supplied more and more elaborate props for theme parks was also really starting to takeoff, and Great Adventure was often one of the first park's to add these new things. The park was covered in webs along with the usual pumpkins and cornstalks to an extent never seen before.  The Thriller show came back for its third season. Granny's received some of the most elaborate props, as the loading station for the Hayride.  Granny's also featured hot cider and apple dumplings as part of its menu, just for Fright Fest.
	The Hayride was immensely popular in its first season, and was back with even more props, more sets and more performers. It's interesting to note that it ran even before the sun set in order to help accommodate the crowds.
The 1995 Season
	Some of the new events for 1995 included "Legend of the Lost Diver" in the Aqua Stadium which featured a stunt dive with the diver on fire. More new props were added, including a cemetery in the Viper queue area. Showcase Theatre was taken over for a new show, staring the Crypt Keeper from the show Tales From the Crypt.
	Back for a second season was the Frightworks Fireworks show on the lake.  The Hayride To The Unknown continued on for a third season, despite construction had begun for Skull Mountain in the same area. The props for the hayride continued becoming bigger and more specialized as the crowds grew larger and expected more and more sophistication.
The 1996 Season
	The 1996 season was the first to offer a different film in the Right Stuff simulator for Fright Fest, and introduced Dino Island. The former queue form Shockwave was utilized as a Halloween attraction called "Halloween Happenings"
	The fourth season for the Hayride continued to use the same back road, now with Skull Mountain in place where Rotor was.   The train storage track behind Skull Mountain was incorporated into the Hayride, using the old fiberglass train bodies from the Great American Scream Machine. The densely wooded lakeside was a perfect spot for a  horrific camping scene as part of the hayride.
The 1997 Season
	After not being able to get Batman & Robin: The Chiller operating for most of the season, the queue line became home to skeletons and cobwebs for Fright Fest (and it wouldn't be the last time that happened in Chiller's history). With Six Flags under the new ownership of Premier Parks, things began to change in subtle ways, mostly involving reduced staffing, and reduced availability of rides.
The 1998 Season
	As an added attraction for the 1998 season, several small stages were setup around the park and local bands were brought in to perform.   The close proximity of the stages to one another made the park sound like a battle of the bands.
The 1999 Season
	A major investment was made in more and more elaborate props and stages for the Outer Mall and fountain area, including a stage that covered the fountain itself. One milestone of the 1999 season was the introduction of the Dead Man's Party stage show at the foot of the Big Wheel.   This show has remained popular with crowds ever since, and has become a Fright Fest tradition for many of the park regulars.  To kick off Fright Fest, Alice Cooper performed in a special stage setup at the rear of the Garden of Eatin' (now Old Country Picnic Grove).  This concert was part of the launch of Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet, a walk through attraction setup in the Picnic Pavillion. The fountain stage would be the setting for the Prepare for Madness show, and at the end of each night, Dr. Fright's Final Freakout show, which drew guests to the exit. Some of the new props introduced for this season were the park's fleet of Hearses, and a bunch of oversized figures and tombstones. This was also the first season for Elvira's Superstition show in the motion simulator theatre.   This 3-D motion picture has remained popular with families with its mix of humor and thrills, plus a welcome break from the weather on cold October nights.
The 2000 Season
	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.
The 2001 Season
	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.
The 2002 Season
	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.
	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.
	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.
The 2003 Season
	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.
The 2004 Season
	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.