Thorpe Park - Fright Nights

[ThrillJunkie]

On Saturday some of the mazes had 3 hour queues!!! I wouldn't even like to guess the capacity of a place like Thorpe but I would be interested to see how much money they are taking per a day with park entry, food, drinks, fast track and parking and everything else.

Most on park food outlets will be open until 10pm and the "360 Bar & Grill" remains open until 12am.

[TomL]

After visiting fright nights for some of saturday and sunday, I can quite honestly say that I am very dissappointed. The queues for everything were over 2 hours each with most of the mazes being around e hours when you asked attendants. They were selling fastracks like hot cakes consequently, all the fastrack queues were about an hour long. They really should have capped the amount of fastracks sold... Stealth wasnt open until sunday afternoon and also The Swarm was only running 1 train for a large chunk of sunday. Atmosphere really wasnt that good and roaming actors sorta dissappeared after 4pm. Plus the presence of police was almost scary!

[lewis97]

Thorpe have just announced on Twitter that they've once again reached capacity today. Fright Nights is proving to be incredibly popular.

[JammyBand]

I think this is busiest Thorpe Park has EVER been over a long period of time. Next year they are going to have to be open weekdays throughout October and not just on weekends and half term week! Mind you, I hope they don't change the operation of the mazes to make them have high throughputs. Just because that might mean they will change it so that you're in one single file line the whole way through, and that wont be scary at all. I love how you are in small groups and so you dont see loads of people so it seems like you are more alone, and how you can literally run in some of the scarier sections. Basically, I just love the mazes the way they are, and I hope they don't change them and make them less scary to cope with the high demands.

[Dom]

I know its probably still really early to be talking about Fright Nights, but given that two locations of mazes are now unavailable, i thought it might be an idea to talk about what may happen with this years event.

Also are you excited for this years event? What would you like to happen?

[jamesc]

Just put a load of mazes on the island behind the Swarm.

[Luce]

I think the Lakeview marquee might be used for one of the mazes this year as it certainly has the space. I guess Thorpe would have thought about this issue before planning the dark ride for next year and I'm a Celebrity so will be interesting to see what they actually do.

[Stan.H]

Would love to see TP get some new ip's or make an 'in-house' maze like the passing. i'd also love to see them get a scare zone (not like blair witch, like universal studios purge:anarchy scare zone).

[Dom]

I personally would love a massive overhaul of Fright Nights, but i also understand that they shouldn't change what is working very well for them. I must admit that i was a bit concerned when they announced that The Asylum was being replaced but i must admit they did an amazing job with Studio 13 so it wouldn't surprise me if they slowly work on trying to introduce more of their own brand mazes. I'm not sure how long they have been running with the Lionsgate IP on the mazes, i think this is the third year, but i think that the mazes don't change as much as they probably should. I can't comment for certain though. I would imagine it would get quite boring for the general public if they get repeated for a third year.

What i would love them to do is incoropate some Fright Night flair into some rides. I mean they could easily add some actors to Swarm and to Saw. I know this means more cost, but given how successful Fright Nights is, i'm sure they wouldn't mind splurging the cash. And if not that then add another maze of their own design to plate.

But with regards to the two mazes that have lost their location, i think Luce could be right. The Lakeview marquee could become the new home to one of the mazes. As for another location i literally have no idea where they could put it. I guess the area next to Saw Alive could be used as its quite a big area with regards to length.

Also when i visited the park last Saturday, i did notice that the shed in the Blair Witch scare zone was demolished. This could just be because they are replacing the shed.

It will be interesting to see what they do with Fright Nights this year.

[nickhutson]

I spoke to a lovely lady at the VIP night for Celeb - and she said not to worry; Fright Night this year will be the biggest it's ever been... Studio 13 and My Bloody Valentine will be present and will be bigger than ever. They will probably use the beach area (tent) and other land.

[Dom]

During the morning talk at Southern Weekender, i swear someone metioned about Fright Nights and they also said no to worry as they have big plans for this year. I could be wrong and completely miss heard. It will be interesting to see what they do.

[Alex]

It was also mentioned that it would be chilling this year so possibly the return of The Freezer?

[Ryan.B]

I'd imagine more mazes than ever, maybe 6 or 8 I would really like 4 lionsgate, and 4 in house, personally I just want a equal mixture of branded and in house mazes, SAW alive was the weakest for me last year, but I still loved it. If they get rid of saw alive and replay it with an in house maze, I would like that, then again they already have the building and area for it, but I want 3 or more in house mazes, the same mazes get old, I think a maze has a 5 year life before it gets old, which is why IAC concerns me, Fright Nights is my favourite park event I've been to, the roaming actors make it even better!

[Dom]

Not sure it means anything, but where the Blair Witch shed was, there is now some yellow lines marking out a larger area around the original place of the shed.

[SamTP]

New Fright Nights audio playing today!
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[Amarghh]

This excites me! Gonna be interesting to see FN this year.

[Sawboss]

What is Fright Nights like? Went to Scarefest last year for the first time. FN looks a bit more loud and vicious

[Fantasmic]

Anyone any ideas on when the Annual Pass tickets will go on sale. Or even how they work, I've never been to Fright Nights before so not sure on how they work! :lol

[JammyBand]

What is Fright Nights like? Went to Scarefest last year for the first time. FN looks a bit more loud and vicious

I've not been to Scarefest yet so I can't exactly compare them, but I would have thought that Fright Nights is definitely more intimidating, considering its targeted very much towards thrill seekers and young adults. However, it's not violent or anything along those lines, just more of a high-octane atmosphere perhaps? During the day, it's pretty much the same to a normal day at Thorpe (albeit more busy than usual!), but as the mazes start to open and everything it gets a lot more atmospheric. It's an awesome atmosphere though! It's great fun and you definitely shouldn't be worried about people being vicious or anything like that; it's absolutely great!

Anyone any ideas on when the Annual Pass tickets will go on sale. Or even how they work, I've never been to Fright Nights before so not sure on how they work! :lol

From what I remember last year, I think around late September they had plenty of posts on their facebook page about tickets and the like. I think annual pass tickets are pre-book only and cost about £10 or something. I can't quite remember, but I'm assuming that these tickets were bought online? If you keep a close eye on their website and facebook page around September time you should probably be able to find out.

[Sawboss]

Sounds good, Scarefest is quite tame, though I haven't done any of the mazes yet. I'm already goin to Scarefest this year though so doubt i'll be able to get people to come to fright nights with me as well, I live all the way down in Cornwall so it's more of a weekend trip than a daytrip.