Halloween Haunt

Halloween Haunt is a park wide Halloween event that runs from late September until the end of October every year at California’s Great America, and is by far the largest event that takes place at the park every year. The build runs throughout the year, usually starting around May or June, and goes into full scale construction starting in mid August. Everything is built in-house, and the production team at the park builds and refurbishes between eight and nine haunted houses, known as mazes, as well as several themed scare zones, large shows, and general park theming. Each year presented new challenges to overcome, as Haunt was never the same two years in a row. Mazes were phased out and replaced with new ones, scare zones were rarely repeats, and the production department was always trying to implement new technology, whether it was brand new for Haunt or implementing the gear installed for Winterfest the year prior. In the constantly adapting environment, technical and creative staff grew very fluent and skilled in most aspects of production, and worked incredibly hard to pull everything together by opening.