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Alton Towers Scarefest or Thorpe Park Fright Nights; which UK Merlin Halloween event do you prefer?

Alton Towers Scarefest or Thorpe Park Fright Nights; which UK Merlin Halloween event do you prefer?

  • Total voters
    16
Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Scare season has well and truly begun here in the UK; theme parks have embraced the Halloween spirit, scare parks have opened, and YouTube and social media are filled with nothing but scare event vlogs and reports. Two popular UK events, based at two of the UK’s most popular theme parks, are Alton Towers Scarefest and Thorpe Park Fright Nights. These events are similar in some ways and different in others, but they are often compared due to them both being based at Merlin theme parks. So I’d be keen to know; which event do you prefer? Are you an Alton Towers Scarefest person, or are you more of a Thorpe Park Fright Nights fan?

I’m not a scare fan at all, therefore I have done neither and can’t really pass judgement, but I’d be really keen to know which you prefer if you’ve done both!
EDIT: Sorry if this is in the wrong section… I wasn’t sure if Scare Attractions or Polls was more fitting.
 
Haven't done either in a scarily long time (probably a decade), but I'm like you and not particularly into all the scare stuff.

Only thing I can vote based on is atmosphere and for me Fright Nights '09 has always stayed the most memorable. All the Saw themed announcements and music (still have some of it) they had throughout the park really set the tone and was probably peak UK park scene for me, along with peak Saw enjoyment. It all clicked.

Scarefest never felt that different to a normal day at Alton, it's harder to establish a contrasting mood over that setting, it's already halfway there anyway.
 
If you have never done either, Alton has the better mazes in terms of quality and overall performance, Thorpe has the overall better package for cross park atmosphere and event feeling.

Scarefest is in dire need for funding and a refresh for anyone who has been previously but with their investments you can see why they are not putting more effort in and keeping mazes for 6/7 years now!
 
I used to say Scarefest hands down - but now not so much.

The event is becoming incredibly tired and in need of a whole revamp. I used to feel this air of excitement walking into the park during Scarefest, but now see the mazes as a chore to do (which everyone who knows me knows how much I adore them).
 
Lofty said:
I used to say Scarefest hands down - but now not so much.

The event is becoming incredibly tired and in need of a whole revamp. I used to feel this air of excitement walking into the park during Scarefest, but now see the mazes as a chore to do (which everyone who knows me knows how much I adore them).
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Absolutely this. Alton as a setting is perfect, I loved the old Terror of the Towers and have been going every season since they had Field and Boiler house by the hotels. Now I just cant bring myself to drive 2 and a bit hours.

There are much better events across the country than what Scarefest is offering, Fear at Avon Valley, Tulleys and others are much more worth the time.
 
I think it flip flops- in 2015-2019ish it was very clearly Scarefest, in particular 2015 was basically Alton making Thorpe look boring for a month.
Before 2015 though Thorpe had a more interesting and fresh lineup with the free flow style, though Alton in 2015 brought us Sub Species which kind of did that free flow style of maze and made it WAY better than anything at Thorpe.

Over the past year or two it seems as though Thorpe has taken back the crown- Alton has an ageing lineup, and generally Thorpe has 2 good mazes and a very strong lineup of scare zones. I overall honestly prefer the non Merlin scare events to be fair these days- i find places like Xtreme Scream, The Howl, and Shocktoberfest just overall impress a lot more. I think it is down to the fact most of these places have plenty of space and are not chained down to a big corporation. The sets can stay up all year unlike at Merlin Parks, this makes building more elaborate attractions easier.
 
Howl'o'ween was always my favourite merlin event. The lighting, atmosphere etc. always made it the favourable choice. Also, Vampire in the dark is just so good. I think the fact that the park generally has a younger audience too means that it does get noticably quieter and the atmosphere always noticably shifted around 6pm. I've never been particularly fussed by mazes but chessington have always had really high quality ones in comparison to Thorpe which is just next door, whether that be theming or storyline, not just actual scares. (It was also my favourite time of the year to work it; from 5pm there'd be a conserted effort to put efficient teams together so we'd absolutely throw out trains on the coasters).

I also love scarefest but admittedly I haven't done it this year, but I've been hearing not great things. Thorpe I have never been bothered by since it became pay to play for the mazes. They're fine. I thought trailers was rubbish though which is an unpopular opinion.
 
Me and my family went to Alton Towers scarefest last week and we had an absolute blast!

I've watched loads of horror movies, and played loads of scary games, but even I was a little frightened.
 
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