Knott’s Scary Farm Celebrates 50 Years of Never-Ending Nightmares

0:00 From our studios in Tampa and Los Angeles. This is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty. I'm Philip and I'm joined as always by my co host, Scott Swinson, a Scott Swinson Created development. Ah, well it's a it's almost September, Scott, we have this. Our big story start off this week is talking about Not Scary Farm and their fiftieth anniversary. It kind of we've kind of got They waited a little bit to give us all the details, but there are a lot of details and they were all revealed during their Nightmares Revealed event, which was a new event that just happened this past week on the twenty fourth, So it was kind of like given via presentation that was live stream, so people got to watch the live stream and then they sent out press releases and if you were there in person, you got to watch it in person. So didn't you say it was also open to the Yeah, So the event, the Nightmares Revealed event, was a new event this year that was open to anybody, you know, season past holders, regular people, and then they were invited media and there was a ticket fee for it. So we'll talk about that. So I think we we'll break it up we can talk about the announcements first, and then we can talk about the event itself, because we you know, we just talked about events like these with the taste of terror and and why this could be important for kind of drawing out a little bit, like kind of extending the Halloween season a little bit. So well, and I think I think the Halloween season is extending on its own, so I think events like this are even more important to kind of give people a little a little wayfinding for the rest of

1:36 the season. You know, it's like, here's what's here's what's coming up, Here's what's going to happen, because it's already starting before the mass populace is even thinking about Halloween. But but again that's why they have all the cool tie ins. And then you know, of course this being a big year for for for Knots. You know, Big five, Oh, the Big five. Oh Okay, I was going to make a five O birthday joke, but okay, so thanks for not doing it, because you know that was a long time ago for me. Jerk all right, So then the Knots Scary Farm fiftieth anniversary will include three new mazes, which for a total of ten there's just there's seven returning and three new mazes. It's gonna be five scare zones and four shows. It's a lot of there's a lot of shows. It's a lot of entertainment. It'll begin September twenty feet, which is the latest event start date for the ones in so cool, but you know, in terms of the country of independent haunts, it's not it's not that late. But horror nights. Of course, we'll kick everything off in Orlando on the first, and then Hollywood on the eighth, and then uh see World tend Ao and whatnot that that weekend and then the other part.

2:52 So so they basically they'll have a few weeks before everybody else, after everyone else opened, before they get going and there, which I don't think is necessarily a bad plan. I think the idea of you know, let's let's not all. I think they've recognized the crowd the same. There's no point in everybody trying to exactly there's no point in trying to compete directly with everything, and after everyone's had the opportunity, after the you know, the the avid fans have had the opportunity to experience other stuff, then they can go to it's going to run for twenty nine nights, and there's a lot in this event. I think the things I only want to highlight the things that are most interested. You can open the show notes and read the entire announcement. But the things that are most interesting to me are the three new mazes. Not that there are through new mazes, but what's interesting is the stories behind the new mazes, specifically two of them. So there's one that's in Miss Slasher, which is just kind of amons to Slasher films. The one that's most interesting is called the Chilling Chambers, and this is going to be like a fiftieth anniversary celebration maze where there's the keeper who has been keeping and collecting some of the secrets from from years gone by, and you're going to walk through the chambers and into different scenes from the history of the of Scary Farm. So I think that's an excellent idea, and I think when I was reading it, it kind of reminded me of what you talk about,

4:26 which is reutilizing your assets. You know, if it's like, oh, if there's a way for you to use a bunch of the props you still have in storage without having to write a new story really to connect them all. The story is they've been collected by a collector who is putting them together. I mean it works, I think in this context or the fiftieth it is. It is smart on both ends. It's using assets and it's it's also kind of allowing nods to the fans. And if you'd just come right out and say it new and the keeper, by the way, is they're new iconic characters. They're rolling him into the park as a whole. But then he gets this maze, which is you know where he gets to give a nod to scary farms passed while terrorizing the audience of today. Well, and it makes total sense really because you know it's if we if someone hadn't done this, uh, you know, if they hadn't done a let's call it the best of clip show maze. You know, I think people would have been disappointed. They would have said, well, so what are they doing? That's fiftieth related. And the nice thing about introducing a new character that has been in the shadows collecting all this stuff, it gives It gives the character great depth. It creates the illusion of the character has always been there. Even though it's brand new, and so, yeah, I agree with you. I think this is kind of a clever, clever way to not only reutilize, but also give the fans, give the avid fans exactly what they want without without really damaging any of the storyline issues at all.

6:03 I do think also, I'm sure that Knots team would never admit to this, but as a reporter and as a like a observer, I would say that Knots has a little bit of a a history of always kind of doing like a nod, you know, kind of like a nod to the culture. Right. Uh, the hanging is back this year, we'll talk about that, but that was. They were kind of infamous in that show for that kind of thing. And I think, you know, again dark Ride. You know, I haven't going through a dark Ride in southern California. That was. I mean, there's lots of nods to this. I think a lot of the stuff they're doing is a nod. I mean, so you know, if we we just heard this year, right that the Fantom of the Opera was coming to Universal, and now suddenly there's the keeper who lives in a cathedral but like underground and it's been watching nuts for like, I mean, come on, you know it's it's you know and and and you know it's it's also no secret that the same actor that that plays Monty Volta at the Lahy Ride as the keeper uh here, it's it's it's It's pretty clear because the character tones are so similar and obviously it's the same it's the same thing. But so I think even that even trying to work that in, you know, working in like a nod to the hay Ride with the with a similar character and working in like a nod like this is their a fan of the op, you know what I mean? Like, I think these are fun nods well and and nods ass And again I have not been to not Scary Farm in many, many years, but even back you know, over twenty years ago when I went the which was the last

7:35 time the their whole their whole approach was sort of the the nods to the insiders, you know, I think that, And they've played it really really smoothly, I think, at least from from my perspective, in the fact that they can they're making it nods to the insiders without being exclusive to those people who are not insiders. In the haunt industry. Yea, you know they're they're they're playing to a core audience without without without shunning a broader a broader spectrum or a less a less I don't want to use the word educated, but a less immersed audience. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

8:15 I think they're I think we've been very wise in doing that, and I think it's what helps maintain their you know, as one of the oldest theme park Halloween events, they they're still maintaining a certain level of cool without without throwing out their their history. You know, it's I think it's a very wise approach. And then together when I want to highlight was Room thirteen, which basically if you follow again again they it's another one that stands on its own, but it's for the super fans because there's this green elixir that they've been It started off as in just promo commercials in you're kind of like, what is that green elixer? Right, and then it got its own scare zone a few years ago called the Gore and Twenties, which our friend Ted worked on, which we talked about on the show. Because they had little performances and there's you know, it was very immersive, you know, for for for scare zones, you know, and and now the Haunt is exploring the backstory of the creation of that elixir, so they're kind of kind of tying, you know, they're really bringing it full circle in that. So again it's the same we talk about. It's like following the story. It's like, you know, do you you know, people are interested in the scaremads. It's doing well, and now you can kind of back up and you don't have to retcond anything, but you can, you know, tell the story of the device that people are carrying around, which really I think probably started off as just a narrative plot point to kind of tie it together, because if it's the goreing twenties, then this is you know, this is the alcohol stand in but but evil, right, so you know,

9:48 so I think it's absent from Hell. Yeah, that's what it was exactly. So I think it started off as a as a plot point. But as as you know, the fandom for that scare zone grew you and I think this is again, this is exactly what we talk about. It's like, you know, you kind of sometimes you put out your story and you wait to see what people are interested in. Then you can if it's a good story, there's always you know, more to it, so you can broaden it from there. Once people show they care about what this green liquid is right right, and the fact that, you know, the fact that they're doing sort of a it sounds like they're doing sort of a prequel because they need to, because they want to explain it's the inception of this green liquid, how it was created. Prequel sequels, It's something that's been going on in horror films forever, and I think it's it's perfect fodder for the development and expansion of you know, a hunt branding within within a haunted attraction.

10:46 I will say the thing that I'm most excited because I you know, I never read your notes before we start the show. I should, but I don't. But I will say the thing I was most excited about, though, is to see that the Hanging up is coming back. When I, you know, twenty or twenty years ago, twenty three years ago, twenty two years ago, when I was last at Nuts, the Hanging was in its heyday and it was, in my opinion, the most irreverent and bombastic, like nothing nothing was sacred, no holds barred, over the top Halloween show I had ever seen, and you know it, in my opinion at that time, it was so much more compelling because they really didn't give a crap about who they offended. They didn't care about what what toes they stepped on. It was it sort of blue sorry Universal Friends, kind of blue Bill and Tad out of the water because they didn't they didn't follow any real I didn't get the feeling thing were following any corporatey standard standards. I'm hoping that is the case as it returns, because it is. But it was by far the most irreverent of all the Halloween shows I'd ever seen.

12:01 Yeah, it was interesting because remember it was previously written by Ken Parks, who as I moved over to the corporate entertainment side. So so I'd be curious to know who was working on writing it now, you know, as in like if it's you know, because it was kind of like Ken's brain child. So I don't know. If anyone knows, please let us know, because I'm curious. If I if I know Ken, he probably has a finger or two in it, at least at least throwing in some ideas, because Ken Ken is an amazing writer and his his conceptualization for storytelling is is wonderful. And I've had the great pleasure of working with him on a couple of different occasions and he's just he's amazing. So I hope look it this way. I hope whoever is writing it was smart enough to go to Ken and say, hey, Ken, you're the one who's really the mastermind behind this kind of thing, what do you think of this? And see what see what he was able to Let's see also also so looking more at the event as a whole and and some of the larger components of it.

13:01 I think season passes are back, and that they have not been back for a while if I remember correctly. And we just talked about this when we talked about Disney doing the opposite right where Mickey's not so scary, isn't offering a season past. They're just they're just relying on people to buy day tickets and sell out and it's working. And you know, August, the sellout dates continue to creep, as Scott said, from the end and the beginning, and might meet in the middle of sometime in September. So this is kind of the opposite approach, and I think the season passes like one hundred and forty forty dollars, or I think it's it's very reasonable, it's it's shockingly reasonable. I think, like, I think I've seen independent haunts that have a more expensive season pass. So so I'm not sure if they're not worried about capacity or or I don't know because I feel like, you know it, I think that the Disney direction is to try and get you know, the day rates. So I'm not sure if they just are Yeah, I'm not sure. It's it's interesting. We'll see how it turns out.

14:05 Well. Generally speaking, there are two approaches to do an event of any kind in a theme park, and one approach is to make your money on the gate, and the other is to make your money on the merchandise, the culinary, the return, visitation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It clearly sounds like this is an example of the gate is not where they plan to make their profitability. It is every time somebody comes back, they'll buy X, Y, and Z, they'll do up charges, they'll they'll visit some of the retail establishments and may not purchasings the first visit, but may purchase something much larger the second visit because they come back and go, oh, I've been thinking about that, I really want it. Yeah. So again that's what it sounds like, just based on super basic theme park theory.

14:52 When it comes to profitability, it's not about the number of tickets you sell. It's about the the in park spend. Or it is about the number of tickets you you sell and to heck with the in park spends. So those are the two main focuses, and it sounds like they are definitely looking at getting people into the park so that they will spend money there. Well, speaking exactly to that Scott, this year they have a legacy store, So I guess it's for those listening to this podcast they should be aware of the Tribute store in Orlando. And I think this is really going down that that same vibe, and you know what, it's working for universals.

15:33 So it's like, it's it's this you know, we talked about on the show a lot. It's it's never you know, it's like copying can be flattery and it you know, if you're in a different market, it can work for you you know, and and I think this is a very I mean, I'll just put this way. No nobody else in SoCal is doing a tribute store, tribute sor a leg sorry legacy store. Nobody else in in SoCal is doing a agacy store to this scale, by by any stretch of the I mean, this is all just like in Orlando. It is a full installation, and this year it features again scenes from mazes in the past, or they brought in pieces of the mazes and put them in there to make photo ops and put whatnot. And it is accessible from the marketplace and from the park, which means it can be open every single day, even days that Scary Farmer is not open. So it's open every single day from now through the close of the event through Halloween. And you know, I mean Disney, you know, they set up their merch and it looks great, and you know, but Hollywood doesn't do this here, you know, and Six liveses and do this here. So it's really I think in terms of the social area, it's a test of to see how this will go. And now this is in addition to the art show that's coming back.

16:53 I mean it they move this whole thing, and they really focus on this. So I think to your point exactly what you just said. I mean, they're they're really leaning to the march and the experience of the merch well. And you know, we've talked about retail attainment for a very long time, and you know the retail attainment that started in the theme park, went outside the theme park and went to the mall, is now coming back to the theme park. So you know, everything is cyclical. I I don't think you know. I every time I write anything, I always I always include a retail component, and even I have even written, just recently even written shows that are there there purpose is twofold. It's number one, it's to add an additional element to an event. But number two, it is also to bring a crowd in so that the retail side of of the area is focused and has a bunch of people that are already there ready to buy, because it becomes interacting. I think, yeah, go for it.

17:55 I think you can. I agree that one hundred percent. I think the order I usually tell people, though, is like when I work with my clients, the same thing. It's like, you you have to make your product good first. The product that has to be good, right, but then beyond that, you know, these are our ways and they should be really as good, and they should be tied into the story. I mean you should, you're you know again, just look at Universal. I mean, really, your food should tie into what you're doing. It should. Your food should be an experience and it should tie into the story. And your march should be the same thing. It should be an experience and it should tie in to what you're trying to do there. So you know, like at at you know, at hush you know we do the themed bars, but all the drinks and all this stuff ties in to the zone they're in. And then for merch this year, you know, you have the hush Falls Hotel. We have hush Fall Hotel keys. You can get a key card, you know, you can get a room key to show that you've been into the hush Fall. I mean, just things that they have to They don't have to be you know, break the bank, right if you don't have theme park budgets, But they should really tie into the story. It should be a piece of the story that the guests and have to remind them. Well, Tara Roulette is doing the exact same thing this year, and it's a brand new haunt, you know, in a very crowded market. But the merchandise, I'm very excited. I'm seeing some of the preliminary sketches of the merch and I'm hoping that I'm hoping it all gets produced the way I'm seeing it, because some of it is is blatant and some of it is completely story tied and that guests won't know unless they actually

19:27 have experienced the the the attraction. So I'm I'm excited to see where that goes. And it's it's not it's not quite a full legacy store because well there's no point in doing legacy for something that's just opening this year, but it will be you know, there they will be pieces that will go, oh that was from year one when X y Z happened, and I think that could be really cool. So well, yeah, and on I think I would be remiss to not mentioned some of the the new merch So there's a there's like a not scary farm monopoly Scariopoly set that was developed, which is great, and there's also i think the big thing they're pushing this year is for this lantern and again it fits into the story because if you remember the conductor who came out of how years ago, he's always infamous for having his lantern, so it fits into the lore of Knots. But this lantern, it's basically like a glow with the show. It really reminds me of the stuff we worked on that we worked on from Ghantum with Knots many years ago. About the interactivity. The premise is that guests can buy this lantern for forty dollars and they can carry it with them through the entire event, including into the mazes and into those areas, and it has a static show mode which is of the regular lantern glow, and then there's a hundred instances around the event as a whole where it performs some interactive thing. So I'm

20:57 really curious to get your feedback because I've heard already from from some naysayers that say that they think it's going to ruin the maze experience of everybody's holding lanterns that are all lighting the maze, blah blah blah. Me personally, I think it looks really cool, and I think that from a content standpoint, I just think that it's a cool. It's like you're giving everybody a prop that this is a weird thing. Scott's gonna rolls lies, But it's I think you're giving everybody a prop they can take great photos with. And then you know, when they hold it up to their face, it lights their face, so it makes better photos. That's that's my dick away and how I've always done a lot of a lot of sexy content with that lanterns.

21:48 Yes, yes, So here's my thing. You when you hit it, I think you. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said when you said it there, it's like giving everybody a prop. To me, it makes visually, it will make the guests walking through the haunted the Haunted mazes look like they are part of the the experience. They're not just passive observers. They are now part of the part of the haunt. And if they're smart, they will throw in some characters who are carrying the lantern as well to sort of blur the line between guest and uh and staff or guest and cast. But I yeah, no, I love it.

22:33 I think that by giving by making the the the guest a part of the story, a part of the experience, it's great and the truth be told, you know, everybody's before it's even happened. There are those naysayers that are saying, well, I'm concerned that it's going to light up the haunt too much. But keep in mind that, you know, if there are areas that they don't want it to light up, they can easily program it that it goes off. You know, they can easily program it. So at this point in time, it's strokes to make it even more disorienting. You know, my my issue with any of these sort of interactive things is don't use it to do anything that you can use a proximity sensor correct to do correct, because nobody will know. Yeah, well, that's exactly the problem that we had with with our torch stuff back in the day. Right.

23:22 It was like, even though we worked on knots, we worked with knots to redo the trick or treat maze, people didn't know that the flashlight was the thing triggering the stuff that you know, it looks like a proximity senser. Yeah, yeah, so so yeah, I agree with all that. And then of course food, they have a lot of food offerings. I don't want to go into them. You can read the the thing for that, and parking parking is race at thirty five dollars a car this year, which you know, I think if you have a parking pass, it doesn't apply to you. But yeahs, and then you can you know, read the article. There's a lot of there's hotel packages, there's the buffet, there's all these other things. Read the article for that. Those are the things I thought was most interesting. As I mentioned at the top of the show, though, this whole thing was an event, and the event was open to the public. It was on August twenty fourth. It was twenty dollars per person, regardless of whether you had a pass or whatnot.

24:11 Media was invited, so they basically tried to do this announcement event for the first time ever and a media night at the same time. So as you can guess, there were some like logistical hiccups because the first year event it just we talked about with Taste of Terror, right remember my doctor Taste of Terror. I was like they didn't have enough tables. They had to like move stuff around, right. Well, I mean, anytime anytime you try to be a servant to two masters, somebody is going to be left out in the cold, whether that is the media or or the guests who paid to be there, and you know you have to be careful. I'm sure there was a great bit of learning as to how they can improve and how they can tweak and massage and perhaps expand or divide or whatever for this event.

25:02 I on the one hand, I love the idea of having actual guests at a media event. At the same time, I think that actually takes money out of your pocket because the media can't do what they're necessarily there to do. I'm a huge proponent that you make media events a strong representation of the product, an honest representation of the product, but in the best possible light, so that the media can get what they need to get in order to promote your experience. And I've been through many a media day, and I'm involved with two and two three this year for different clients, and we've talked a lot about making certain that in the media day, you don't just decide what you're going to do as the company. You decide what are the guests going to do, how what is the what is the moment to moment experience of the media, and does it differ between broadcast media and social media does it differ between radio and print media and television media. So you really have to have somebody who is who is concerned about how do we get this person, what does their night look like? Not just what are we offering them, but what does their night look like? And how do we make certain that they get everything they need in order to promote promote your experience.

26:26 And I just I strongly recommend that for any sort of media night, you know, you look at you take a moment to sit down and go, Okay, they arrive, now what, and you'll find that there are places that you either need additional bodies to help to help media wayfind or additional signage, or you know, you all of a sudden forgot, oh gosh, they're signing in here, but we don't have a table. I mean, it's it comes down to things that are that basic, or we don't have enough tables, or we don't have enough food or beverage or whatever whatever it is. And I just strongly, strongly recommend that no matter whether you are a theme park or an independent haunt, or you know, an independent Christmas event or a theme park Christmas event or whatever, whenever you're doing a media experience. Make sure you take that, you do that litmus test, that double check, where you take it from the point of view of the media person, and you know exactly what they're going to have happen, in what order, who takes them from from where to where, and that will help make in most cases, make for a much smoother night and much kinder media.

27:33 It's perfect on hundred percent agree with that. I think it definitely did feel like they were It was almost two separate events. One was like a media preview and one was this preview for the public, and the events didn't feel like they really talked to each other. And and as a result, I think that there was a lot of frustrated media. I know, as a member of the media, I didn't get what I needed to get, and none of the media that I know got what they needed to get either, and including some of the broadcast people that I know, it's from the local TV stations. To your point, Scott, I mean, you know the you know, I spoke with a few of them and they were, you know, they just they couldn't they couldn't get what they what they need to get for those reasons, you know, of going through it but so I yeah. But for those people listening that are thinking of doing some sort of preview event, I we talked. We've been talking about previous events and why they're important for a while. I just want to give the the overview of what the event offered for people listening. I think this event was.

28:33 It's definitely to my knowledge, I think this this will actually be the largest preview event for a Halloweing attraction. I think because Taste or Terror was just food, right, So I think this is this is the largest thing that anyone has tried so far, and it was you know, for a one night event that's a month before they open. It was a pretty big lift, I think. So the biggest thing to me was that there was the the ghost Town area was filled with fog and scare actors. So we had scare actors out. You know, it really felt like you're walking through the full show. Lighting was on, the fog was in, there were actors out. They had three photo ops, including one with the keepers, so they had the icon character for this year that was out. They did a lights on walking tour of their old maze origins from last year that kind of tells the story of knots. They were doing makeup demos on stage, show people how they were transformed into characters. They were doing not scary farm trivia.

29:29 They were even doing a fifty year retrospective hosted by Ted Dougherty, our friend Ted. They were doing previews of the Legacy store they had. The wardrobe department was out doing presentations on the costuming. You could buy your lantern and start testing it out, and of course you could ride Ghostwriter even and you could buy food. It was it was a massive event for three hours, right, so it was and a month before the show opened. So yeah, and again just hearing it, and I did not attend the event, so I cannot say whether this is this was the case or not. For me, that would mean that there was too much. I wouldn't know where to go and I wouldn't get I wouldn't know what I missed exactly how I felt. So and again I did not attend the event, So I have no idea. But I applaud them for the robustness, but I would have challenged them to say, let's focus and look at what are what we want our end results to be. And but again I'm sure there are people who went and said, oh my gosh, I got to do everything, and I got to see everything, and everything was available to me, and that's and that's wonderful as well. So anyway, just just make sure that as you're planning these kinds of events that you you look at it from the participants standpoint, not just from the host standpoint looking at things from our host standpoint. We're all ready out of time, can you believe it? Thirty minutes just went by like that and we've done nothing but talk about not Scary Farm. But it is a big event, and it is their fiftieth anniversary, so I think that's only fair. Tune in next week when we will

31:02 be back to talk about more things theme park and attraction based with my friend and co host Philip Bernandez and myself Scott Swenson. Until next week, this is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty and we'll see you then.