Review of 2011
It only seems a few months since I was sat here writing my review of 2010 and it’s already the early morning of 2012. It’s time therefore, to look back on the events of 2011 and ponder on what we can expect for this year. So grab some hangover pills, get that coffee percolator going and sit back and enjoy!
One of the key things I moaned about last year was the incessant and annoying false advertising claims being bounced around in 2010, and this year it was nice to see that things have become a bit more restrained. The scare industry is still small and growing and apart from a few attractions located close to each other, the comparative claims of biggest, first, scariest etc are just irrelevant to most guests who just visit their local attraction.
In fact, this is something that has become increasingly obvious through ScareTOUR. Apart from the big corporate events, people don’t really travel around the country visiting different scare attractions. Yes I know some of you – our loyal readers do – but we are in the minority. The proof of this has been borne out by the hundreds of You Reviews that we have received, many for just 1 or 2 local attractions. There’s only a few of us so far it seems that spend half their Halloween week driving from scare to scare!
So, talking about driving round the country, what did we actually do this year? 2011 was definitely our busiest year for reviews and we dread to count up how many miles we travelled. During September and October we made three separate trips into Yorkshire, let alone elsewhere across the UK. Planning for our review trips each year is like a military operation, and then when new attractions appear out of the blue our plans are thrown into chaos as we hastily arrange visits to support them.
As for new events, what were the big ones for this year? The two headline grabbers were effectively Scarenation near Watford and Yorkshire ScareGrounds in Wakefield. Where other people start by adding just one new attraction or a maze, both of these events jumped feet first into full blown “event” status.
In fact, this is something that has become increasingly obvious through ScareTOUR. Apart from the big corporate events, people don’t really travel around the country visiting different scare attractions. Yes I know some of you – our loyal readers do – but we are in the minority. The proof of this has been borne out by the hundreds of You Reviews that we have received, many for just 1 or 2 local attractions. There’s only a few of us so far it seems that spend half their Halloween week driving from scare to scare!
So, talking about driving round the country, what did we actually do this year? 2011 was definitely our busiest year for reviews and we dread to count up how many miles we travelled. During September and October we made three separate trips into Yorkshire, let alone elsewhere across the UK. Planning for our review trips each year is like a military operation, and then when new attractions appear out of the blue our plans are thrown into chaos as we hastily arrange visits to support them.
As for new events, what were the big ones for this year? The two headline grabbers were effectively Scarenation near Watford and Yorkshire ScareGrounds in Wakefield. Where other people start by adding just one new attraction or a maze, both of these events jumped feet first into full blown “event” status.
Yorkshire Scare Grounds
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Scarenation
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Scarenation followed the more classic event layout, with four different attractions included in the price. Guests were then able to choose in what order they experienced things. Two of the attractions really stood out – The Forbidden Yard and All Junked Up. Both contained lively actors and impressive design, Forbidden Yard mainly for its layout and construction but All Junked Up provided detailed scenery and impressive theming. The Yorkshire Scare Grounds went for a more linear approach with each attraction being encountered along one long 2 hour route. Some of the set designs were amazing (especially the Graveyard and Mine) but the torrential rain on the night we visited meant that progress was slow and muddy throughout.
Trying to jump straight to event status was a big gamble for both teams and their gambles clearly paid off. Both attractions have already confirmed exciting plans for 2012 which means they will be back even bigger and better.
Other new events included the massively expanded and terrifying Freak Week at Hop Farm, The Fear Horror House, Hellsgate in the Northwest, Halloween at the National Maize Maze and Twinlakes in Leicestershire.
Twinlakes is a small family theme park and is one that passed many people by this Halloween, which from all reports was a big mistake. Those that did go said it was one of the best Halloween events they had ever attended, and with 4 differently themed mazes and the whole park decorated as a scare zone, it’s certainly one of the biggest. It’s a shame that they only do it for one night, this is certainly one to watch in 2012.
Over at the other theme parks, in an inspired bit of marketing, Pleasurewood Hills became Pleasurewood Chills for the Halloween season, and Lightwater Valley ran for a couple of nights as Frightwater Valley. This year’s event was themed to tie up with their new pirate area and again proved to be a hidden success. Interestingly, a recent online survey has hinted that they may be looking to extend the event to run more days in 2012. Oakwood in Wales also jumped back into the Halloween market. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the return of the incredible Fright House, but their line up did include the family themed Scare Rabbit’s Burrow and the adult Haunted Hell House in the Canaston centre. Following the critical success of Primevil in 2010, the event returned to Norfolk Dinosaur Park with a new show – The Circus of Terror and even more inmates in the terrifying Insanitorium.
Trying to jump straight to event status was a big gamble for both teams and their gambles clearly paid off. Both attractions have already confirmed exciting plans for 2012 which means they will be back even bigger and better.
Other new events included the massively expanded and terrifying Freak Week at Hop Farm, The Fear Horror House, Hellsgate in the Northwest, Halloween at the National Maize Maze and Twinlakes in Leicestershire.
Twinlakes is a small family theme park and is one that passed many people by this Halloween, which from all reports was a big mistake. Those that did go said it was one of the best Halloween events they had ever attended, and with 4 differently themed mazes and the whole park decorated as a scare zone, it’s certainly one of the biggest. It’s a shame that they only do it for one night, this is certainly one to watch in 2012.
Over at the other theme parks, in an inspired bit of marketing, Pleasurewood Hills became Pleasurewood Chills for the Halloween season, and Lightwater Valley ran for a couple of nights as Frightwater Valley. This year’s event was themed to tie up with their new pirate area and again proved to be a hidden success. Interestingly, a recent online survey has hinted that they may be looking to extend the event to run more days in 2012. Oakwood in Wales also jumped back into the Halloween market. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the return of the incredible Fright House, but their line up did include the family themed Scare Rabbit’s Burrow and the adult Haunted Hell House in the Canaston centre. Following the critical success of Primevil in 2010, the event returned to Norfolk Dinosaur Park with a new show – The Circus of Terror and even more inmates in the terrifying Insanitorium.
Twinlakes Park
Twinlakes Park
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Frightwater Valley
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The big theme parks continued to join in the fun in their own inimitable style. At Alton Towers, the three mazes from 2010 returned with a few tweaks along the way, the most obvious being that Boiler House and Carnival were built in the park. Although opening earlier and potentially being a big money spinner for the park, the attractions never seemed to be very busy and lost some of the magic they used to have over at the hotel. Boiler House particularly struggled in its new layout and relied on a strobe lit finale that couldn’t match the intensity of Terror of the Towers. Not surprisingly, Terror of the Towers was still the strongest of the mazes and with such a long and detailed attraction included in the ticket price, just made the nearby pay mazes seem even poorer value than before. Fortunately, the most exciting new thing at Alton was the freeform pathway through the Zombies Scare Zone which enabled everyone to get a scare without having to queue hours to pay for the privilege.
Chessington World of Adventures surprised everyone this year by fully embracing the scare concept. To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Vampire rollercoaster, they introduced the Twilight Zone which was surprisingly dark and scary for a family park. The container infrastructure was then reused as part of the Krypt during their Halloween event, and joined the Black Forest Walk and Hocus Pocus Hall: Bewitched, to add some live scares to the park.
Thorpe Park continued to evolve with Fright Nights. They once again failed to actually expand due to the retirement of Hellgate and last year’s scare zone, but actually have to be praised for doing something different. Experiment 10 was shrouded with a level of secrecy unheard of before and we knew very little about what to expect. Not knowing what was going to happen, the separation of the groups, the lack of a conga line etc, really broke the mould for UK attractions, and our first trip through completely blew us away. Unfortunately, on subsequent visits, once the surprises have been revealed, the attraction lost a lot of its scare factor. Even so, Thorpe has to be praised for being so daring.
Also trying something daring this year was Tulleys Shocktoberfest with the introduction of Hellements – the world’s first “bag on your head” attraction (we’re sure it has a more technical term but effectively the attraction plays on all your senses by removing your main one – sight). The route through utilised many other tactical effects including water and fire and although interesting and different, probably wasn’t as scary as possibly expected. In fact, The Cellar in its third year and with an amazingly speedy cast, managed to get more screams from our group.
Chessington World of Adventures surprised everyone this year by fully embracing the scare concept. To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Vampire rollercoaster, they introduced the Twilight Zone which was surprisingly dark and scary for a family park. The container infrastructure was then reused as part of the Krypt during their Halloween event, and joined the Black Forest Walk and Hocus Pocus Hall: Bewitched, to add some live scares to the park.
Thorpe Park continued to evolve with Fright Nights. They once again failed to actually expand due to the retirement of Hellgate and last year’s scare zone, but actually have to be praised for doing something different. Experiment 10 was shrouded with a level of secrecy unheard of before and we knew very little about what to expect. Not knowing what was going to happen, the separation of the groups, the lack of a conga line etc, really broke the mould for UK attractions, and our first trip through completely blew us away. Unfortunately, on subsequent visits, once the surprises have been revealed, the attraction lost a lot of its scare factor. Even so, Thorpe has to be praised for being so daring.
Also trying something daring this year was Tulleys Shocktoberfest with the introduction of Hellements – the world’s first “bag on your head” attraction (we’re sure it has a more technical term but effectively the attraction plays on all your senses by removing your main one – sight). The route through utilised many other tactical effects including water and fire and although interesting and different, probably wasn’t as scary as possibly expected. In fact, The Cellar in its third year and with an amazingly speedy cast, managed to get more screams from our group.
Alton Towers
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Tulleys Shocktoberfest
Chessington World of Adventures
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Tulleys remains the bench mark for all farm based scare attractions, with an organised structure and layout that makes it feel like a proper theme park style event and not just a few attractions based in a field. Other farm attractions used different features to differing degrees of success. Broadditch returned with some really strong indoor attractions but suffered from a bad crop, meaning that their corn field attraction failed to grow properly. On the other hand, visitors to Scare Kingdom suffered from too much corn, with two of the attractions utilising a cornfield with long uneventful walks between the detailed scenes.
Spooky World introduced two new attractions and proved very very busy, unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to the quality of 2010, whereas the overlooked, and often ignored, Church Farm drew rave reviews from everyone who visited. Elsewhere, Farmaggedon in Lancashire fully sold out again, Frightmare at Over Farm was invaded by pirates and the Farm of Terror brought fear to the Manchester area.
Hop Farm massively extended their Halloween event with some incredibly unique and exciting attractions. The social commentary and uniqueness of Quarantine and the scariness of Slaughterhouse, were a highlight of the year as were our terror induced trips through Carnevil and Barnageddon at York Maze Hallowscream. All these mazes left us panting for breath on our escape and in the case of Barnaggedon, literally aching from the continuous laughing/screaming throughout!
Although not really a farm attraction, Dr Frights provided a good level of scares once again with some unique frights and hidden extras around the site including the zombie outbreak and the camp slaughter scene. Other popular events included Halloween at Thurleigh Farm, the Rare Breeds Centre in Kent and the two neighbouring Irish attractions, Haunted Spooktacular and Farmaphobia (featuring Ghosts of Christmas) in Co Meath.
Spooky World introduced two new attractions and proved very very busy, unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to the quality of 2010, whereas the overlooked, and often ignored, Church Farm drew rave reviews from everyone who visited. Elsewhere, Farmaggedon in Lancashire fully sold out again, Frightmare at Over Farm was invaded by pirates and the Farm of Terror brought fear to the Manchester area.
Hop Farm massively extended their Halloween event with some incredibly unique and exciting attractions. The social commentary and uniqueness of Quarantine and the scariness of Slaughterhouse, were a highlight of the year as were our terror induced trips through Carnevil and Barnageddon at York Maze Hallowscream. All these mazes left us panting for breath on our escape and in the case of Barnaggedon, literally aching from the continuous laughing/screaming throughout!
Although not really a farm attraction, Dr Frights provided a good level of scares once again with some unique frights and hidden extras around the site including the zombie outbreak and the camp slaughter scene. Other popular events included Halloween at Thurleigh Farm, the Rare Breeds Centre in Kent and the two neighbouring Irish attractions, Haunted Spooktacular and Farmaphobia (featuring Ghosts of Christmas) in Co Meath.
Ghosts of Christmas at Farmaphobia
Dr Fright's Halloween Horror Nights
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York Maze Hallowscream
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Each year sees new and unique events, and 2011 was no different. Dudley Canal Horror took guests into historic dark caves via canal boat, Bunker 13 was based inside a converted steel works in Sheffield and The Fear Horror House was set out in the grounds of a pub. All were exciting events in their own right and went to show that with imagination and talent, a good scare attraction can be built almost anywhere. Over in Essex, Castle Point Ghost Tours occupied an old bus museum on Canvey island and Cursed moved into its new home at Cressing Temple, a rural estate based around 2 massive barns built by medieval monks (now if that venue isn’t haunted we would be surprised!)
Speaking of haunted buildings, Warwick Castle held their annual Halloween event again, while Tredegar House in Wales terrified unsuspecting visitors to the National Trust property. Over in Suffolk, Kentwell Hall once again opened its unique haunted village, Scaresville.
Moving onto permanent attractions, The London Bridge Experience has had another great year and the London Tombs continues to be the scariest permanent scare attraction in the UK. Lots of changes were made to the underground passages which have added more effects to the experience. As always, it’s during their annual events when the attraction really shines and the Halloween Phobophobia event was suitably terrifying (especially the dark and mysterious upstairs section)
Elsewhere in London, the start of the year saw the very sad closure of Pasaje del Terror in the Trocadero and at times the future of Death Trap at county hall looked uncertain, as the attraction was reported as closed for several days or so due to potential rent issues. Fortunately Scream: One Way Out at Madame Tussauds remains a strong little attraction in its own right.
The other main London attraction, London Dungeon and all its sister attractions did their usual annual updates and addition of individual scenes. The biggest focus was on Blackpool, with the launch of Blackpool Tower Dungeons, a brand new show with exciting new storylines alongside some dungeon classics. We enjoyed being part of the audition panel in the Blackpool Tower ballroom. Also, along the way, London saw the launch of the fun (if uneventful) Vengeance 4D and an updated Sawney Bean boat ride opened in Edinburgh. While in Edinburgh for the launch, we experienced some real ghost attractions as we visited The Real Mary Kings Close and the terrifying City of the Dead Ghost tours. Blackpool Tower Dungeon has added to the Blackpool line up of scares (especially now that Louis Tussauds and Alien Attack have closed). At least the perennial favourite, Pasaje del Terror remains at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Carnesky’s Ghost Train runs on select days along the Golden Mile.
Speaking of haunted buildings, Warwick Castle held their annual Halloween event again, while Tredegar House in Wales terrified unsuspecting visitors to the National Trust property. Over in Suffolk, Kentwell Hall once again opened its unique haunted village, Scaresville.
Moving onto permanent attractions, The London Bridge Experience has had another great year and the London Tombs continues to be the scariest permanent scare attraction in the UK. Lots of changes were made to the underground passages which have added more effects to the experience. As always, it’s during their annual events when the attraction really shines and the Halloween Phobophobia event was suitably terrifying (especially the dark and mysterious upstairs section)
Elsewhere in London, the start of the year saw the very sad closure of Pasaje del Terror in the Trocadero and at times the future of Death Trap at county hall looked uncertain, as the attraction was reported as closed for several days or so due to potential rent issues. Fortunately Scream: One Way Out at Madame Tussauds remains a strong little attraction in its own right.
The other main London attraction, London Dungeon and all its sister attractions did their usual annual updates and addition of individual scenes. The biggest focus was on Blackpool, with the launch of Blackpool Tower Dungeons, a brand new show with exciting new storylines alongside some dungeon classics. We enjoyed being part of the audition panel in the Blackpool Tower ballroom. Also, along the way, London saw the launch of the fun (if uneventful) Vengeance 4D and an updated Sawney Bean boat ride opened in Edinburgh. While in Edinburgh for the launch, we experienced some real ghost attractions as we visited The Real Mary Kings Close and the terrifying City of the Dead Ghost tours. Blackpool Tower Dungeon has added to the Blackpool line up of scares (especially now that Louis Tussauds and Alien Attack have closed). At least the perennial favourite, Pasaje del Terror remains at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Carnesky’s Ghost Train runs on select days along the Golden Mile.
All that is left of Pasaje del Terror London
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Edinburgh Dungeon
A ScareTOUR re-enactment with the real Doctor!
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2011 has been another year of quality “out of season” attractions and several of these were created by the GNG/Curious Village team. Killers Live appeared at the Whitby Goth fest, while Haunted Live and Extreme took over a genuinely haunted building in York. Scaretech presented The Unknown, a fun mix of scares built within a laser quest arena. Of course, our favourite zombie chase game, 2.8 Hours Later, had people running for their lives through shopping malls in Bristol, Leeds and London with many more cities lined up in 2012.
Backdoor Productions have been focused this year mostly on non scare attractions, but in December created a mini attraction for a youth project in Scotland. This fun concept was a great challenge and team building exercise for the teenagers and as such, Backdoor hope to roll this programme out across other outreach centres. Down in the West Country, the talented team at Kernow Scare Attractions have also quietly been churning out scare attractions and are already planning big things for 2012.
A final mention should be made of ".. and Darkness Descended, an exciting new scare attraction that was designed purely for the promotion of a new computer game. The fact that this industry is being used for marketing, shows the power of what a good scare can do (just a shame so many complained about those inspired Phones 4 U adverts!)
Backdoor Productions have been focused this year mostly on non scare attractions, but in December created a mini attraction for a youth project in Scotland. This fun concept was a great challenge and team building exercise for the teenagers and as such, Backdoor hope to roll this programme out across other outreach centres. Down in the West Country, the talented team at Kernow Scare Attractions have also quietly been churning out scare attractions and are already planning big things for 2012.
A final mention should be made of ".. and Darkness Descended, an exciting new scare attraction that was designed purely for the promotion of a new computer game. The fact that this industry is being used for marketing, shows the power of what a good scare can do (just a shame so many complained about those inspired Phones 4 U adverts!)
2.8 Hours Later
Backdoor Productions
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...and darkness descended
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We like to think we are a cultured bunch here at ScareTOUR and we really enjoyed a number of theatrical experiences including Ghost Stories, Misery, starring the beautiful Toni Griffiths (aka Esmerelda) and the thrills of the London Horror Festival. Watching a stage performance could be likened to a scarce attraction with its roller coaster of emotions and sudden scares and all shows provided some great heart stopping moments. Ghost Stories even felt like an attraction with its elaborately decorated corridors once inside the theatre.
Of course we can’t talk about live acts without mentioning our favourites, the Circus of Horrors led by our good friend Dr Haze. Their unforgettable performances got them through to the semi finals of Britain’s Got Talent. Why not check them out on tour this year?
The only other big thing that we have to mention was ScareCON in May. Held at the Village Hotel in Dudley, the event saw the cream of the UK scare industry all come together under one roof , to discuss ideas and work together to better the industry. After the day’s activities, nearly everyone got dressed up to attend the Scareball and the drinking continued well into the night! Of course, some people were awake for other reasons as ScareCON saw the debut of the first ever ALL night scare rooms. Ten pairs of 'unlucky' punters were subjected to non stop scares with no let up. From demented ghosts, crazed monks and evil clowns, nothing was sacred and by the end of the night only three rooms had resisted putting up their 'do not disturb' signs. Those brave souls were treated to a very loud, very real chainsaw alarm call at 7 the next morning!
Of course we can’t talk about live acts without mentioning our favourites, the Circus of Horrors led by our good friend Dr Haze. Their unforgettable performances got them through to the semi finals of Britain’s Got Talent. Why not check them out on tour this year?
The only other big thing that we have to mention was ScareCON in May. Held at the Village Hotel in Dudley, the event saw the cream of the UK scare industry all come together under one roof , to discuss ideas and work together to better the industry. After the day’s activities, nearly everyone got dressed up to attend the Scareball and the drinking continued well into the night! Of course, some people were awake for other reasons as ScareCON saw the debut of the first ever ALL night scare rooms. Ten pairs of 'unlucky' punters were subjected to non stop scares with no let up. From demented ghosts, crazed monks and evil clowns, nothing was sacred and by the end of the night only three rooms had resisted putting up their 'do not disturb' signs. Those brave souls were treated to a very loud, very real chainsaw alarm call at 7 the next morning!
ScareRoom cast 2011
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ScareBall
ScareRooms
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Amongst all these events and attractions around the UK, ScareTOUR’s review team managed to get to more attractions than ever before, with well over 45 new official reviews listed for 2011. Here at ScareTOUR we pride ourselves on the detail and quality of our reviews, and when we have guest reviewers we make sure that their opinions are as detailed and consistent as our own. To allow all our readers to voice their opinions (especially if they don’t want to write a full review), this year we introduced our innovative YOU Review section. Now, anybody wanting to comment can do so with the press of a button. This feature has been really well received and we have had over 100 independent reviews already.
Of course, many of you visited attractions on your own, but one of the key reasons we set up ScareTOUR was so people could visit attractions with like minded people. In 2011 we had a number of different trips which were received really well by everyone who attended. At Tulleys Farm we got to stand in the dark watching people walking through Hellements, while at Thorpe Park we had an exclusive behind the scenes tour of Experiment 10. Each event had unique surprise elements included, such as front of line access and other privileges. Planning has started on 2012 trips, and we have already lined up St Valentines Day Massacre for February 14th, where we shall be visiting Blackpool Tower Dungeons, Carneskys Ghost Train and Carnevil - a new circus themed show from AtmosFEAR! Keep checking the site for other announcements coming soon.
Looking at 2012, what can we expect going forward? The aforementioned Carnevil and Scary Tales from GNG have already been announced, and the Yorkshire Scare Grounds have their unique terror camping event in the summer. As for all the main attractions, we can only wait and see. After all, it is 2012 which is supposed to be the end of the world, so will we see a load of apocalypse themed attractions coming our way? Scare Kingdom has already announced their 2012 line up to include “Apocalypse 2012”. On the permanent side, a new scare attraction called the Glasgow Asylum is currently scheduled to open in spring.
Of course, many of you visited attractions on your own, but one of the key reasons we set up ScareTOUR was so people could visit attractions with like minded people. In 2011 we had a number of different trips which were received really well by everyone who attended. At Tulleys Farm we got to stand in the dark watching people walking through Hellements, while at Thorpe Park we had an exclusive behind the scenes tour of Experiment 10. Each event had unique surprise elements included, such as front of line access and other privileges. Planning has started on 2012 trips, and we have already lined up St Valentines Day Massacre for February 14th, where we shall be visiting Blackpool Tower Dungeons, Carneskys Ghost Train and Carnevil - a new circus themed show from AtmosFEAR! Keep checking the site for other announcements coming soon.
Looking at 2012, what can we expect going forward? The aforementioned Carnevil and Scary Tales from GNG have already been announced, and the Yorkshire Scare Grounds have their unique terror camping event in the summer. As for all the main attractions, we can only wait and see. After all, it is 2012 which is supposed to be the end of the world, so will we see a load of apocalypse themed attractions coming our way? Scare Kingdom has already announced their 2012 line up to include “Apocalypse 2012”. On the permanent side, a new scare attraction called the Glasgow Asylum is currently scheduled to open in spring.
Behind the scenes at Thorpe Park
ScareTOUR at Tulleys
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Coming in 2012
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To wrap up the year I would like to thank everyone who has followed the site, submitted a YOU Review or attended a trip. ScareTOUR was set up to be inclusive of everyone and to be interactive and fun. Hopefully we have achieved that, but of course we are always willing to make changes. If you have any ideas about what you would like to see going forward, please let us know.
Also, I would like to thank everyone in the industry who I consider to be good friends – you are all too numerous to mention but you know who you are. This is a great family spirit and we should all be working together for a common goal. I therefore look forward to whatever exciting things 2012 brings for us all.
I’d also like to thank the extended ScareTOUR team who have helped with reviews, pointed out typing mistakes, given advice and generally supported everything that ScareTOUR is about. We couldn’t have done half of what we have without all the efforts you’ve put in. In this respect I must make a special mention to Sam Cousins for sharing so much of the driving and effort on our trips out.
Finally it’s time to thank my wife Catherine and daughter Jessica, for putting up with me being away from home so much and spending so much time on ScareTOUR and ScareCON.
So finally, I wish you all a very successful and happy new year and look forward to meeting more of you at events, or enjoying a relaxing beer with you after ScareCON!
As per last year – here are my personal favourites of 2011
Also, I would like to thank everyone in the industry who I consider to be good friends – you are all too numerous to mention but you know who you are. This is a great family spirit and we should all be working together for a common goal. I therefore look forward to whatever exciting things 2012 brings for us all.
I’d also like to thank the extended ScareTOUR team who have helped with reviews, pointed out typing mistakes, given advice and generally supported everything that ScareTOUR is about. We couldn’t have done half of what we have without all the efforts you’ve put in. In this respect I must make a special mention to Sam Cousins for sharing so much of the driving and effort on our trips out.
Finally it’s time to thank my wife Catherine and daughter Jessica, for putting up with me being away from home so much and spending so much time on ScareTOUR and ScareCON.
So finally, I wish you all a very successful and happy new year and look forward to meeting more of you at events, or enjoying a relaxing beer with you after ScareCON!
As per last year – here are my personal favourites of 2011
Best Overall Scare Event – Tulleys Shocktoberfest
Best Scare Attraction - Barnaggedon at York Maze Hallowscream
Best Year Round Attraction – The London Tombs
Favourite Scene in an Attraction – The shopping mall in 2.8 Hours Later Bristol
Best Ghost Walk or Tour - City of the Dead, Edinburgh
Best Stage Production - Misery at the Blue,Orange Theatre, Birmingham
Moment of Sheer Panic Award – Quarantine at Hop Farm Shriek Week
Best Scare Attraction - Barnaggedon at York Maze Hallowscream
Best Year Round Attraction – The London Tombs
Favourite Scene in an Attraction – The shopping mall in 2.8 Hours Later Bristol
Best Ghost Walk or Tour - City of the Dead, Edinburgh
Best Stage Production - Misery at the Blue,Orange Theatre, Birmingham
Moment of Sheer Panic Award – Quarantine at Hop Farm Shriek Week
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