EAST YORKSHIRE
After Dark
25 & 26 October 2019
Driffield Showground
Tickets: Must be pre-booked, £12 standard, £20 VIP Fasttrack.
www.driffieldshowground.co.uk/afterdark
Frightening fun has been guaranteed in Driffield for Halloween 2019 with this brand-new event. Get ready to experience the Driffield Showground “after dark” with two thrilling nights of scares and live entertainment. It will feature three live action scare mazes, including Outpost 42 (will you survive a sick and twisted trip through a government test installation?) and The Old Stinker (legend says this mythical beast is said to roam the East Yorkshire countryside and rumour has it that if you hear the howl, you will not live to see the dawn). Plus there’s a funfair, street food, live music and street entertainment. For something a little more ‘hands on’, get up close and personal with reptiles and creepy crawlies in the interactive “Reptile House”. Still shaking after surviving all these terrifying encounters? Pull up a chair and relax in the “Scream Bar” with live entertainment.
LINCOLNSHIRE
Spooky Prison
Lincoln Castle
19 – 27 October
Admission: adult £14, child £7.50, family £35.50, under 5s free, online discounts available
Lincoln Castle’s Victorian Prison will come to life with tales from the past during October half-term. The vile Victorians will be sure to give you a fright as you hear ghastly ghost stories and tales of witch trials from the Victorian undertakers themselves. The Spooky Prison is a fun and family-friendly introduction into the horrible history of the Victorian Era. Children can create their own creepy characters and take home an origami bat or pipe cleaner spider. Built by William the Conqueror in 1068, Lincoln Castle has dominated the Lincoln skyline for almost 1,000 years. Inside the Castle walls is the Victorian prison with three floors of restored prison cells offering an opportunity to learn about the justice system of Victorian England with living history characters and interactive touch-screen tables.
BURGHLEY HOUSE
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Spooky Tours
16th – 31st October
Tickets: £20 per person
www.burghley.co.uk/events/spooky-tours/
Spooky torch lit tours of one of England’s grandest Elizabethan houses return this October with more scary stories and haunting hidden history. Led by a costumed ghostly expert, the guided tours through creepy cellars and centuries-old cloisters take in some of the less visited areas of Burghley, on the edge of the Georgian stone town of Stamford. Designed to be scary but fun, the tours reveal Burghley’s ghostly goings-on across the centuries and promise plenty of history, as well as scares, during the 50-minute flickering torchlight trails. Local expert Martin Tempest – complete with swirling cape and torch lantern – will once again leads the tours, offering visitors scary snippets and tales of times past at this magnificent Elizabethan mansion built by William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth’s I’s spy chief and Lord High Treasurer, between 1555 and 1587. Places are limited, so the advice is to book early. For autumn family fun with fewer scares – and more daylight – head to the Sculpture Garden and have a go at at the Burghley Halloween Trail (19th – 31st October). Tread through the crispy autumn leaves and find the hidden spooks to receive a treat (free with a House and Gardens or Gardens only ticket, Friends of Burghley or Annual Pass).
DERBY
Dead and Breakfast XI (18)
Derby QUAD & Cinema
Saturday 26th October from 8pm ‘til dawn
£25, £17.50 for 18 – 25 years, (includes breakfast for those who survive the night)
This one is for night owls who are real horror fans – and strictly over 18! Make it through the ‘fright’ with Five Fearsome Films back to back from 8pm to dawn the next day. This year’s movies include Pan’s Labyrinth, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Young Frankenstein. And for those who make it through the fright, there’s a tasty treat – a breakfast wrap for the survivors (Veggie or Meaty).
Professor Salamander’s Travelling Beasts
Bluebell Dairy Farm
19-20 & 26-31 October 2019
Admission: From £7.16 adult and £7.65 child, booked online in advance
There’s wizard-ing family fun to be had at artisan ice cream dairy and farm attraction, Bluebell Dairy Farm, on the outskirts of Derby. Professor Salamander, a Wizard of the highest order, is in a spot of bother with his Mythical Beasts, which he keeps in his suitcase. One of his latest discoveries has decided it would rather wander around in search of it’s favourite food – ice cream! Where better for a mythical beast to go then, than Bluebell Dairy Farm, home to freshly made, award-winning ice cream. Search out the Mythical Beasts’ nests and lair across the farm and through the maize field, but beware of the dragons, mermaids and arachnids. Included in every fully paying child ticket is a free pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch, which can be taken to the Bale Barn to carve.
STAFFORDSHIRE
Spine-tingling Staffordshire theme parks
Scarefest returns to Alton Towers Resort on selected dates 5 October – 3 November with more spine-tingling terrors than ever before. The Resort’s multi award-winning scare mazes are scarier than ever plus there’s another NEW maze joining the line up! And as if that’s not scary enough, dare you take on the Resort’s world-class thrill rides and attractions in the dark including Wicker Man and the Alton Towers Dungeon! Plus there’s the family-friendly Halloween Spooktacular for younger children, featuring a colourful Halloween playland and a CBeebies Monster Ball. Tickets from £34. www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest/
Head for Drayton Manor Theme Park and it’s More Treat Than Trick, 19-31 October, offering a family-friendly Halloween full of spectacularly spooky fun for a family day out to remember with plenty of themed decorations and entertainment, including additional surprises and activities. www.draytonmanor.co.uk/halloween
Over at the National Forest Adventure Farm it’s Screamfest time, back again on various dates 10 October – 2 November with five thrilling scare attractions to chill your bones – plus a new scare for 2019 Hillbilly Joe’s Zombee Zoo, and a new one-night only spectacular fireworks display on 2 November. Among the award-winning frights are the chance to find your soul mate at the Diced Heart Pub in Love Hurts; enter a child’s nightmare in Insomnia, endure the circus of freaks and creeps in Freakout, or join the festival of the dead and escape the maize maze in Dia de los Muertos. There is also live entertainment running all night including extreme performers and street theatre, plus food and drink, including a licensed bar, and new for 2019 fairground rides. Online tickets from £10 (ScaredyCat ticket) and £20.95 (Screamfest ticket), www.screamfest.co.uk
THE TRENTHAM ESTATE
Trentham Gardens
Halloween Trail – Saturday 26th October – Thursday 31st October
Giant Pumpkins – Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October
Wand and Broom making – Saturday 26th October – Tuesday 29th October
Pumpkin Carving – Wednesday 30th October and Thursday 31st October
Garden admission: £12 adult, £9 child (age 3-15 years), plus extra charges apply on some of the events
Family fun awaits at award-winning Trentham Gardens this half term with a Halloween Trail where you can earn a treat if you can beat the ghostly games – but watch out for skeleton gardeners taking the same path! Giant pumpkin displays will be back in these historic gardens, which have matured into one of England’s top paid-for garden attractions, and visitors will also get the chance to create their own spooky designs with pumpkin carving workshops. Future Wizards and Witches can make their own wands and brooms, while for a magical extra treat follow Trentham’s ever-popular Fairy Trail, which boasts even more fairy sculptures for autumn.
HAMPSHIRE
A wizzarding weekend on the Watercress Line
Mid Hants Railway
26 – 27 October 2019
Wizard Weekend ticket: £17 adults, £9 child (5-16 yrs)
www.watercressline.co.uk/product.php/34/wizard-weekend
Discover magic and mischief, and dress up as a spooky character for a Halloween fancy dress competition. It might be known as the Watercress Line, thanks to its links to Hampshire’s historic watercress industry, but The Mid Hants Railway has a wizzard of a secret too. It’s also home to the Kings Cross footbridge, which featured in the Harry Potter movies, and the steam railway celebrates those links with its Wizard Weekend, when you can walk in Harry’s footsteps on the bridge, take a trip on the Wizard Express steam train and explore a Hogwarts Express-style carriage, as well as borrow Hogwarts costumes to dress up in character to take a selfie.
Happy Halloween
Paultons Park
5 October – 4 November 2019
Admission: 1 day ticket in advance from £30.50 per person, family of four from £118
For this family theme park with over 70 exciting rides and attractions to enjoy – as well as being home to the UK exclusive and world’s first Peppa Pig World – this is the season to enjoy a ‘Happy Halloween’, billed as the friendliest, most frightful fun fest in the UK – and new for 2019 Peppa Pig World will be transformed for the first time for this year’s festivities. With over 10,000 pumpkins, ghostly scenes, spooky meet and greets, a Freaky Fancy Dress competition and the thrilling Little Monsters Ball finale to finish each day, the whole park will be festooned with thousands of pumpkins and straw hay bales for an eerie autumnal scene.
Spooky Halloween River Tour
New Forest Activities
25, 27 and 31 October 2019
Tickets: £27 Adult, £15 Child
www.newforestactivities.co.uk/activities/seasonal/
How about a Halloween paddle? Head to Hampshire for a family fun, spooky Halloween tour exploring the Beaulieu River at dusk. With so much history and stories of resident ghosts, are you brave enough to paddle the Beaulieu River’s dark waters by moonlight? Come in your best fancy dress and head out on the water in illuminated canoes, stopping along the way to hear ghoulish ghost stories from your nighttime guide. Plus, there’ll be hot chocolate and Halloween candy for everyone taking part!
ISLE OF WIGHT
Terror Island
Blackgang Chine, Ventnor
Selected dates 19 Oct – 2 Nov 2019
Admission: standard ticket price £23.50 (age restrictions apply, check website)
Experience new thrills and chills at the oldest theme park in the UK. For 2019 Blackgang Chine is creating Terror Island, an all-new scare experience featuring three attractions and a whole lot more. Among the new Halloween ‘treats’ are ‘The Blood Shed’, where you can step inside the secret hideaway of a bloodthirsty band of serial-killer smugglers, and ‘Amphibious’ where you will unleash the ancient spirits of the sea, bringing with them the terrors of the deep and wreaking their vengeance. The main park will be closed during Terror Island, however, entry to Cliffhanger and Waterforce are included in the ticket price. For some family friendly Halloween fun, Blackgang Chine is also hosting a brand-new family event; Frights & Sprites (19-27 October) in the Rumpus Mansion, where ghostly characters will be causing mischief with their interactive performance, and on the Rumpus Lawn, which will host an array of spooky activities including Hook a Skull, Hoopla, Tin Can Alley, Wiggle cars, Fancy Dress-up and the Halloween Crafting Zone!
