Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but if Haunt 2021 is on, it's going to be really interesting to see the park feasibly pull it off based on the current state of the world. Obviously we have no clue what the world will look like in twelve months, especially in VA, but with a heavy indoor haunted house line-up I do wonder how feasible Haunt will be to operate safely to the masses. Outside of the various open air scare zones and Cornstalkers, the entire line up consists of indoor haunts and may be problematic to operate in today's society. Many are still scared to eat in a restaurant with the CDC ranking indoor dining at "Even More Risk" for restaurants and bars. This information does bring up the question of will guests feel safe in a crowded, hot indoor building filled with sweating loud actors and screaming guests? Some local independent haunts have managed to get away with hosting indoor haunted houses in the state and require masks, temperature checks, and subtle social distancing when possible. Chains like Six Flags dropped the classic Fright Fest branding this year, re-branding as HallowFest, focusing on outdoor open-air scare zones and attractions. Universal has been experimenting with two haunted houses using plexiglass and other forms of social distancing to ensure guest safety in order to gain more knowledge for next years event. I think some form of Haunt will be on next year, even though it may be under a different name. However, it's going to have to be radically different if we're still in a similar situation to the current moment.
The optimist in me likes to believe that there will be some sort of experimental vaccine or medicine out by the Fall of next year, but it's going to be a hard sell for many to feel comfortable in some of those warehouses where the houses are located. Maybe the park will only do outdoor scare zones? Could we see a focus on outdoor houses and maybe open Blackout with no actors? Everything is so far up in the air right now with the park not even open and no CF Haunts operating this year. The event has been notorious for it's use of indoor haunts dating back to the precursor, Paramount's FearFest in the early 2000's. The only outdoor locations that have been used to my knowledge are to the right of I-Street, White Water Canyon queue which has remained dormant since the Miner's Revenge fiasco in 2013, and the antique cars. The park has a lot of untapped potential in doing some form of outdoor haunts, like the Dinosaur's Alive trail, sections of of Soak City, or maybe even the Kingswood's amphitheater pavilion if the amount of company events is down next year.
As we've seen with Tollway Terror, the park isn' afraid to shy away from live actors and focus on automated scares. Maybe some of the pre-existing houses could contain socially distanced scare actors, the bare minimum staff to safely operate inside the warehouses, and replacing many of the scares with automated animatronics and projections? Many of the environments found in the newer houses already impose highly detailed, immersive environments that are just as creepy and tense without actors. It could be an easy band-aid to alleviate some of the fears of overcrowding in this cramped warehouses for guests and more importantly scare actors, while still providing a semi-normal Haunt experience. We're very far away from next Fall, over the course of the next twelve months the world could be a totally different place and at times talking about something like this can seem very trivial and meaningless given the current state of the world. However, as a theme park nerd, it's still a great way to blow off some steam and get excited about one day, hopefully, returning to another one of VA's parks soon.
The optimist in me likes to believe that there will be some sort of experimental vaccine or medicine out by the Fall of next year, but it's going to be a hard sell for many to feel comfortable in some of those warehouses where the houses are located. Maybe the park will only do outdoor scare zones? Could we see a focus on outdoor houses and maybe open Blackout with no actors? Everything is so far up in the air right now with the park not even open and no CF Haunts operating this year. The event has been notorious for it's use of indoor haunts dating back to the precursor, Paramount's FearFest in the early 2000's. The only outdoor locations that have been used to my knowledge are to the right of I-Street, White Water Canyon queue which has remained dormant since the Miner's Revenge fiasco in 2013, and the antique cars. The park has a lot of untapped potential in doing some form of outdoor haunts, like the Dinosaur's Alive trail, sections of of Soak City, or maybe even the Kingswood's amphitheater pavilion if the amount of company events is down next year.
As we've seen with Tollway Terror, the park isn' afraid to shy away from live actors and focus on automated scares. Maybe some of the pre-existing houses could contain socially distanced scare actors, the bare minimum staff to safely operate inside the warehouses, and replacing many of the scares with automated animatronics and projections? Many of the environments found in the newer houses already impose highly detailed, immersive environments that are just as creepy and tense without actors. It could be an easy band-aid to alleviate some of the fears of overcrowding in this cramped warehouses for guests and more importantly scare actors, while still providing a semi-normal Haunt experience. We're very far away from next Fall, over the course of the next twelve months the world could be a totally different place and at times talking about something like this can seem very trivial and meaningless given the current state of the world. However, as a theme park nerd, it's still a great way to blow off some steam and get excited about one day, hopefully, returning to another one of VA's parks soon.
