Less than two months remain until our next event, on Saturday, October 27th. The Frolic’s Haunt volunteer crew has been busy! Unfortunately this year some of our major volunteers have moved, gotten new jobs, or otherwise been unable to continue with their volunteering with Frolic’s. That being the case, we’ve decided to shift our format this year and try something new that requires fewer year-round volunteers. Instead of having the single walk-through Haunt as we did last year, this year we’re trying a community fair-style format, where we’ll have various activity booths and areas set up. Actors will be moving around at large on the property, interacting with visitors. We feel this format has a number of advantages over the previous walk-through Haunt:
1) It provides a range of activities, some of which are scary and some of which aren’t, so everyone – including children or adults who aren’t interested in doing a walk-through Haunt – will be able to find something they like.
2) Last year there was a lineup for the Haunt; this year, as it will be an open format where people can move around at their own pace, we don’t anticipate any significant lineups for any one activity.
3) Last year we were planning specifically for the 6-to-14-years-old age range. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of disabled adults* that showed up, but as we had to keep the fear level suitable for children, we were afraid maybe we weren’t able to be scary enough for some of our adult visitors. With this new format, we’ll make 5 PM to 7 PM our “low scare” hours (props will require a button press by a visitor to be triggered, and actors know not to jump scare anyone). 7 PM to 9 PM will be our “high scare” hours (props will be enabled with sound or motion sensing, so they may go off when a visitor moves nearby; actors are allowed to scare; costumes may become more frightening). This enables our visitors to control the intensity of their experience by selecting which time frame they’ll attend.
4) We think the overall experience should last longer for our guests this year, as there will be a variety of activities to spend time on, rather than just the single walk-through experience and then it’s done.
Registration will open up in late September for disabled guests and families/groups with disabled members. Registration will open in mid-October for abled guests and families/groups without anyone with a disability. (While we’re more than happy for non-disabled folks to attend, we’re primarily a disability-access initiative, so priority for spots goes to the disability community. That’s why registration opens first for those who need it more.)
* As a disabled person myself, and like many other disabled people, I prefer Identity-First Language (“disabled person”) as versus Person-First (“person with disabilities”). If you prefer Person-First, feel free to mentally substitute. 