For those who love Halloween, this time of year is dreadful. Sure while the rest of the world is enjoying the start of Baseball season, or bathing suit season or (for most) theme park season, the Halloween lovers are lamenting for the time when the air turns crisp, the pumpkins come out and the screams begin. They long for Haunt Season. Busch Gardens Tampa, home of the annual scream fest known as Howl O Scream gave a little taste this past weekend to those attending Haunt Con.
Haunt Con is an annual event that emphasizes on the behind the "screams" aspect of the haunt industry. The event includes a huge sales floor with everything that one may need to create a haunted event from animatronics, to costumes and props to even make up. There are also the classes in which guests were able to learn how to make their own props and effects and even take the finished product home. However what seemed to be the highlight of the event were the tours and the chance to rub elbows with the people that make two of the countries biggest events possible.
Universal Orlando held a Q&A session on site with several props from their event Halloween Horror Nights, complete with a few clues to this year's theme. However the favorite seemed to be Busch Gardens Tampa who not only had a Q&A but also had two of it's houses from 2009 open, Nightshade Toy Factory and Reconstruction:The Dr. Is In.
Most tours this time of year would include just a simple lights on tour and demonstrations of where the scares would come from. This tour, however, was live and working as several of the scareactors from last year's house returned. The houses were filled with fog, music and scares as guests of the tour got their last look at these two houses. Creative director, Scott Swenson, confirmed that these two houses would be undergoing massive transformations as they moved locations in order to make way for construction on the new attraction coming to BGT in 2011.
Guests were also treated to a Q&A session with Swenson who went through the whole process of how Howl O Scream was made, from inception to completion. For more information about Haunt Con, be sure to check out their official website. The event will most likely not be in Orlando next year. Also make sure to check out the Howl O Scream website, which Swenson confirmed to several in attendance that the event will be operating for 18 nights this year beginning in late September.
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