Thread: Halloween in OZ!

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G'Day my fellow haunters,

Over the past couple of years I have been really getting into the halloween spirit. Here is Australia Halloween is not celebrated anywhere near as it is in the US.

In 2006 I thought I would create a haunted house maze for staff to have a halloween haunted house party in one of the meeting rooms at work (A large sport and leisure complex in Western Australia). It was made from about 30 wooden pallets to make walls to form a small maze and also a graveyard scene.

In 2007 I decided to make it a bigger event by creating a larger Maze and running it over 2 nights (First night was Staff Family and Friends. The second night was for all our Gym members. We ended up getting around 120 people that night. This maze took me 2 days to construct with 90 Pallets to create the maze effect. with wobble floors, Science Lab, Torture chamber, Morgue, Operating Theatre and Graveyard. All in our larger function room.

2008 has been backed by the new manager of Arena and we are going commercial and opening it up to the public and getting vendors in such as Candy Floss, Snow Ice Cones, Temporary Tattoos, Glow Stick Jewlery and hope to get some rides such as inflatables and maybe a bucking bull ride.

I hoep we make some money otherwise the finger will be pointing at me and probably will not get the approval to reinvent the house again next year and make it even bigger.

This is my 3rd go in getting this post out so I will end it here and post some photos up when I work out how to do it. Hope you guys come back for a look at what I have created so far and What I intend to do for this years Haunt.

Cheers Mate

Steve

It's a shame Halloween isn't as big of a holiday over there, it's so much fun! It is nice to hear that someone is getting others excited about it. Your maze sounds great! For a few years there was an artist who did mazes out at Burningman that were really big, elaborate or had artwork in it. It was really neat but a Halloween version sounds even better.
I would make sure to use all the free online advertising you can if you are expected to make money. It sounds like that is adding a bit of pressure but that can be motivating as well. I remember there being a little bit of a Goth scene in Perth and I bet they would be interested in going too. Spooky kids like spooky stuff!
Can't wait to see what you create!

Here is a link to the 2 Photbucket slide shows of what I did last year.

1st The End Product



2nd Behind the Scenes look at some of the props created

Well "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" Mate and I'm sure, we all here hope the best with this and
I must say thee is a wealth of information and Inspiration here, just for the asking

Steve I wish you the best of luck........its a lot to take on when trying to promote something that big in an area where Halloween is not celebrated as it is here in the states. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun tho based on what you have done in the past. When people come & they have a good time & start talking ....thats how these big affairs get started.

Sounds like you are full of good ideas but you found the right bunch here on this forum to not only cheer you on but also to offer ideas to help you along! Please post pictures & let us know what you are doing!

Good Luck in having a Successful turnout!

Muffy

PS....Well duh!! I just found the slide shows after posting this..........nice work guy!!!

Your work is great! I myself am a haunted maze builder for over 7 years.
Don't let anyone discourage you or try to talk you out of it. All it takes is a spark of imagination to get the Halloween spirit. The more people that know about this, the better it's chances of survival.

Please don't hesitate to contact me, would love to compare haunt notes with you. Maybe I can help you with brainstorming some concepts.

Thanks Haunty.

I think the hardest part about this year is that it's not really about the party, but the haunted house is the main attraction. Over the past 2 years I have created a halloween party to attach to the house. So people would walk through the haunted maze then at the other end would be the party.

When I talk to people they all think it is the same as previous years. I tell them that there is a party but only on the last night and not every night.

They look at me a bit puzzled. As we have not got anyone here that does a haunted house like this people can not get there head around that you come to the haunted house and pay to go through the attraction.

Because of this we have organised some vendors to come along for free to try and keep the crowds entertained before and after the walk through. We are trying to setup a carnival type atmosphere with Candy Candy, Ice Snow Cones, Hot Food, Glow stick Jewerly Retailer, Temporary Tattooes, and hope to have some rides like an inflatable bouncy castle or Bucking Bull ride.

We are running a competition to try and get some more exposure throughout the schools by running a Design and Create a Prop Competition. The winning Class will have the honor of getting the prop placed in the Haunted House for the rest of the public to view, Free entry to the house and a Halloween Show Bag. this way we can get maybe get some good props made for us plus it spreads the word through the schools and hopefully we can get the paper involved as it's a school class winning a competition and might get a story run (Hopefully) If a community school is involved it might be a better chance in getting something in the paper instead of forking out megga dollars for advertising.

Steve