Thread: HELP: Carnival of Terror

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Hey guys,

I joined the forum to see if I could get some help with an event that my school is throwing. I attend a university in Norht Miami, FL. I work doing event programming for the student body. Every year we usually put together a haunted house utilizing one of the facilities on campus. However, this year that facility isn't available do to construction. So we're gunna be forced to use our outdoor field. This was a problem at first until we decided to turn the event into a "haunted" carnival.

After a few brainstorming sessions later, my team and myself aren't able to figure out how we can put together a successful event. We'd like to make this event a "Carnival of Terror" but need help getting ideas for the event overall.

We know that we'd like to have a maze, which would be the main attraction, as well as a few game booths, some concessions and a few characters walking around interacting with the attendees. However, the hard part is the fact that we don't have a very LARGE budget to pull off this event.

Are there any suggestions as to what we can do to put together this maze?

Try having local cash(car) wash fundraisers and look for local business sponsors by advertisments posted at the event. This should help get some of the items needed to put you a little closer to where you want to be with your budget. Best of luck to ya!

uummmmm not sure how this wold fit in..but how about one booth would be an old-fashioned "freak show" where you would have a few freaky/scary things...a few live actors that are freaks and some weird things in jars and maybe some assorted body parts.

ALSO: how about a witch( or grim reaper) fortune teller. People could pay a buck and pic a card. cards would all be some kind of death card.

Thanks for the responses.

@shadowsofhorror: We definitely are interested in having some live actors present for the carnival. I think the creepy jars are an awesome idea!

But what we really need help with is ideas for the construction of the maze. How we can errect walls since its out on an open field.

Can you dig holes in the field? If so some simple wood uprights and black plastic could form walls. I would be nervous about the plastic getting torn with out any backing support though.

Do you have any woods on your campus? I live near the college I graduated from and we had a lot of wooded are that the university owned right behind the dorms. I think you could do a really cool haunt in the woods with out much expense. Liability of someone getting lost or hurt might be an issue but IDK.

I would suggest you get hay bay for people to sit on and corn stalks to display with scary pumpkin here and there. Evil clowns, freak show people, life-size skeletons here and elsewhere, carmeal apples, Vampire's bite (kissing booth) scary cake walks, hot apple cider or hot chocolate and maybe coffee too. scary sound effect for the maze you are planning to do. You guys can sell glow lites, popcorn. dang! ran out of ideas now.

you need to get an evil clown or an evil jester to be like the ringmaster and kind of bring people to the attraction, and maybe like a small gypsy camp and bring in the wolfman on them like the new wolfman movie does, that would be awesome

Do you have access to portable pop-up tents, like the ones people use at the beach? The athletic dept. or boosters may have some, or they can be rented. Put several together and use 6 mil black polyethylene sheeting to create halls and rooms. I use the black poly in my basement and it blocks out almost all the ambient light. I put a dot room in part of my walk-through - use the search here at HF to find info on a dot room. Use compact fluorescent blacklight bulbs in clamp-on shop lights to illuminate the dot room. Cheap colored bulbs to light the rest. Then use your imagination to create the gags in the maze - I did scary clowns last year and scared the CRAP out of 40 teenagers.

I would suggest you get on craigs list and look under the FREE stuff. If you had any way to use pallets to construct your walls those things are always listed. it's funny the stuff people just give away., pianos, boats, chairs. You can incorporate all kinds of stuff into creepy carnival props. Good Luck

Is there an architectural studies department at your school. Maybe they could jump in and help build some temporary structures.