Front Yard Display VS. Backyard ?

1949 Views 17 Replies 14 Participants Last post by Kenpilot, Jun 13, 2009

Kenpilot

Discussion Starter · #1 · Jun 7, 2009

I was thinking of moving my Halloween Display/ Walk Thru from my usual front yard location to my backyard. I was wondering if any of you have done such a thing and the results from it. My display is mostly just a walk through- up my driveway, down my long sidewalk and up a couple stairs to the front porch. I believe there are pluses and minuses to both and Im going to list them and if you have anything to add please do so. Thanks!

Front Yard:
+'s 1) Yard/House looks really cool
2) More viewers/passer bys that don't want to actually walk through the
display can just look and admire from the street.
3) Parents can wait on the street and be able to watch their kids as
they walk up to the house.
4) Setup was basically "built" for my front yard layout with Cemetary
gates/columns at the beginning of my driveway along with cemetary
fence bordering my entire front yard

-'s 1) I have so much stuff I wait until the last couple days before
Halloween rushing putting everything up in fear of theft/vandalism.
2) No way of "crowd control" as a lot of people like to hang out in the
driveway
3). No Seperate Enter/Exit Point. Everybody enters and exits at the
beginning of my driveway thru the Cemetary Gates.

Back Yard:
+'s 1). More Room and wide open for possible better layed out for display
2). Darker/ Scarier
3). Seperate Enter/Exit places.
4). Better "crowd control" by only allowing a number of guests in at a
time at timed intervals.
5). I could take my time setting stuff up, out of the public's view and
have no fear of theft/vandalsim (fenced in backyard).

-'s 1). Front yard would pretty much be bare and boring with no
decorations except Halloween countdown sign/display.
2). I would have to make more signs for Enter/Exit areas
3) I would have to "advertise" somehow that the Display is in the
Backyard since everybody is used to seeing everything out days
leading up to Halloween
4) Fewer Passer bys as everything will be in the back yard.
5) Parents won't be able to watch their kids unless they want to go
thru the walk thru themselves. Which I've learned almost half of
the people that come to see everything don't really ever enter my
display, they just admire it from the street.

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UnOrthodOx

· Super Moderator

Joined Apr 24, 2007

·

6,565 Posts

#9 · Jun 8, 2009

Wish I had an acre....

Anyhow.

We started with the front yard only, and have gradually added to where last year, the haunt extended from the front, all the way around the back.

So, while I have never been front vs back, one or the other, I can comment on what moving haunt elements to the back has done.

In the days leading up to Halloween, we got a lot of looky-loos parading through the yard. Seeing stuff in the back, they'ld all come stand at the fence and gaze over, or, if one of the kids had left the gate open, they'ld just come on in...

This was mildly annoying, but since it was all neighborhood folk, and I was off of work and able to keep an eye, it wasn't soo bad. I need a privacy fence...

Yes, more parents now come through. Very few wait out front anymore. (very few kids under 8 WILL come through on their own anyway).

I didn't bother with signs. The enterance is obvious, the exit not so much. No one went 'the wrong way'.

The whole one way path, enterance on through exit, not bottlenecking at the enter/exit combined made the flow much smoother, which was very important for the numbers we pull.

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