NEWS: It's Hot Haunt Summer! Haunt and Halloween Convention Season

0:07 Coming up your weekly roundup of news from around the haunt industry. Welcome to the show. I'm Philip on the hn Show. We bring you the haunt news, information, and education you need to prepare for Halloween. On Tuesdays, we bring you a roundup of news from haunts worldwide. Read more about these stories and so much more in our free weekly newsletter. Subscribe at the link in the show notes, and as always for the news roundup, I'm passing it off to Darryl. The Halloween Haunt and Horror convention season is now underway. The coming months are seeing an explosion of conventions and mixers working with haunts to add programming and attractions to their events. From Halfway to Halloween events to Hot Haunt Summer, there are a myriad of events around the US to satisfy your early Halloween cravings. Just listen to some of our upcoming events including East Coast Haunters Convention from Oaks, Pennsylvania April twenty fourth through twenty seventh, Spooky Swap Meet in Los Angeles, California, April twenty fifth through twenty seventh, Wicked New England in Salem, Massachusetts on May third. Halfway to Halloween Expo from ann Arbor, Michigan on May tenth, shutter Con from east Ridge, Tennessee, May tenth and eleventh, scare Con from Birmingham, England on May twentieth and twenty first, Monster Palooza from Pasadena, California, May thirtieth through June first, and the Midwest Haunters Convention in Rosemont, Illinois June sixth through eighth. Transworld's East Coast Haunters Convention in Oaks, Pennsylvania

1:40 takes place next week, with the pre con hot tours on April twenty fourth and twenty fifth, and convention days on April twenty sixth and seven. Get a jump on the spooky season by shopping at nearly two hundred Halloween and Christmas vendors selling everything you need to haunt your home, from exclusive animatronics to masks, make up, fog and props. Attend daily seminars and events to learn, network, and have fun with fellow haunters and Halloween enthusiasts. Party the night away on Saturday, April twenty sixth with exclusive Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary Experience featuring the music, behind the scenes, surprises, food, and beverages, access to the crypt Haunted Attraction, and more.

2:22 Costumes are encouraged on both convention days, with a public costume contest happening on Saturday, April twenty seventh at eleven fifteen am. Before the main event. There will be two pre con Haunt tours. Thursday April twenty fourth, visit three terrifying Haunted attractions, Brighton Asylum, The Bleeding Grounds and Subculture. Friday April twenty fifth, visit Hershey Park Dark Nights and Fields of Screams. Costumes are encouraged on both convention days, with a public costume contest happening on Sunday, April twenty seventh at eleven fifteen am. Tickets are still available, starting at sixty dollars for Saturday show flor acas, fifty dollars for Sunday show floor access, and seventy five dollars for Saturday and Sunday show floor access. This year's Spooky Swap Meet takes place April twenty fifth through twenty seven at the Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles, California, featuring over sixty vendors selling a mix of used Halloween decor props and new merchandise. Spooky Swap Meat has delighted so Cal Halloween enthusiasts since it's starting in twenty twenty one. In addition to shopping, guests of all ages are encouraged to trigger treat at Heritage Square's seven Victoria era manners, whose exteriors have been decorated and spooked up for the weekend by a curated selection of professional and amateur Haunted attraction designers, including La Haunted hay Ride, A Mister Heath Slasher, Sanatorium Emporium, Stage, Freight Theater, Sam Haynes's Restless Farm and more. Guests are also invited to see live performances of The Little Ghoul's

3:55 Ethereal Duet The Satin Puppets. Tickets are currently entirely sold out for all event days. Universal Studios Park is coming to the United Kingdom in twenty thirty one. The newly announced Universal Studios UK is set to open in twenty thirty one. Located just thirty five minutes from London, this fifty billion pound economic impact project promises world class immersive lands and has the potential to draw eight and a half million visitors in its first year. What does Universal's new UK theme park reveal about global tourism strategy. Philip and Scott discussed Universal's diversification strategy in this week's episode of Green Tag. With inbound tourism dropping in the US, tourism centric areas like Orlando are facing headwinds. What if you could bet on both outcomes, That is, whether inbound tourism resumes or doesn't, you win either way. Diversification reduces your total risk, and here we see Universal diversifying across demographics and markets. Epic Universe solidifies Universal's market share in Orlando, shoring up an area where they already have a massive investment. Well, Universal UK will be there to absorb any inbound travel that doesn't resume. Universal is positioning itself to mitigate any losses the US suffers from lack of inbound travel. Meanwhile, Universal is also testing kid friendly Universal Kids and adult horror Horror Unleashed, both markets that aren't as impacted by inbound tourism. Universal could deploy kids resorts or haunt pop

5:28 ups to multiple domestic markets and soak up local traffic will waiting for travel to recover. The newly announced UK theme park isn't just another expansion. It's a strategic geographic diversification that mitigates risk and we can all learn from it. The Nocturne Theater presents a Little Shop of Horrors. Meyer to Meyer Entertainment brings a Little Shop of Horrors to the nocturn Theater in Glendale, California, select dates now through May eighteenth. Feed the need for musical hilarity with this delicious sci fi mensh up about a man eating plant. Meyer to Meyer Entertainment, known for creating immercei of live entertainment experiences, showcases their strength and creature design with their stunning and creepy Audrey plants. Our theater in the round strips away the distance between performer and audience, making every moment immediate and raw, says Justin P. Meyer, director of Little Shop of Horrors and co founder of the Noctrine.

6:23 Tickets are on sale now, ranging from twenty seven to fifty to seventy three to fifty. After thirty six years, Reaper's Realm from ham and Indiana is closing their doors. They are holding an online liquidation sale with over seven hundred items including industrial generators, animatronics, to walth and craftsmen tools mannequins, props, costumes, makeup, chairs, ahearse and more. Bids are currently being accepted through May twenty second at five thirty pm. Auction pickups are scheduled for April twenty third and twenty fourth. Shipping is unavailable unless specifically noted in the item listing. Field of Screams in Mountville, Pennsylvania is hosting their first annual Halfway to Halloween Haunt and Music Fest on Saturday, May third. Enjoy a full day of music, bruise and booze with five bands playing from one thirty pm to ten pm, food trucks, games, and an entrance into the Den of Darkness Haunted House and fright Mare Asylum Haunted Hospital. Tickets are on sale now, starting at thirty five dollars for general admission and fifty dollars for VIP.

7:29 Both ticket types allow for two walkthroughs of each haunted house. The Scare Factor has unveiled a brand new feature for horror fans, thrill seekers, and lovers of the wonderfully weird spooky spots. This new directory features macawb attractions across the US where fans of the spooky season can fined year round Helloween stores horror themed bars and lounges, creepy and unique gift shops, escape rooms with horror themes, mystical museums and oddities collections, and much more. While the direct is still in its early stages, the team is already planning to add thousands of listings to help plan your next eerie adventure, whether you're planning a haunted road trip, hunting for a horror themed gift, or just looking for a place to sip coffee under the gaze of a possessed doll.

8:15 Spooky spots as you covered. Pickle Nose Helloween House Crater passes away home. Haunter Dale Parker from Costa Messa, California, passed away suddenly on April ninth, after sustaining serious injuries from falling off the ladder two days prior. Since nineteen ninety five, Parker and his family staged an elaborate display of their yard each Halloween season, the Pickle Nose Helloween House. Each year, as many as three thousand people attended to view the family skeletons, witches, ghosts, and ghouls, including the titular Pickle Nose, a small gremlin who had taught children via a hidden speaker from his coffin. Dale put so much love into her Halloween decorations, aiming to bring spooky laughs to the community, said Dale's wife Colleen Harper in a Facebook post announcing this sad news. Aside from his family, this community benefited and laughed from his pickle Nose attraction every year. Dale is survived by his wife and two sons.

9:12 We here at the Haunted Attraction Network send our deepest sympathies to his family and friends during this difficult time. And that's all for the news this week. Today's episode was produced by me Philip Hernandez, with reporting by Daryl Plunky, post production by David Swope. This hant News Update is a production of the Haunted Attraction Network and you can sign up to our weekly newsletter at Hantattraction Network dot com. Support for this episode comes from Gantum Lighting and Controls. Until next time, Haunters Stay Scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network production.