The Hard Truth about Alton Towers ScareFest 2024

In tonight's video, I've finally lost my rag at Alton Towers and the disappointing line-up, and ridiculous prices of Scarefest 2024. Not only that, I ponder the direction of the park as a whole...

I'm VERY aware, there might well be an addition to the line up, possibly something I discuss IN the video, however, this is based on the release AT have put out today... My points still stand.

Big love to everyone in Ents at Alton Towers - you are all magnificent.

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00:00 Titles
00:10 Introduction
00:33 Altonville Mine Tours is BACK
00:56 As is The Attic - Terror of the Towers
01:27 Daz Games is back... with.. AI?!
03:11 STOP making YouTubers and Streamers a 'thing' in Theme Parks
03:44 Sponsored by Haribo.. Again...
04:50 I'm not being negative.. honestly!
05:22 Alton Towers Dungeon was closed for this reason...
05:48 Amigos in the Afterlife ? WTF!! This is a Coco copycat!
07:10 COMPOUND !!!!
08:37 We need more cohesion with the mazes
09:04 Where's the Curse at Alton Manor Maze?
10:08 The cost of Alton Towers Scarefest 2024 is DISGUSTING.
12:35 Big love to the Alton Towers Entertainment team! x
13:53 What's going on with Hex at Alton Towers?
15:11 Stop cutting stuff back.. PLEASE!
16:13 Wrapping up!
18:53 GAME OVER

[KatjaSootyFrost]

Mixed opinions, some defending Alton Towers, some against: People like their favourite mazes to come back, and the Mine-tours are actually very popular, so I understand why they are keeping that. Amigos in the afterlife looks so, so bad, but I understand why they are doing it because they have no family mazes. Compound looks amazing and terrifying, they did a good job with that one, but we'll have to wait and see. It looks incredible from the trailer and theme though, I hope it's great. Curse of Alton Manor would have been amazing, but I guess they weren't ready to make it just yet as they are focusing on Compound. Lets hope we get it next year. The pricing is insane and unreasonable, but the only thing i'd say in their defence is that it must cost so much to theme everything (not that they don't have the money, they are well rich) and they only put it out for a month. But still, they should knock off at least £10. With Hex, I agree. Where is it?? One of my favourite rides, and they practically ghosted it. I know they've been busy with all Nemisis, but they promised, which is just wrong. I went the other day, all rides were shut at some point, and due to their new system, we spent an hour trying to get my mother a ride access pass because she needs one, and we wasted half our day on that and the fact that half way in a que we had to turn back because they had closed it. Disappointed. I love Alton Towers so much.

[ScaredyCatRidesRides]

Caveat that I'm not a scare person, but I agree with a lot of the views expressed here.

I do think that looking at the general direction of Towers and how bad things were, we're seeing massive steps in the right direction. Considering the amount of budget gone into Nemesis, the efforts around the park in terms of jetwashing, increased seating etc. then in my view the money has gone the right away.

What I really hate is YouTuber themed scare mazes and the spit in the face to passholders that is not getting the discount if you want to go at night.

Glad you mentioned Hex. I was literally thinking the other day that it's weird that it's all gone quiet.

It's a shame because they seemed to be going in the right direction and then August has hit and as far as I can see it's gone back downhill rapidly

[danjon]

So I'm glad someone is speaking out because for the past day I've been thinking about AT and Scarefest and like you, I have thoughts. I think for me its a mixed bag. In some ways its nice we're getting some new stuff but I just think they have had so much potential this year and they've really messed up. But here are my thoughts (which I'll break down attraction by attraction):

1) Altonville Mine Tours - I'll be honest I'm not surprised its back given its had it's refresh but I honestly do wonder the park's integrity given people are saying "its time to go". I mean the thing is everyone is truly fed up of this maze (added as well that there isn't a wild west area in the park so it makes no sense) but I just don't see its purpose there.

2) The Attic - Out of the two I'm glad its back but the thing is it needs to be the final year. But I can see why it has returned given there was a point where they were worried they would not have one of the new attractions up in time.

3) Daz Games - If anything I am also not surprised its back and to be honest there's a lot of potential but I am like you. Alton Towers has enough that it doesn't need brands so I don't think its needed.

4) Burial Grounds - Happy it's returning but why they didn't think to invest in more scare zones in the park given the success of Burial Grounds last year I am a bit perplexed (especially since a massive criticism of Scarefest has always been it's just in one area of the park).

5) Trick or Treat Town - It is what it is but for value for money I think they should have more than what you get.

Now for the real nitty gritty:

6) Amigo's of the Afterlife - All I will say is that AT has had since July to sort out this attraction and if anything I am shocked by the promo. The reason being it looks cheap, poor and like as if they think they can get away with any muck that parents will cash into. I also just am disappointed by the fact that there was so much potential for this attraction. I mean, my god they had a boat ride and where the logic is to not use it really baffles me. It's also weirdly not a space that has been home to a happy attraction so the fact they think it's going to be ok to do a cheap rip off Coco (which is essentially what it will be) doesn't fill me with any hope. I am truly disappointed because especially with the fact they made a big deal at the start of the year that they were going to close the Dungeons to bring in a brand new attraction, it is as if like no thought has gone in here and they've literally thought of a botched up job that they can do at the last minute.

7) Compound - So ok, this looks ok. But again in my opinion disappointed. For starters, there is too much of a good thing and the thing is it is like as if the park has realised that Nemesis has not been as popular as they wanted it to be so they've wanted to force it down your throat now because they're worried that people will focus on attractions such as Hyperia (and plus because in my humble opinion Nemesis has been the only thing that has got any positivity this year). So this is an issue. As mad as it sounds as well, this is exactly the same thing that we had with Project 42 and in my opinion its too much. Why couldn't we have something related to the Ministry of Joy if they wanted this dystopian fight for survival? Or better still kick the whole sci fi thing in the head and do a truly scary (but suitable for kids) eerie maze as a sequel to the Curse at Alton Manor given it is literally next door to the ride? Plus I honestly do worry that people will see that and think "Oh this is a cheaper version of Survival Games" at Fright Nights given the approach it is going with.

Some other key questions I genuinely have are this being:

1) How are they going to staff this? We know AT struggle with getting actors so are they going to find that their attractions will be sub par because they've taken on too much?

2) What will these attractions be like? Will it be quantity over quality?

3) Where has the creativity gone for the event? It just feels so poor?

4) What on earth is happening with Hex? Why is this not at the forefront of the event?

Honestly many people talk about Bianca's positivity but regarding an event (which she went on about working really hard on - I heard her once in an interview say they literally started talking about this year a week after the 2023 event finished) I am really, bitterly disappointed in her. I know it isn't just her responsibility but she said there was going to be a radical change and quite honestly what we have is botched up rubbish that sounds good on paper but is just awful. It's not ok and for the price people are expected to pay there should have been way more thought and care that went into this event but there simply hasn't. And for her to skimp on an event like this, an event that once many people looked to AT for that is morally incomprehensible.

I was planning to go to AT in mid September after a 5 year hiatus but for all of the issues that have occurred this year and the recent shocking line up I honestly am thinking twice of spending my money there.

[Its_Jenn_againn]

I wish they had more scare zones, or free flowing themed scare actors i e minitry of joy being all creepy near the smiler, wraiths near thirteen ect

I feel like it only feels like scarefest in certain bits of the park and would be good if it was spread about abit

[dean]

10 years of neglect can’t be fixed overnight… 😢

[ljmerrittproductions]

The pricing for scarefest is just disgusting. At least thorpe parks prices for their scare mazes are more reasonable. Also having a youtuber themed maze isnt really appropriate for alton towers and it is just pandering to chavs and feral kids. If alton was going to have an IP maze maybe an IP more sophisticated would be a better fit like inside number 9 or a classic gothic horror novel like Dracula or Frankenstein.

Heres what i would do if i was organising this event

1. Make the family attractions free. Alton could easily use the sponsorship money from haribo to make trick or treat town free. Plus, slightly lowering the prices of the scare mazes.

2. I would scrap altonvile mine tours and puts another new scare attraction in its place. I would also create a new version of terror of the towers because it wouldn’t be scarefest without that attraction.

3. Get rid of the day of the dead themed attraction as thats more appropriate for chessignton and have a curse of alton manor themed family attraction as i was hoping for a family attraction with a similar scare factor of darkest depths (2019 version)

[dominicjump]

“back by popular demand” “oOoKAYYY” LMAOOOO

[EmilyDoesAccessAllAreas]

So much inaccessibility for scarefest this year I’m gutted :( been looking forward to scarefest all year and I feel gutted :(

[TheSherwoodAdventures]

I was contemplating whether to go to scarefest or not this year and was waiting for the release of the mazes. I have to say seeing the line up this year I’ll be sticking to Thorpe Park Fright Nights

[TomWodD]

You here taken the words out of my mouth - so dissatisfied and will not be visiting scarefest this year 😢

[BigPappaEarl]

This is my application for the creative team at alton towers


1. Amigos? Fuck off. Alton ancestors family attraction in the dungeons

2. Daz Games? Fuck off. Phalanx attraction, You're part of the seek the truth group (not the stoners, the proper OG advertisement anarchist group) breaking into a top secret facility, Your band is used to gain the access code as your breakin caused the facility to go into lockdown.. or did it? Omg nemesis monster rah

3. Curse at alton manor scaremaze focused on the events of that night, And the whole demon monster thingie

4. Terror of the towers attic can return. Its fine.

5. Skin Snatchers? Fuck off. No new attraction as lets be honest two new scaremazes and a kids attraction would really be enough. However if they were to bring three scare mazes and a kids attraction. I'd love to see the altonville story carry on, but more focused on the original scare rooms/ Field of 1000 screams. Get rid of all the mine theming, Yet you'd still have plenty of props to use. Give it more of a farmyard vibe

[DracoMcGuyver]

Kip, Please share with us a video of your reactions to the scares this year.

[mikecass]

Budget cuts should mean admission price reduction, they need a new manager, thanks Kip 😁

[Cablesmith]

I loved the attic maze, that was probably my favourite one,

As for daz games, I don’t know who daz is or the YouTube side of it so I’m not judging based on that, I thought the game was quite good, but it’s a one and done. The major set back for me, they had the scare actors everywhere in there, but the game being a timed race, my focus was completely on winning the game I took absolutely no notice of the actors whatsoever, on top of the fast pace and everyone running wild, them actors may as well have not been there.
They basically made a scare maze, but created it in a way you forget it’s supposed to scare you 😃

[ThemeParkAdventureBros]

I heard passholder discount is only available during like before 4 oclock or something

[CSqrd]

I might of gone, but not for that price. Not when I have to find carers for the day as well as travel and food and all the other things everybody needs.

[karl]

How busy does scarefest get ? Just wondering if it's worth buying the fast passes ?

[liamcollinson]

I am not a fan of the daz games maze particularly when they could of used the themes of the rides instead hex or 13 would of made fantastic mazes

[Coaster_Crazy]

I’ve still no idea who Daz Games is lol !? 😂

[EmilyDoesAccessAllAreas]

Does daz still think his scare maze is a ride 🤣🤣