Halloween Ghouls Night Out festival sells-out for the first time, despite COVID-19 changes

Historical homes became haunted houses. The homes were decorated spider web displays, corpses and had pumpkin carvings sitting on the front porches. Guests enjoyed taking selfies in front of the spooky displays. **PHOTO: FLOYD BLACK HORSE.**

Costumed volunteers provided a variety of entertainment for ticket holders, part of interactive scenes and static displays.

At this year’s Ghouls Night Out, an annual Halloween event held at Heritage Park, friends and family were treated to singing and dancing shows.

Among scenes of haunted houses and pumpkin patches throughout the park, event organizer Kelly Kneeland says it’s her second year being part of the program.

“This year we have a puppet show, featuring characters from Tim Burton’s Nightmare before Christmas, that’s a personal favorite.”

Watch the video from Ghouls Night Out

Due to COVID-19, this year’s event moved from hands-on activities such as craft-making, to a performance-based program. The program took out touch-points such as crafts but continued them with craft-kits you can take home.

The park offered a safe, low-cost experience for guests. The biggest change to this year’s program was timed-ticket entry. Guests selected the time they would arrive, which helped the park manage the crowds coming through.

Barb Munro, Heritage Park Historical Village marketing and communications manager, helped with crowd control.

“We’ve asked people to purchase a set-time when they come in, and that way we can have a nice staggered entry and have lots of social distancing throughout the park.”

Now in its 10th year, Ghouls Night continues to offer a great deal on its admission prices. Adult pricing was $11.95, and the guests came out dressed as their favourite superheroes and supervillains.

Nicole Ingwersen and family are dressed as the Incredibles. They say, the Beetlejuice Talent Show was some of the shows they were able to see. **PHOTO: FLOYD BLACK HORSE.**

Nicole Ingwersen, attended the evening with her family dressed as the Incredibles, “Invisi-girl, Elasti-girl and Jack-Jack.”

“There’s been pretty fun shows for the kids. We watched the Beetlejuice Talent show. The girls really enjoyed that and they were dancing.”

In spite of COVID-19 changes, plenty of people still came out. Munro said it was a testament to how guests want to spend Halloween.

“We have sold out all four nights of this event, we have never done that before.”