For years Six Flags has deemed Great Adventure's Fright Fest as, "The east coast's biggest Halloween bash." Being as big of a fan as I am of this once a year occasion, this past trip finally made me a believer. I attend Fright Fest at least twice a year, and each time is a new surprise for me. The park truly transforms from mid August to early October, and even from day to night! Year after year these festive few weeks in the fall seem to grow bigger and bigger, as they get more and more recognition.
    As was stated up there, I did recently get to attend Fright Fest, for my second and more or less final visit of the year. I got only one roller coaster ride, and that was during the day. I was lucky enough to catch Kingda Ka on a restart, and I jumped in line. Shortly after sundown, the park sort of does turn into a nightmare, as promised, only this nightmare isn't quite the one they planned to scare their guests with. The rumor spreading around the park was that some thirty-three thousand people had come to join the Halloween party along with us.
    For those who may not know too much about our favorite park's October transformation, there are five interactive walk throughs/rides. The returning hay ride, horror hollow, a frightening walk through in the woods near Northern Star Arena, the 3-d fun house, the New Nightmare walk through, and the other terror trails located throughout the park, such as the Lakefront Cemetery. By 6 O'clock, an hour before they even opened, every Halloween attraction had a line.

    Every one of these lines filled the queue area and beyond, and beyond, and beyond.

    Now, that many people in the Halloween attraction lines, one should think that the roller coaster lines were walk-ons, right? The Chiller line was filled to capacity. Kingda Ka opened the overflow queue. Batman: The Ride filled all of Gotham Park. Nitro had people oozing out the entrance. Medusa was broken down for the night, which certainly did not help the situation, and even Runaway Train was over an hour wait. There were so many people, that one ride took all night to board.
    How about the non roller coaster attractions? Surely they didn't have lines. Well, they probably would have, if they were even open that is! Houdini was closed, Space Shuttle was closed, all of the rides in the west near our beloved construction area were obviously closed, or missing in action. At least they got creative with Chaos, which of course was not running as well.

Nevertheless, we have numerous Halloween related shows.

    Thank God, we have numerous Halloween related shows, because if we didn't, I might have to start passing up trips to the park and see the local haunted thrills in my county, that are also insanely crowded. Among the missing though, were the nightly fireworks, which were sadly missed this season.
    The Nightmare was not what Six Flags intended it to be. People were not screaming at the hired scarers, they were screaming at the lines for each attraction.
    I love Fright Fest. On rainy cold October nights, and Sunday evenings, I love Fright Fest. You really cannot go and have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night, because everyone in the tri state area has the same idea. The people of the world love Halloween, this is not quite clear. We want our nightmares to come to life, as weird as that may seem. People always love a good scream, and Six Flags has offered this for fourteen consecutive years. But I fear the Nightmare is getting too big for the park to handle. On a high capacity night, those few attractions that the park has to offer just aren't enough. I know how many manned hours is takes to decorate the park, set up the rides, and deck out the coaster stations, and year after year I return to witness the scare first hand. However, the park must do something about the capacity problem, because it happens year after year. In the future it would greatly benefit to expand Fright Fest in order to fulfill the ever-growing demand to be scared to death. I have much faith in park management and planning, and hope this problem is attended to for the years to come.