Planning a Halloween Event

It's almost the end of the summer, and that's exactly the time of year I usually start planning my events for the half term holidays (well, after a week off to recover first, of course).

So, I thought as Halloween events were in my head at the moment I'd share some of the things I've learnt over the years that I think about in my planning, so that they can hopefully be of use to other people too.

Some of this advice is specific to trail-type events, such as a ghost walk, but various bits of it can apply no matter what type of Halloween event you're running.

Sell the scare
If you make something sound spooky people will be much more likely turn up for it at Halloween than if you make it sound educational; the challenge from a museum point of view is to then wrap up some real meaning into the event when they’re there. Ghost stories and costumed people are always a win, so that’s a great starting point.

Repetition is key
Halloween events usually take a lot of planning. If you can run the same with many groups during the day or night with timed tickets, you'll get the best out of your planning efforts.

Insist people pre-book
It's always helpful to know how many people you’ve got coming. Also, get people to pay their admission/fee when they book, as they’re much more likely to remember to turn up if they’ve already paid for it.

Timing is Everything
If you're running an event with multiple start times, staggered entry or even just 'turn up whenever' then you'll need to think about timing. Especially at Halloween, when guests are often being told a spooky story, overlapping can really ruin the atmosphere. Timed tickets are by far the easiest to managed. Guess how long your visitors will be at each ‘stop’ on the tour, then add five minutes (or maybe ten if you expect your guides to talk more than they’re told to); that’s your minimum interval between tours. And remember, you’re better off leaving too much time than too little. Also be aware of bottleneck points; where people might unexpectedly stop or take longer than you’d expected (toilet stops, an interesting artefact they’ll stop and look at, a volunteer who likes to engage visitors in conversation, etc.) and try and plan to avoid them or to find a way of moving people on quickly.

Fun for all the family
Halloween events are usually by their nature scary, so expect parents to ask if the event is suitable for their children. You'll need to decide what the minimum appropriate age is for children, based on the event content... then expect people to bring younger children anyway and prepare your performers to warn parents with young children if something is likely to be unsuitable for them. Maybe even plan an alternate route to avoid the scariest parts.

Use your captive audience
Expect people to turn up early for their tour and have something to do with them whilst they’re waiting; children are happy with colouring sheets, parents might be happy with the tearoom and shop to occupy them! A storyteller could set a good appropriate atmosphere. Don't let people get bored before they even start! Use waiting guests as a captive audience and use the opportunity to make their experience even better.

Like giving candy to a baby
If you’re planning an event at which children are welcome then sweets are a great investment; people associate Halloween with trick or treat and it’s amazing what scares or problems children will overlook if you give them a lollipop.

Too popular for your own good
Have a plan to deal with oversubscription; it's a good idea to prepare your performers to expect a late finish. If you don't need the extra time then everyone will be pleased with the early night, and no-one gets grumpy because they're out later than they expected to be. This also gives you some leeway for running over because guests enjoyed themselves so much they lingered to make their night last longer.

Scope out your spaces
Practice in the spaces to see how many people comfortably fit in the areas you’re using and use this to set your group limits. If possible, do this at night because spaces feel different sizes in the dark.

Atmosphere is everything
Try and maintain a sense of atmosphere; you need enough light to appease your risk assessment but if you can keep lights off in adjoining corridors and rooms or paths it’ll make the place feel spooky without you having to spend a fortune on set dressing or expensive effects. Use waiting to your best effect too; during the tour, if you can keep people waiting for a few seconds before your actors appear you’ll build a sense of apprehension and tension. It’s a fine balance though – don’t keep people waiting so long they get bored! There are other ways to creep out your audience also; you’ll know your spaces better than anyone else, but if you can lock doors behind people or create footsteps, bangs and odd noises in the next room, they’ll all help with your atmosphere.

Give the crowd what they want
Parents are looking for Halloween experiences which they can take their kids to which are safe and don’t encourage them to be knocking on stranger’s doors asking for sweets, so if you can schedule something on the 31st which appeals to that then do, it’s likely to be a winner.

Quality is better than quantity
Adults expect a great deal more in terms of quality of special effects than children do, so if you’re running events for adults (or even older children) then try and keep your effects more to the psychological than the physical if you don’t have a large budget. Flickering candles and the shadows cast from pumpkins are some of the best set dressing you can get, and they’re really cheap. If you’re worried about fire, I can recommend the battery powered tealights and candles; they look just as good as the real thing but they last much longer, have no fire risk and no risk of injury to the public either. Equally, the quickest way to make an event look amateurish is with cheap 'gory' effects; if you can't do it well, don't do it all.


Hopefully that's been a useful set of thoughts on Halloween events! If you've got questions, please ask, and feel free to suggest other hints and tips if you have them. :)

A guide to trails

It came to my attention through the GEM email list that apparently there are a lot of people out there who want some advice, or maybe just examples of good practice, for writing trails for their venues. It also seemed that there was little training on the matter, and little out there to read about it.

This seems a great missed opportunity to me; are there any museums or natural sites or anything like that out there these days that don't have trails for children and/or adults?

I put together an awful lot of trails, and I've learnt a lot about them in the years I've been writing them. So, I thought I'd put together some free general advice about them, from my point of view. I'd also like to highlight some great examples that I've seen around and about, but I'll do that in some separate posts.

So, here goes. I hope it's helpful!

Trails: Some Hints and Tips

In no particular order...

Be clear about your aims
- Before you start writing anything, you should decide what you want to achieve with your trail. Are you trying to highlight certain items in your collection? Promote numeracy skills? Stimulate creativity? Teach people about the Victorians? You'll probably find that your trail manages to do more than one thing when you've finished, but it's important before you start anything that you know what one key thing you really want it to do.

Themes are fantastic
- No matter what you want your trail to do, coming up with ways to do it always seems easier if your trail has a theme. Sometimes, this might be governed by an event or exhibition that you have on at the time. Other times, you could pick a theme based on the time of the year (Christmas, Easter, Summer) or on something completely random (pirates, fairies, animals).

What media you will use?
-  Knowing how your final trail will be produced should influence your design. If it's going to be photocopied to be given out, then you don't really want it to be full of colourful pictures; they won't copy properly and it'll just look amateurish. Equally, if you're producing something that'll be professionally printed, you really want to make the most of colours and images. Think about size too; you'll need text to be readable, so if it's a small booklet that might limit the amount that you can write in it.

Think about your audience
- It's not enough to just say 'this is a trail for children'. Is it going to be done by one child at a time, or a family together? Is it going to be done by toddlers, or 5-7 year olds, or 12 year olds, or teenagers? Or all of the above? It's not just the content that you'll need to think of here, but also the presentation, and the tasks that you ask them to do. Very young children love to spot things and tick them off lists. Older children will quickly get bored of that, and probably need something a little more varied and goal-orientated to keep them interested.

How long will your trail be?
- Trails don't have to be long to be effective. Especially with younger children, four or five points might be enough for them to have had a good time, learnt something, and not yet got bored. Even with older children, nine or ten points is usually enough. Generally, the more you're asking visitors to do at each trail point, the less points you need on the trail. Think more about the overall time you're expecting visitors to spend on the trail.

Tasks and activities
- Spotting things and ticking them off and following clues from point to point doesn't have to be all there is to trails. Counting is a good step up from just noticing, and gets children to engage a little more deeply. You could ask questions about information on panels, or get children to draw pictures of things they see, either copying from real life or from their imagination. Multiple choice questions are always well received. Sometimes you can provide relevant activities, such as providing semaphore flags to have a go at sending a message with, or asking them to decode a message written in knots on a piece of string. Whatever your theme is, think creatively about associated tasks and activities for it.

How else can you engage your audience?
- It doesn't have to be all about the things you write on a sheet. There are some excellent 'explorer' trails I've seen where families get a whole bag full of exciting toys to play with. Use the binoculars to look at something, or the magnifying glass. Measure something with the ruler... and so on. But if you haven't got the budget for props, that doesn't mean you're limited to writing answers. Get visitors to touch things, to say what they can smell, or to close their eyes and listen.


I hope that's been a helpful overview! I'll pick out some good examples from places I've been and things I've done in other posts.