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Outside of Rides

In addition to an impressive slate of spacious scare zones and state-of-the-art coasters, Howl-O-Scream offers a special food menu at the Día Los Muertos, including tacos, tamales, and spicy watermelon margaritas. Also, overlapping with the park’s daytime Bier Fest, select offerings will be on the menu for every night at the event, catering to the park chain’s love for craft brews. Needless to say, there’s no lacking of liquid courage for more tedious guests. 

The event’s long-running show Fiends will be returning, even if looking slightly different than previous years. The show, which has gained a cult following in recent years, will be moving from Stanleyville Theater to the Festival Field Stage, right by Iron Gwazi. Guests can reserve VIP seating for this show and parties are socially distanced for the duration of the performance. 

Howl-O-Scream promotional image of Fiends show
Image: Busch Gardens

There’s something for everyone at this event, and all for a price tag of just around 30 bucks, about a third of the price of a single-night ticket at Halloween Horror Nights.

Howl-O-Scream is a premier Halloween event. I can say that because I’m a recent convert, a former Halloween Horror Nights purist who didn’t dare waste my October nights at any competing event. But Howl-O-Scream offers something different, something that’s in no way scrappy, but has a homegrown feel that contributes to both the charms and scares of the event. You won’t find the same iconoclast characters or billion-dollar intellectual properties at Howl-O-Scream—no Stranger Things or American Horror Story mazes—but there’s something pure to that, something reminiscent of the old Halloween Horror Nights, the one that opted for original storytelling over elaborate advertisements (see: 2019’s Zombieland Double Tap scare zone, which acted more as a Truman Show-esque product placement than a worthwhile contributor to the event).

And so 2020 became the year that Busch Gardens got to host the #1 Halloween event in the state, proving to Floridians—and itself—that Howl-O-Scream is so much more than a backup plan. It’s an equally-worthy, equally-chilling, equally-iconic event, and one that deserves our time and attention in 2020 and beyond.

 
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