Looking for some of the best family-friendly Halloween events in Sussex? Shriek Week at Drusillas Park (22nd-30th October) is the perfect place to bring the kids for a fun-filled, ooky spooky day out in Sussex!
Drusillas Park, located between Brighton and Eastbourne, always conjures up oodles of eerie excitement and seasonal surprises to keep little horrors half term happy, at their annual Shriek Week.
Visitors can enjoy a few family-friendly live action thrills (with just the right amount of thrill for all ages).
Haunted Heights – Drusillas’ haunted house experience – invites families into the witch’s lair in the Park’s Events Arena. Claw your way through cobwebs, living paintings and spooky theming to meet their two resident witches, Hocus and Pocus. But don’t worry, their witches know when to turn down the ‘scary dial’ and are just as happy giving out high fives and cackling jokes as they are jumping out of dark corners, if your little ones are nervous.
Mummy Mayhem – the Park’s spooky takeover of the Mungo’s Adventure Maze – always proves to be a big hit. Visitors are guided round the maze by one of the Park’s ‘Mummy handlers’ on a mummy hunting adventure, and visitors can indicate to the team how much scare should put into their individual experience on the day.
Sugar Skull Witch – She floats, she glides, she slides and sneers, she welcomes the dead back from hundreds of years, keep out of her way and stay well ahead, if you wish to escape the Land of the Dead! A wickedly stylish live action Sugar Skull Witch will be making appearances gracefully and ghoulishly gliding around the Park and posing for photos on 25th-27th October.
Assistant Operations Manager, Roger O’Leary spoke about the team’s ‘scare system’: “We’ve spent years getting the level of ‘scary’ right for each of our visitors during Shriek Week, as there is no ‘one size fits all’ experience. Children, regardless of their age, have varying levels of sensitivity to these sorts of things, and so we do everything we can to be mindful of that. Between our team, we have lots of secret signals we will give to each other to indicate whether the spooky elements need to be toned down or ramped up so the experience fits the individual.”
Devilish Décor – For those that don’t fancy a live action thrill, the whole Park will be draped in devilish décor, with pumpkins, maize, skeletons, spiders, and haybales, and endless photo opportunities for that perfect spooky selfie. They also offer seasonal face painting and tattoos to give your little monsters wicked makeovers, and ghoulish goodies including creepy cakes, biscuits, doughnuts and seasonal Starbucks.
Creepy Crawly Encounters – The visitor attraction also invites curious kids to scuttle along to the Discovery Centre for some creepy crawly encounters to meet some amazing mini monsters. Drusillas’ education hub will be swarming with all manner of weird insects including cockroaches, millipedes, mealworms, locusts, and giant Malaysian leaf insects! Members of the Zoo team will be available to answer everyone’s burning bug questions.
Roger continued: “We take great care in planning events that are suitable for little ones, but still exciting for the rest of the family. Over the years we’ve perfected that family-friendly Halloween ambiance and invite visitors of all ages to enjoy a truly frightful visit! Well you know what they say… if you’ve got it, haunt it!”
Full details on Drusillas’ Halloween Shriek Week can be found on their website https://www.drusillas.co.uk/halloween-activities-in-east-sussex. Located just off the A27 in Alfriston, Drusillas Park is open daily from 10am. For more information please telephone 01323 874100 or visit www.drusillas.co.uk
