OMG OMG OMG! It’s time! Yes, it’s time to begin tracking the macabre machinations churning to life at Knott’s Berry Farm in preparation for the most awesome time of year! Welcome one and all to the first Knott’s Scary Farm Haunt Tracker of 2017.
Of course, things begin slow on the farm. Almost imperceptibly at first. Knott’s is a stickler for the Day Show/Night Show mentality during the haunt season. This means essentially that the spooky scary stuff is held backstage for as long as possible until they can no longer contain the evil.
Once it really starts, we see cobwebs (aka scare cloth) stretched in angles and corners in Ghost Town and Calico Square. We begin to see construction popping up “On Stage” and creepy accoutrements slithering into place. That, my fiends, is when the fun truly begins.
Let’s start off with a pleasant summer stroll through the park shall we?
Ghost Town
We begin inside the oldest area of the park, Ghost Town. Here the endlessly entertaining Ghost Town Alive immersive experience keeps the town humming with vibrant life and hijinks.
Wandering over into White Water Wilderness we see that folks are happy to hop on a raft and ride the rapids.
Red Barn or ?
Last year the new, although blandly executed, Red Barn maze attempted grindhouse terror featuring cannibalistic Calico residents run amok. So far, in this area of the park we see no sign of said cannibals or even a single straw of hay. Will the maze be returning? Not sure. So far as we know they are constructing the terrifying banquet hall maze!
Wandering over to the Calico Railroad we hopped aboard for a ride and, well, those bandits showed up again. Thankfully they were still going through the manual on how to rob things
Boardwalk
Heading over to the Boardwalk area of the park we see nearly half of this section of the park behind walls. There is plenty coming our way here though. We can see the cool new Boardwalk BBQ building coming along with a cool new sign.
A peek behind the walls shows a ton of work that has been done.
Of course it remains to be seen what will happen in the former place of Boomerang. This is a pretty big swath of land back here. Plenty of room for something cool.
Oh but what of Haunt? Yes. There is something percolating back here.
First off, the question remains, will Dead of Winter return to the Boardwalk Ballroom? Who knows? No windows to peep through anyway so…
Xcelerator Location
As we pass the structure that housed last years Best Maze winner, Shadowlands, we see that things are being cleared out for construction. It is a really safe bet that this maze will return seeing as how Knott’s keeps mazes for at least three years. Not to mention this was one of last years breakout hits.
Camp Snoopy
Meandering over to the kid-centric corner of the park we breeze through Camp Snoopy to see what can be seen. Last year Knott’s debuted the amazing new scare zone, The Hollow, that was heavy on scarecrows, pumpkins, and New England scares. As with the rest of the park there isn’t really too much to see just yet.
We CAN see some work happening in the usual place near the Camp Snoopy Theatre. Nothing much to see, aside from fresh construction of walls.
Gunslinger’s Grave or?
Finally we stop at the area under Silver Bullet. Is it even called Reflection Lake anymore? Anyway, we see here that nothing has changed thus far. Will Gunslinger’s Grave be returning for a final year or will something else take this spot?
To close, we pass by backstage and see things coming to life. No real indication just yet of what we are in for but you never know.
Thus comes to a close our first Knott’s Scary Farm Haunt Tracker of 2017. We will do these updates as news comes in, with more frequency as the season really ramps up.
If you haven’t made plans yet, you need to make sure to come by and see us at Midsummer Scream on July 29th and 30th at Booth 131. We have some very special things to announce as we start the Halloween season off with a bang.
Oh and heads up: We already have Halloween planned for you.
See you in the fog.
