Knott's Taste of Fall-O-Ween 2020: Park Ambiance
Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA
We come upon our second and final in-depth look at Knott’s Taste of Fall-O-Ween event today! Coming off the heels of our general review and closer tour of the Camp Snoopy Trick-or-Treat Trail, street characters, little park bonuses, and the Into the Fog art show, today’s post will focus on the general decor and atmosphere of the Ghost Town, Boardwalk, and Fiesta Village themed lands. Really, though, this is mostly an excuse to share eye candy and showcase the fantastic way in which Knott’s has decorated the park for Halloween.
A lot of this will feel familiar to Knott’s Scary Farm fans—right down to the fog wafting through the late afternoon and evening air. From jack-o-lanterns galore to skeletal observers to plenty and plenty of cheesecloth, the park looks much like it would for Haunt. And though there aren’t any monsters to add some thrills and chills, the environment alone is charming and nostalgic enough to evoke warm, wistful feelings. Lets take a tour around the park, shall we?
Boardwalk
I mentioned on Sunday’s recap that the Boardwalk is probably the least overtly Halloween themed area of the park, and this is true. But there are parcels of this beachside area that showcase heavy doses of spook. The fountain at Charleston Circle is one of them. Fall foliage seems to waterfall toward the ground, draping over a rich harvest of pumpkins and oversized pumpkin sculptures. Further around, those orange gourds fill the planters and seat wall areas as well, doing their best to provide some autumn jazz to an area that is inherently themed to summer.
The Charleston Circle fountain is once again a magnificent canvas for all things autumn.
A glimpse of Bear-Y Tales 4D development.
The pathway is still blocked off at the edge of Charleston Circle leading to the new Bear-y Tales ride, but a new sign and water tank has appeared atop the lower level queue covering. Across the way, a DJ booth has been set up above the Boardwalk Surf Shop to allow some ambient music to fill the area in this section of the park. The tunes are classic Halloween ballads and jams, and they add to the mid-century throwback ambiance.
The Boardwalk is one of two places featuring a live DJ.
The Boardwalk is beautiful at night—both because of its own normal theming and from the lit up decorations. In particular, though it is not running, HangTime retains its Halloween light show, playing a remix of Jelly of the Month Club’s “Welcome to the Carnival” at regular intervals. Sure, there are no clowns roaming and traumatizing guests, but every little reminder of Haunt still helps, and the visual display synched to the music is still pretty cool to watch.
Nightime on not-Carnevil.
That lighting package tho…
Sharp-eyed guests should also pay attention to the Sky Cabin at night. They mind find that this venerable attraction has taken on a bit of a monstrous look—in that it has some red, creepy “eyes” gazing down upon the park. It’s some fun anthropomorphism!
Fiesta Village
Over on the north side of the park, Fiesta Village brings a touch of Día de los Muertos back to this former scare zone. New this year are several towering and colorful skeletons arranged in energetic and almost joyful poses. They don’t exactly look like the viral Halloween decoration from Home Depot, but they definitely lend some dynamicism to the scenery.
The giant skeletons have come out to play in Fiesta Village!
Similar to the Boardwak area, Fiesta Village features a DJ at the Fiesta Village stage. Similar to during the Taste of Knott’s, the music here is more of a Latin flavor, and though it’s set up on the stage, the actual dance floor is home to tables and chairs for dining. As such, its more ambiance music than dance music.
A DJ at the Fiesta Village stage—and some fun decorations!
Normal-sized skeletons enjoying the season.
The rest of the decorations features elements that are recognizable to plenty of Knott’s veteran guests, with more human-sized sugar skull figures and plenty of pumpkins spread out around the various planters in the area.
Also continuing off of the Taste of Knott’s is the little marketplace over at the plaza in front of La Revolución. Manned by local small businesses, they offer more craft memorabilia for guests to take in and purchase.
A small marketplace area allows for some souvenirs. Ghost Town has some stalls too along the path from the Schoolhouse to Calico Park.
Sugarskull jazz hands!!!
Ghost Town
Of course, where Knott’s Halloween spirit really shines is in Ghost Town. The heart of where the Halloween Haunt began, Ghost Town is a natural fit with all that is supernatural and spooky and laden with age and history. And for the Taste of Hall-O-Ween, this little town of Calico has been decked out in all of its Scary Farm finest. Orange bunting, cheese cloth galore, skeletal figures on the building porches above, pumpkins and skeleton creatures all form a macabre roofscape.
The Gold Trails Hotel is decked out in Halloween decorations (including some new props) and is one of two locations where undead Citizens of Calico come out to interact with guests below as they walk by.
Meanwhile, on the pedestrian level, plenty of harvest display can be seen, with pumpkins and fall foliage and warm splashes of red, orange, and yellow present throughout Ghost Town. The planters make for great backdrops for photos, and there are surprises within many of the building facades as well. Many contain little details, props, decorations, and odes to pieces of Knott’s Scary Farm and Ghost Town Alive!, reviving the old Halloween tradition of finding the unexpected inside the various addresses in Calico.
The afternoon sun beckons the fog to come.
Looking toward the Log Ride.
In Calico Park, guests can take in the general atmosphere while sitting down for a meal. There are no shows here this time around. That belongs at the Calico Mine Stage, which, once again, is lettered with picnic tables and benches providing plenty of socially distanced eating spots.
The Calico Saloon is the other location for the upper porch barkers.
At night, Ghost Town really comes alive (or dead?), as the eerie, Haunt-reminiscent lights come on and bathe this historic town with eerie illumination and the energy of the supernatural. The jack-o-lantern photo op on the stage at Calico Park looks a little more sinister at night. Meanwhile, the Boot Hill Cemetery hides its own fanciful secrets. And though Scary Farm seems to be held at bay this year, signs of the veil that curses Calico with Sarah Marshall’s damning spells still waft through from the fog that creeps in.
Don’t let the clean nature of these after hour photos deceive you. Up until park closing, that unmistakable autumn fog billows through Ghost Town. And sure, it never reaches the density of Fog Alley during the Halloween Haunt (probably for the better during a pandemic that sensitizes all things respiratory), but it still evokes those chilling memories! You can almost hear the shrieks in the air…
This is a great photo op for guest at night!
The colors at Boot Hill Cemetery at night are wild and fantastic!
Not so foggy, but moody, mysterious, and beautiful all the same!
The one thing that I and many other people do wish is that the park would stay open a little later so that guests can enjoy more of the nighttime ambiance. I imagine the nine hour operating day is probably tied to being able to maintain a single shift for employees instead of having to stagger two overlapping shifts and thus increasing expenditures on a year when the park (like so many others) has already lost so much revenue from the Coronavirus closures. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t dream of wandering the parks later to really soak in that Halloween atmosphere!
To that end, if the biggest complain about an event is that there isn’t enough of it, it’s probably doing something right. And in the case of the Taste of Fall-O-Ween, Knott’s has definitely struck gold in creating a setting that oozes the park’s decades-long embrace of the Halloween season. Reviews have been universally positive from opening weekend, demonstrating that Knott’s really has scratched that itch that so many Halloween fans have for quality seasonal entertainment during this drastically curtailed haunt season.
If this was normal times, we’d enthusiastically encourage everyone to visit Knott’s Taste of Fall-O-Ween to get their own slice of Haunt. But given that the Coronavirus pandemic still continues, we do have to temper our excitement by encouraging everyone to make their own comfort evaluation for how willing they are to venture out into a public gathering area. Though Knott’s has done a pretty good job setting up the event to allow for social distancing and following of COVID-19 guidelines, visiting the park still assumes greater risk of exposure to the virus than staying at home.
That said, if this does interest you, and you feel comfortable with the parameters and procedures set in place, you should book your ticket sooner than later. In a span of only one day, not only have all the Saturday slots already sold out, but some of the Sunday slots this month have also reached their daily reduced capacity ticket allotment. It’s a pretty good bet that this event will sell out—possibly each and every day of its Friday through Sunday run, now through November 1st.
EDIT: Literally in the time since this update was published this morning, all dates have sold out, and Knott’s has added Thursday dates to the schedule starting Oct. 8!
Bravo, Knott’s on a job well done. And thank you for keep Halloween season alive!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
