Clacton Pier’s nine-day Halloween Festival got off to a spooktacular start.
Families flocked to the attraction over the weekend and made the most of all the fun on offer across the site.
Both Saturday and Sunday were busy with the weather staying mainly dry throughout.
The expanded Creepy Crawly Cabin, home to a host of fascinating critters including scorpions and spiders along with African land snails, thorny stick insects, giant millipedes and hissing cockroaches, proved popular with young and old alike.
Youngsters got into creative carving at the pumpkin patch and children were treated to Sidney’s Halloween SPOOKtacular live stage show in the marquee outside the Boardwalk Bar and Grill. Pierella, the attraction’s resident witch, read scary tales.
Others faced their fears by braving the terrors that await inside Misery Mansion whilst Ghost Train:4D drew plenty of attention.
Harry Peek, Clacton Pier’s general manager was delighted with the interest generated by the festival.
“We have a great product and the reception has been very good so far, no doubt helped by the decent weather,” he added.
“We are hoping that it stays that way and we get a much-needed and welcome boost from a busy half term.
“Families have taken advantage of early online booking offers – one of which is still available and will save them money. People are definitely looking for good value for money and our out of season festivals and events are an extremely important part of our programme.”
The best deal is the Frightfully Fun Band which includes an entry to Misery Mansion, Creepy-Crawly Cabin, Pumpkin Patch, and Ghost Train: 4D as well as unlimited rides (excluding Go Karts and Big Wheel), 18 holes of Adventure Golf and five video games credits.
The band is priced £19.99 if bought online in advance or £24.99 on the day of the visit.
The festival runs to Sunday November 2 with almost 2,000 pumpkins having been ordered to cope with demand.
Halloween attractions are open from 11am to 5pm daily and full details can be found at www.clactonpier.co.uk
