Halloween 2018 Podcast: Los Angeles Haunted Hayride Interview

Hollywood Gothique’s annual Halloween podcast features an interview with Melissa Carbone, creator of the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, which is currently celebrating its tenth season in the Griffith Park Old Zoo.

Watch a video version of the Halloween podcast above, or listen to the audio version below.

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The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride was an immediate hit when it made its debut in 2009, partly because of the novelty of a Halloween hayride in Los Angeles, but mostly because it was so good. Since then, the event has grown and improved, adding mazes and other attractions, while becoming ever more elaborate and emphasizing an aesthetic sensibility not seen in other Halloween Haunts.

Carbone, who conceived of the L.A. Haunted Hayride while working at Clear Channel Entertainment, achieved such success with the attraction that she was able to start her own company Ten Thirty One Productions, which also produces the off-season event The Great Horror Camp Out and occasionally screens films at the Great Horror Movie Night. Carbone recently sold the Haunted Hayride to THIRTEENTH FLOOR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, which owns several large-scale haunts around the country.

Hollywood Gothique asked Carbone about staying competitive in the Los Angeles Halloween market, keeping the attraction fresh from year to year, and resurrecting some of the haunts greatest hits for Halloween 2018. We even dared raise the question of Halloween 2011’s Ghost Ship, which sank after a single season. But we started off with the obvious question: Did she ever expect the Haunted Hayride would last ten years?