Los Angeles Haunted Hayride
Halloween 2024: Monáe Manor, Mini Escape Games, and Madame Aurora’s Seance Theatre are new this year. In addition to the Haunted Hayride, returning attractions include Hellbilly Halloween, Trick or Treat, Zombie Splat, and the Monte Revolta Show.
Dates & Hours: 7pm to 10:30pm on weeknights and Sundays; 7pm to midnight on most Fridays and most Saturdays. Check the Hayride Calendar.
Tickets: Prices start at $39.99 for Hayride-only tickets purchased in advance, with higher prices on peak nights and for General Admission (access to all attractions) and VIP admission. Tickets are sold with Hayride entry times in fifteen-minute intervals.
Location:Â Griffith Park – 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: LosAngelesHauntedHayride.com.
Quick Take: During its glory days, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride ranked among the best Halloween events in Los Angeles – a half-hour journey through the sinister surroundings of the abandoned Griffith Park Old Zoo. Since moving to a different section of Griffith Park, the Hayride feels truncated, and the surreal ambiance and creature design has diminished. What once felt like a nightmare version of Cirque du Soleil is now a more conventional scare attraction.
Los Angeles Haunted Hayride Archive: Check out news, reviews & videos about Los Angeles Haunted Hayride…
Los Angeles Haunted Hayride History
The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride made its debut in 2009 at 26800 West Mulholland Highway, Calabasas, CA 91302. That Halloween, it featured the Hayride itself and a small carnival area with booths and games.
For 2010, the Hayride moved to Griffith Park’s Old Zoo, where it remained much the same while taking advantage of the new territory, including abandoned cages. A second attraction was added, the In-Between Dark Maze. There were also fairground type rides and mobile food trucks. The Haunted Hayride remained much the same for the next few years, though the carnival element was reduced: the Purgatory scare zone, with its house of mirrors and scary-go-round, remained, but the traditional fairgrounds-style rides were removed.
For Halloween 2014, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride completely revamped the ride itself with a new theme, Echoes from the Rift. The event also expanded with two new walk-through attractions,  House of the Horsemen and Seven Sins Sideshow. The apocalyptic theme explored what happens when the gates of Hell yawn open to disgorge a horde of demons upon the Earth.
In 2019, Â Ten Thirty One Productions sold the Haunted Hayride to 13th Floor Entertainment, which introduced a new theme: Midnight Falls, a town where every day was Halloween. Midnight Falls would become a recurring theme in subsequent years.
For Halloween 2020, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride revamped its presentation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of a hayride, the event offered a haunted drive-through experience, set in Midnight Falls (a town introduced the previous year, where every day is Halloween). The location was changed from Griffith Park’s Old Zoo to the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park. Instead of riding in trailer, visitors drove their own cars through haunted scenery, winding up at a drive-in show, combining live actors and video projected on a 40-foot screen. Isolating the audience in their own cars is designed to provide safety from infection during the Covid-19 pandemic. Actors and other staff wore masks – not only of the Halloween variety but also for protective purposes.
The following year, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride returned to Griffith Park, though the actual location was shifted, allowing for new terrain to haunt. The Midnight Falls theme was back, with the revolting Monte Revolta having elected himself mayor of the city. The Midnight Mortuary and Trick or Treat walk-throughs were resurrected, and newcomer Dead End Diner was added to the mix.
Los Angeles Haunted Hayride Interviews: Learn more about the Haunted Hayride…
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