12 November 2024
If you’re looking for a Halloween event in Wales, then look no further than Cardiff Halloween Festival, the ultimate destination for daytime, twilight or night time entertainment. Back bigger and better, you can expect scare mazes, shows, pumpkin picking and so much more in their large event arena. Hosting 3 different events for different audiences across a range of dates in October, they had plenty to keep you feeling festive during Halloween 2024.
Cardiff Halloween Festival only opened for its second year of operation in 2024, with 2023 being a success, it only made sense for them to expand with a bigger and better offering. During the day, they have a range of family entertainment between 9:30am – 5pm, including a scavenger hunt, circus workshop skills, games, shows and even a spooky corn maze. There is so much to do for the family, and costing only £6.50 per person, it is fantastic for value for money and as a day out activity. During twilight festival which runs from 5:30pm -10pm on selected dates, things get a little more spooky in the night. Whilst a similar offering, it provides an additional fire show and with it being dark, everything looks very different.
The main event we’re focusing on is the Scare Fest event which is for guests aged 14+. This runs on selected nights when the twilight festival isn’t on, which was for 4 nights towards the end of Halloween. Offering more intense and mature activities, such as 3 scare mazes, a fire show plus a bar and plenty of food; there’s even a Funfair plus lots of other entertainment. For £15 per adult which gives you access to the main event arena and one time entry through the scare mazes, it’s again fantastic value for money.
Our First thoughts…
As a new event for us, we were very much looking forward to attending. Located in Cardiff, it has a great location and audience which does not have anything similar to this, giving them a huge market to work with and expand upon. Getting to the event is best by car, however due to them being on a field and a storm hitting just before our visit at the end of October, the car park was wrecked. Thankfully the event quickly turned that around with a park and ride service, which worked pretty flawlessly given the no preparation time.
Arriving into the event, you check in with your ticket and get given a wristband or ticket for the mazes. You are then free to explore at your own leisure. Advised it does get busy, it was recommended to do the mazes earlier than later to avoid the queues. It’s good to note that you only go through in small groups of around 8 guests on average, with decent gaps in-between. The three mazes were completely different which were Veiled Coven, Circus of Screams and Breakout.
We enjoyed the impressive fire show at the event which for a small event like this, really does compete with other larger events that contain fire. With a fire performer on stage at the same time, let’s say you cannot be disappointed with the amount of fire being blasted at you. Outside of this show which was on hourly, they had a live band that performed some funky hits. They had axe throwing, a small Funfair and a teepee with singing pumpkins in. They also had an unexpectedly funny attraction called Skellywood, which was skeletons hiding within a corn maze but, they were themed to different films. Each film had a new name with puns involved such as ET – bone home and Indiana Bones.
Below we go into more depth about the attractions, giving you our thoughts and rating. Our ratings are completely separate and allows us to give a fair unbiased rating of each attraction. To know more about the ratings before you read below, do click here!
The Veiled Coven – Scare Score: 53%
Theming 45% | Storyline 65% | Screams 40% | Laughs 50% | Actors 65%
The Veiled Coven is a witch themed maze which was hosted outdoors in the corn maize. Haunting in the dark and going quite far out from the event grounds, you will notice quickly about the haunting quietness that surrounded you. Using eerie sounds effects to boost the scariness and the rustling of the corn, it’s surprising how simple yet effective it is. With a number of set scenes throughout telling a story and guided by a small torch given to you at the start, it really is a haunted walk in the fields. With a few jump out moments and lasting around 10 minutes, the witches did impress.
Outbreak – Scare Score: 46%
Theming 35% | Storyline 60% | Screams 45% | Laughs 35% | Actors 55%
Outbreak is the zombie themed maze here and these creepy beings are ready to get you. With a fantastic introduction from a military personnel, you then are trusted to enter the streets and make your way to safety. You come across a number of dark corridors and ghastly zombies which gave more spooks than scares. Nevertheless, it was a fun maze which has a promising future if it had more actors and theming inside, but good to note its audio usage and cool introduction scene.
Circus of Screams – Scare Score: 75%
Theming 70% | Storyline 40% | Screams 85% | Laughs 90% | Actors 90%
The brand new maze for 2024 is circus of screams which starts you off in a themed queue line inside a circus tent and props. You then head inside and meet the leader, which excitedly presents you to the freaks inside. The twisted troupe provided plenty of screams as you walk through the winding corridors and illusions within, with a great lighting package and a banging house style audio soundtrack to compliment. This was very well themed for an event of this nature and was decent in length and pure enjoyment quality. The ending was beyond clever and how they managed to pull this off without spoiling, is just brilliant to witness. An outstanding yet clever clown house that we thoroughly enjoyed.
Overall, Cardiff Halloween Festivals Scare Fest is one to watch for 2025 and beyond as for 2024, it provided everything you would want for a superb value. From a fire show we won’t be forgetting anytime soon, to three very different mazes, to lots of other cool entertainment, we just found ourselves constantly amazed at how a second year event has pulled this off. With a daylight festival for kids also on, the team work hard to provide a quality event and we hope they expand their offerings and offer more nights for future years.
A huge thank you to the team who allowed us to visit the event in 2024. They provided us with 3 maze entry tickets, an exclusive opportunity to get some pictures inside and a few snaps for a video. This was in return for our thoughts and content we produce.
The event has plenty to work on and plenty of space to grow and expand, so we look forward to seeing what they do for 2025. Keep an eye on their socials to know first on what to expect soon. In the meantime, check out video out to see a little more inside the scare fest event.
Attractions 70%
Entertainment 85%
Atmosphere 75%
value for money 85%
uniqueness 75%
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