29 October 2024
Awarded our Best Halloween event for 2023, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach presents Fairground Frights. The third year of fear is unleashed once more on the East Coast, with unlimited rides, unlimited mazes and unlimited scares guaranteed. With a new year, comes a new maze and more roaming actors, but not forgetting many returning favourites.
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is a seasonal amusement park found on the Great Yarmouth seafront. They have decades of history as an amusement park, with a fun old school wooden rollercoaster, ghost train and other Funfair thrills. Their season as a normal amusement park runs between April and October each year, with special events such as fireworks and Halloween thrown in for good measure.
Fairground Frights has grown in popularity ever year and since launching in 2022, we’ve seen the event get bigger and better every time. The event now runs for 6 total nights in October, that being 1 extra night compared to last year. The event runs between 5:30pm to 9pm on these nights, with a special ticket required for this event. Tickets costs £24 but you do get access to all mazes and rides for this time, so you can choose how to spend your evening.
This year sees Spooky Snails and Scary Tales brought back on the snails ride, The Haunted House and Not So Fun Factory attractions return with actors inside. You have the new maze for 2023 returning being South Beach Institute and new for 2024 is Inhumane! You can’t forget the large roaming team and performers roaming the park, plus Club Tropico providing lively house beats.
@thrillnation Fairground Frights at @Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is awesome! 🎢😈 #gypb #greatyarmouth #pleasurebeach #amusementpark #fairgroundfrights #halloween #october #event ♬ The Black Pearl (Body Bangers Remix) - Scotty
Our First thoughts…
We couldn’t of been more excited to return to this fantastic event. Winning our award last year and providing one of the best Halloween nights out in the UK, it had big shoes to fill for 2024. As we arrived, the queues had already built to get the wristbands but the pleasure beach had this organized and under control, which was fab to see. Whilst waiting for the event to begin, some of the roaming street team made their way through the queue, from dolls in a trolley, to chainsaw maniacs and even a camp prisoner. Everybody was attacked and nobody was left unnoticed.
Walking into the event with the large crowds, it’s interesting to see how everybody disperses pretty equally to different attractions. Whilst lively, nothing had a long queue, which for an event of this size it allows you to fit everything and more in your 3.5 hours with them.
Club Tropico kept the funky beats at their plague stage, which keeps a lively atmosphere and the roaming street team kept the energy high in the event; regardless if you’re in a queue, a ride or just walking about, they would be there. Riding the bumping cars, in the mazes, it’s completely unhinged.
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!
South Beach Institute – Scare Score: 78%
Theming 70% | Storyline 85% | Screams 75% | Laughs 70% | Actors 90%
As a returning maze, this attraction provides a great level of scares and show scenes to keep the right length of haunt. Entering into the doctors waiting room, you are presented with a haunting introduction. The attraction is nutty from the off set, before being placed in a confined solo box and then entering the institute to face the horrors within. Everybody knew where to be, with it hard to pinpoint where they were in the dark or when hidden around the corner. Let alone the effects which always catch us off guard. As we said last year, a maze of this calibre is perfect for an event like Fairground Frights, with many enjoying and left screaming out the exit.
Inhumane – Scare Score: 60%
Theming 60% | Storyline 55% | Screams 60% | Laughs 55% | Actors 70%
The new maze for 2024 and this takes you into a slaughterhouse style attraction. Filled with dark scenes, smoked out rooms and disturbing creatures, they have no problem in creating that horrifying setting. They provided personal interaction, classic jump scares and little story scenes throughout. Whilst not the highest quality, the atmosphere and style of the attraction was all there, with hidden creatures and new sets we’ve not seen this event yet do. Everybody gave it their all and whilst not our highest rate maze, it was good to see how the event is progressing and developing. It won’t be long before we see something insanely scary.
Snails and scary trails – Scare Score: 65%
Theming 75% | Storyline 70% | Screams 25% | Laughs 70% | Actors 85%
This attraction is an overlay of the snails ride that takes you through fairytale scenes on a slow snail adventure. With the spooky overlay, this sees them adding some special effects and actors onto the ride itself, giving you short, sharp scenes of when fairytales go wrong. We came across pirates, snow white and even the queen of hearts as they hid within the set scenes already built for the ride. It’s a fun addition to the Fairground Frights lineup and something you don’t see at many theme parks or Funfair alike.
Not so Fun Factory – Scare Score: 70%
Theming 55% | Storyline 55% | Screams 70% | Laughs 85% | Actors 85%
Another one of the returning attractions, that takes over the fun house. The clowns take over once more with a slightly more structured route and attraction. Whilst unchanged as such, the clowns are still freaky, wild and love to get close to you as you try and navigate the route to freedom. These clowns do roam wild and they will not hesitate to linger, lurk and lunge from all angles. They managed to get us so good towards the end of the maze, using the props and route that is set out to their advantage. Whilst not the best themed or hanging a compelling storyline, it makes up with a cast of energy and creepiness, and scares upon scares.
The Haunted Hotel – Scare Score: 57%
Theming 75% | Storyline 55% | Screams 35% | Laughs 55% | Actors 65%
This is a returning favourite and with similar nature to the snails, this takes their classic ghost train and adds actors into the ride. This is visible from the moment go, with you taking a seat and sitting right next the reception desk as they stare right into your soul before you travel in. Again, it just adds another layer to what they have and makes it fun. Whilst not terrifying, you do get some close encounters and some unexpected loud bangs as you travel past those who haunt their walls.
Overall, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach puts on an event that’s alive with frights. For a small amusement park on the east coast, they really do provide an atmosphere level that is incomparable to many large scale events. The entertainment is fun and funky, the roaming street team is just insane and you can’t complain at all with the mazes or ride lineup. We just can’t get enough of this event.
A huge thank you to the team for working with us during our visit, providing us exclusive filming permission and free entry into the event. Make sure you check out our TikTok to see us loving the event and with a super cool outro location. This event guarantees a good night out, whether that’s from the thrills on the rides or the chills inside the mazes or the vibes from the atmosphere, it blends superbly well.
Attractions 80%
Entertainment 90%
Atmosphere 95%
value for money 90%
uniqueness 85%
PHOTO GALLERY
COMPANY WEBSITE
book a visit
BOOK DIRECTLY FOR THE BEST PRICES
More REVIEWS & news
Psycho Path 2026 Review
INTRODUCTION Recognised as the North East's largest scream park, Psycho Path returns for the 2026...
Plopsaland Deutschland 2026 Review
Rich in history and home to world-renowned roller coasters, Plopsaland Deutschland is one of...
Energylandia 2026 Review
With summer drawing to a close, there was really only one destination on our minds to catch the...
Thrillnation.net is your ultimate resource for unbiased reviews of thrilling attractions across Europe. You'll find us covering theme parks, escape rooms, water parks and more.
Follow Us
For all of our latest news and up-to-date goings on, make sure you follow us on our social media channels!
WORK WITH US
We can offer a variety of different services from sponsored reviews to video content creation. Get in touch to discuss working with us.
Website lovingly created and managed by INOV8 Marketing