What is the Haunted Adventure?
The Haunted Adventure is a Halloween event held in Burbank. It used to be at the Stough Nature Center when i first started in 2007, but has since moved over to the Starlight Bowl in 2012. With the move from the nature center to the Starlight Bowl, it also dramatically increased the size of each of our sections.
It's put on by the Stough Nature Center which is a part of the City of Burbank. It's overseen by staff from the nature center with help of teen and adult volunteers. Each section of the maze is run by an adult. Teens are assigned to each section as actors. Decorations and scripting can be come quite intensive and involved. While a general over-arching theme is given, it's up to each section to come up with their own ideas that fit the theme.
The maze is a guided tour from start to finish with tour leaders assigned to each group. The tour lasts roughly around 20 minutes. The event is only held for two nights usually two weeks before Halloween, but we manager to average arond 700 visitors.
For those too young or frightened to enter the maze, there are games and refreshments near where you purchase the tickets.
I've been volunteering every year since 2007 and my daughter Madison has been volunteering since 2009.
It's been a lot of fun so far and gives me many chances to try build things. I've build a phone booth and a fake oven in the past. This year we are stepping it up and building trees, oversized mushrooms and oversized flowers. This year has definitely been a lot of fun making stuff.
My daughter and I take the a large outside area each year that has a full size concession stand and several seats and tables (for the times when the concession stand is actually being used).
We like to change things up each year and try to come up with themes and scripts that are creepy and scary. I tend to come up with stuff that is intended to be creepy or disturbing, instead of trying to rely so much on people yelling "boo!". I think it add a nice little change. I'm also very focused on providing the right lighting and music for my section.
Check out the gallery below to see the area that my daughter and I decorate each year: