Fairground Frights Review (2026)

Finding information about the event was quite easy on both their website and social media platforms, but we did struggle to find exact times on the former, having to navigate their social media to ensure we had the correct opening times. There is plenty of information about parking on their website as well, and this was easy to find and quite affordable, although a tiny bit of a walk to the entrance of the park.

The fairground itself was exceedingly lively, and we love the energy the cast and staff brought to the entire park. Most of the queues were entertained by roaming actors, where we encountered a man wheeling around a coffin, a bloody girl and her baby, hillbillies, clowns, a ventriloquist and his morbid companion, and even a rat! Mazes were easily enjoyed due to the relatively small groups of approximately 7 people, and batches were well spaced in that we never ran into another group while inside.

We enjoyed the maze stories at this park, particularly the lore of “Splintered,” in which supposedly a worker, who once mysteriously disappeared following an accident beneath the park’s wooden rollercoaster, has returned from the dark to build a twisted workforce of ghouls aimed to attack and infect. There was a great industrial feel to this maze built beneath the bones of a coaster, and while most of the remaining set was hoarding, you still felt absorbed into the world around you. The front of the experience is merely the name of the haunt on some hoarding, and while simple, does fit in with the world of the maze.

“Inhumane,” which is set in an abandoned and smoke-filled laboratory, also has a relatively simple frontage, set within a shed with some graffiti. This feels less on brand with the space within, but once you’re inside the experience you are indeed truly immersed in the world of hybrid creatures who have rebelled against their creators in an Island of Doctor Moreau homage. Similarly we felt quite immersed in “South Beach Institute” – especially with its intricate outside decor which realistically alluded to the idea of us entering a facility. Themed as a psychiatric hospital and ward from the 1900s that was never fully abandoned, we felt like we had joined the residents in this unhinged place, walking its dimly lit corridors while trying to avoid the restless inhabitants.

The most immersive maze of the evening from start to finish was definitely the “Not So Fun Factory”, where a gang of sinister clowns has invaded the park’s traditional Fun Factory. The reskin of this existing structure is effective, setting the mood with its fun colours and lighting from the onset and keeping audiences fully engrossed in the chaotic world around them until exiting back into the central hub of the fairground.

The mazes vary drastically in regards to the level of scenic design and special effects. The park’s newest maze, “Splintered,” is the simplest in this regard, although it takes excellent advantage of setting itself beneath the tracks of a rollercoaster, which was a fun concept. In addition to the pre-existing structure of the rollercoaster, this maze also had a few hoardings with some biohazard and radioactivity signs, a bit of ambient lighting and the sounds of zombies grunting and wreaking destruction. We did love the concept and structure of this maze, and would hope that the park builds up the theming in future years.

“South Beach Institute” had a bit more design and effects, and we enjoyed how the maze breaks up guests into individual cells complete with blaring red lights and sirens. We also enjoyed the dark part of the maze with actors only showing themselves by briefly waving their torches in their faces, which was quite unsettling, as was one of the institute rooms with bare walls and only a single bed containing a most insane and dangerous inmate.

“Inhumane” guides guests through various vignettes featuring animal-human hybrids, with a much more effective use of scenic design and special effects. While the main setting is a mad scientist’s workshop featuring a variety of animal sounds, the experience ends in an outdoor jungle space with nature noises and plants streaming from the ceiling and touching our faces. This was definitely a well-thought out space in terms of design and lighting, and felt quite immersive as you transitioned from room to room.

“Not So Fun Factory” was a definite highlight of the night as we ventured through the reskin of the Fun Factory, a funhouse complete with interesting pathways, crazy colours and a birth canal with devilish clowns waiting for you on the other side. The chaotically energetic music and large amounts of fog aided in creating a unique environment that was both entertaining and a bit nerve-racking to traverse!

A large number of infected zombies attacked us in “Splintered” – a troupe of lively and physical creatures who were some of the most believable zombies we’ve seen this season. Their costumes fit the themes of the maze as back-from-the-dead workers of the park, and while these looks were slightly simple we think the make up work was really effective and tied it all together. We also met a fiendish group of characters in “South Beach Institute” – with crazed looking inmates and a ghoulish nurse.

Characters in “Inhumane” were the most unique of the night, with a variety of creative creatures including a crow, rat, pig, horse and even a gorilla. While it was too dark in places to see all these beings we definitely heard them, and from what we did see we thought the interpretation of these animal-human hybrids was really well done, especially with the facial features of the horse, the rat in its cage and a sinister pig butcher. These creatures were also really physical, especially the crow which leapt at us from above and the rat which swerved and swarmed and exited its cage to attack us.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the clown characters in the “Not So Fun Factory.” Almost every scream park has their own version of clowns, and we felt the ones at Fairground Frights were special, with dark and distorted facepaint, unsettling features and glowing eyes. There was a unique punk-like nature to their makeup and hair design, and the actors really settled into these parts and conveyed a psychotic realness that made this maze shine.

One of our favourite aspects of these mazes were the in-character actors who sometimes started off the experiences, especially a crazed nurse in “South Beach Institute” who welcomed us to the facility. These actors started the mazes strongly by keeping even the introductions on theme with the experience, allowing audiences to truly believe the world they were settling into.

What makes the mazes at Fairground Frights so scary is the liveliness of the actors, who seem to go all out as they inhabit their characters. While they won’t touch you, these characters aren’t afraid to get up close and personal, often cornering you, running at you, and even jumping at you from above. This makes the anticipation of their attacks even scarier, as you know there’s not much stopping them from attacking from wherever dark corner they may be residing in.

Due to the medium-sized batches of roughly seven people, and the fact that groups are spaced pretty far out, there’s a good guarantee that most will be scared, and while not everyone receives each and every scare, there’s still plenty to be had. Actors even returned for more than one scare, which was often the case in the “Not So Fun Factory,” where we were face to face with the same clown multiple times as they stalked us from numerous entrances and passageways.

The one area most of the mazes can improve upon are their finales. Most of the mazes end quite abruptly – you go from dark maze to the outside world quite swiftly in “South Beach Institute” and in “Inhumane” we supposed there was a finale with a gorilla from the sounds we were hearing but we never saw or experienced it. There was more of a concise finale in “Splintered” with a chainsaw carrying zombie chasing not only maze-participants out, but also running around the nearby areas of the fairground with frenzied zeal. All mazes are quite consistent with their scares, we just think a little more attention could be aimed at how some of the experiences end so that they feel like fully thought out adventures.

With a maze walkthrough time of 25 minutes and a ticket price of £28, this alone makes the event fairly good value, but there is so much more to Fairground Frights once you enter. Not only can you go through the mazes an unlimited number of times, but there are also rides galore, including two dark rides with a ton of actors inside, and amazing roaming actors who keep the energy up in the park all night. We loved that the roaming actors joined audiences on the rides and mazes – we had a bloody girl and her dolly walk through “Inhumane” with us and saw other actors joining groups on other rides and rollercoasters, which made the whole event feel inclusive and exceedingly entertaining. The event has an hourly performance from some of the roaming witches as well as a fun Grave Stage with a DJ which seemed to heat up as the night went on. We left before the evening was over and only found out the next day that there was a finale performance with the entire cast of the park dancing with audiences at the Grave Stage – we definitely feel like we missed out and will make sure to stay ‘til the end next season! Overall, the event is remarkably good value and definitely lives up to all the hype!