Fright Nights' History
Posted On: April 5, 2009

Kennywood's tradition of closing for each season was always Labor Day. The long time tradition all changed in 2002 when Kennywood introduced a Halloween event, called Phantom Fright Nights.

Phantom Fright Nights was supposed to happen in 2001, but for various reasons did not happen until a year later. The dates were set for Friday & Saturday Nights September 13th thru October 19th beginning at 6:00 to Midnight for $17.50 per person.

The first year of Phantom Fright Nights was really a test to see how popular this Halloween event would become. Kennywood set nine rides to be open, and had four haunted attractions. All the bright white lights that shined buildings, midways, rides, ECT?during the regular season would be re-lamped in Halloween colors such as orange and green for Phantom Fright Nights. Even the park?s fountains were dyed with color dye! The popularity of Phantom Fright Nights quickly grew, and the trend showed that Saturdays always were busier then Fridays.

As the crowds grew, Kennywood had to get three more rides ready. Those were the Bayern Kurve, Kangaroo and Merry-go-Round. Those back-up rides came in hand on the real busy nights, mostly on Saturday?s. The last two weekends of Phantom Fright Nights, the park even opened up the Exterminator and Pittfall so that the crowds could be spread out more. They even announced on there website they were going to have the Pittfall and Exterminator opened on the last two weekends of Phantom Fright Nights.

With the first year of success, of Phantom Fright Nights, Kennywood decided to go ahead and plan it again for 2003. In 2003 the nights, time, and price stayed the same. But the dates changed to September 12th thru October 25th. The four haunted attractions returned, and a fifth attraction called Fort Despair was new for Phantom Fright Nights that year. More fog was distributed to rides, and even more rides were totally re-lamped.

In 2004, the nights still remained the same, but the dates changed to October 1st thru 30th, the price was increased to $18.50, and the time changed to 7:00 to 1am. The season brought with it a new haunted midway called Gory Park, which was located in Lost Kennywood. Since half of Lost Kennywood was opened; The Wave Swinger and Exterminator were both opened. Once again the park looked excellent, and it was hard to find a single white light bulb in the park.

Now as we look back three years ago, and Phantom Fright Nights has drastically improved and has become one of the best haunted places to visit in the area. If you haven?t made it out to Kennywood?s Halloween event yet, we encourage you do so, because everything is totally different from the regular season. Even the park?s bathrooms have an eerie feel about them. It?s a HUGE haunted house that you don?t want to miss and it?s only at Kennywood!

We are now getting ready for another season of Phantom Fright Nights, and cannot wait to experience another awesome season as well as the new maze this year, Villa of the Vampires!