Fright Nights officially returns to Thorpe Park this October, marking a milestone 25th anniversary for Europe’s top theme park scare event
The season kicked off in spectacular fashion on Thursday 1st October, with an exclusive launch event bringing together invited guests, including famous faces from the worlds of entertainment, sport and social media, to experience the fear-fuelled line-up of spine-chilling scare mazes, including the all-new Tenement, nail-biting scare zones, show-stopping live entertainment and iconic rides in the dark for the first time in 2026.
The star-studded line up included Chris Hughes and partner Jojo Siwa, boyband December 10, grime artist Lethal Bizzle, Princess Andre and mum Katie Price, newly-coupled-up Ekin Su, TV personality Dan Osborne, Love Island star Casey O’Gorman, presenter and author Katie Piper, and footballer Emile Smith Rowe, alongside many other popular names. The celebrities all braved the park’s darkest corners, screamed their way through Tenement, experienced iconic rides in the dark like the UK’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster Hyperia, and lit up The Launch Pad for the night’s opening show.
At the heart of this year’s celebrations is the public debut of Tenement, Thorpe Park’s first-ever fully immersive, pitch-black scare maze. Tenement challenges guests to navigate an abandoned tenement with only a failing shared handheld light to guide them. Inside, the power is dead, the tenants have vanished, and something is getting closer.
As guests venture deeper, every flicker of light could reveal something lurking nearby, and they’ll need to find their way through a world of reflections, illusions and sensory scares, all while being hunted and disorientated by whatever is hiding in the darkness.
Ruth Storey, Vice President at Thorpe Park, said: “What a night to kick off 25 years of Fright Nights. Seeing our guests brave Tenement in near total darkness for the first time and hearing their reactions the moment they stepped out the other side is exactly the energy we want for this milestone year.
“It’s one thing to build a fully immersive, near darkness scare maze, it’s another to watch it genuinely get the better of people who thought they’d seen it all. Add in our other fearsome Fright Nights mazes, scare zones and entertainment, plus epic rides in the dark, and it was the perfect way to launch what’s going to be our biggest and boldest Fright Nights yet.”
Tenement joins four returning fan-favourite mazes, giving 2026 its biggest maze line-up in years:
- Trailers returns to the SuperSpark Cinema with a brand-new screening, Blood Red Roses, where iconic horror nightmares are reimagined into something far more sinister.
- Stitches reopens the doors of Howell’s Toy Emporium, where new toys are waiting to make unsuspecting visitors part of the creepy collection.
- Survival Games throws guests into a labyrinth of shifting pathways, where assassins and brutal obstacles await around every corner as they attempt to navigate and find a way out alive.
- DeadBeat pulls partygoers into an underground nightclub, where the beat never let’s go.
Beyond the mazes, Purgatory Town returns as Thorpe Park’s first speak-to-scare zone, with new inhabitants sharing their stories with guests. Lucifer’s Lair will see guests face the Lord of Darkness himself, while The Crows are lurking in the dark ready to spread their silent terror. Creature Campus: Reunion Reckoning returns with a high-energy live show, and new for 2026, the Rebel Ball, sponsored by Fanta, takes over The Launch Pad with music, dance and fire performances.
Once the sun sets, Thorpe Park’s biggest coasters take on a whole new atmosphere. Guests can brave Hyperia, the UK’s fastest and tallest rollercoaster, THE SWARM, SAW – The Ride, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno after dark, with Thorpe Park’s biggest coasters taking on an altogether different atmosphere when the night falls.
Running on selected dates from 2nd October to 1st November, between 15:00 and 21:00, the park has once again transformed into a haunted playground for thrill-seekers, with a darker, more immersive edge to celebrate a quarter-century of fear.
Fright Nights tickets begin at £39 online, while tickets including maze entry begin at £71 online, with walk-up/on-the-gate pricing also available.
Those wanting to extend the horror can now stay onsite: new for 2026, guests can stay in Fright Nights themed rooms and get one-shot entry to all five Fright Nights mazes included in their stay.
Please note: Fright Nights experiences and attractions are recommended for ages 13+, and Survival Games is rated 15.
Fright Nights is sponsored by Fanta with Chupa Chups, the official sweet partner for the event.
Thorpe Park can be found at Staines Road, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 8PN, and can be reached by car, by train from Waterloo in just 32 minutes, or by bus. Fright Nights 2026 tickets are available online now, book before it gets scary late.
For more stories from Park World and to meet the winners of this years’ Park World Excellence Awards, visit https://parkworld-online.com
