Less than an hour away from London, Tulley’s Farm hosts the most anticipated Halloween event of the year: Shocktoberfest.
Taking place at Tulley’s Farm in West Sussex, Shocktober Fest is less than an hour away from London. Ticket prices vary depending on the tickets you buy, a regular ticket with no fast pass is between £44.95-£69.95 whilst their Xscream ticket prices depend on the number of fast passes you purchase. For this experience, we had 12 which was completely worth it. If you’re a group that wants to complete all mazes, then Fast Pass is for you. On busy days, you will spend most of your night queuing with a regular ticket.
While waiting in line for the gates to open and the sun to set, the thought of entering the horror-themed farm builds up the anticipation of what’s to come.
As you enter, you are greeted immediately by clowns and not the family-friendly type. Think Jack In The Box but more human-like. Although the street actors can’t touch you, they come extremely close for comfort… with the main goal of making visitors scream or laugh nervously.
With 11 mazes, expect to be frightened a few times throughout the night. Now if a Zombie apocalypse is one of your worst nightmares, then maybe taking a walk into Doomtown would be a good way to conquer that fear or not… you will be transported into an abandoned town walking through a boots pharmacy, a Chinese takeaway, and even a minibus to escape the human-like creatures. This is by far one of Shocktober Fest’s best mazes, if you’re a horror fanatic, you will notice all of the little quirks of this maze including the zombie in the garden and the abandoned pub with a jukebox in Shaun of The Dead and zombie movies on tapes all lined up in the blockbuster store. The actors within this maze are fantastic, it was basically like being in the Walking Dead series.
Now if you don’t have fast passes you will most likely be waiting up to 90 minutes for The Purgatory Maze. This was tied for first place with Doomtown as one of the best mazes in our opinion. Upon entering the maze, you’ll be given a lantern whilst you walk into a pitch-black abandoned house. Expect a few jumpscares from a nun or two. But don’t be fooled, this isn’t anything sweet or trusting, this is the demonic nun from The Nun and The Conjuring 2. The less we say, the better. If you’re a thrill seeker, this is something you need to experience yourself.
Each maze is full of jump scares that follow its own little story. Not only does the farm have mazes but you can climb aboard a wagon pulled by a tractor called the Haunted Hayride. This is one of the experiences that are more on the comedic side rather than scary if you would like to take a break from all of that.
Once you’ve conquered a few mazes, it’s probably time for a bite to eat. From Churros vans to hot dogs and burgers. The farm offers a range of foods to choose from. You’ll notice the Shocktober branded larger and cider, we highly recommend the cider and even if you’ve never been a fan, you will love it.
Shocktober Fest is more than an event, it has fully captured the spirit of Halloween and the thrill of being scared. Shocktober runs until 2nd November so you have plenty of time to jump in and have fun.
If you miss this year’s Halloween experience, you can purchase open-date fast-track tickets from next year for almost half the price, what a bargain!
For more information, visit Shocktober Fest here