Rinksider: July - September 2022

How to Make Halloween at Your Rink the Spookiest One Yet!

We don't mean to scare you, (see what we did there?) but it's already that time of the year to start preparing for one of the most popular holidays on a roller rink's calendar – Halloween!

From haunted houses to Halloween-themed parties to spooky concessions, there are lots of great ways to celebrate this spooky holiday with roller skaters of all ages.

Ghoulish Delights

Over at Roll-A-Bout Skating Center, with locations in Burlington and Eden, North Carolina, General Manager Lisa Pruitt says Halloween is one of their biggest seasons of the year. To prepare, she says they start decorating in mid-September by using tablecloths as flag banners and between 1,000 to 2,000 orange, black, lime green, and purple balloons.

“I have been collecting (Halloween decorating) supplies for the last 20 years,” Pruitt explains. “Dollar Tree is a big go-to. We get balloons from BargainBalloons.com.”

On the West coast, Brad Armstrong, owner and manager of The Rink in Sacramento, California; Roller Kingdom in Reno, Nevada; and Top Gun Skating Center in Fallon, Nevada, says they use streamers, traditional ghosts and pumpkins to decorate their rinks for Halloween, which they get from PartyCity and Spirit Halloween stores. “(It's) more of a kidfriendly, familyfriendly, not to scare anybody kind of situation,” he adds.

In addition to decorations, some rinks add some spooky factors to other areas of the business. For example, at Cheap Skate in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Operator Ed Golebiowski offers a special ICEE at their concession stand called the “Spooky Cotton Top.” “That is orange ICEE and then we have purple cotton candy that we pull apart and just put right on top,” he explains.

And Golebiowski says they also change up the prizes in their arcade for the Halloween season. “If you have claw cranes, look at getting Halloween merchandise in those,” he suggests. “We put Halloween plush in our cranes and they do really well around that time.”

Petrifying Parties

Many rinks around the country have special events for Halloween. At Ghostly Manor Thrill Center in Sandusky, Ohio — which features a year-round haunted house and a roller rink as part of its attractions — General Manager Billy Criscione offers trick-or-treating during one of its Family Fun Nights. Families can enjoy roller skating, bounce houses, a jungle gym, pizza and a drink for a special price.

Roll-A-Bout customers and staff go all out with their costumes during Halloween.

Photo provided by: Roll-A-Bout

“We'll have seven to eight stations set up to give away candy,” he explains. “We give the kids a card so they can stamp it to show they've gone to each station.”

At Cheap Skate, Golebiowski hosts two Halloween skating parties — an evening adult party and a daytime event for kids. In the past, the daytime party has included a costume parade, trick-or-treat stations, and a candy scramble.

“We had different age groups for kids,” he explains. “We would get them onto the skating floor without skates. We would just drop a whole bunch of candy in the middle and just kind of let them have at it.”

And with the popularity of adult skate parties right now, Armstrong also holds an adult event for Halloween at his rinks, which they call “The Freaks Come Out at Night.”

“We have a big costume contest for the adults — we give away some skates or a gift certificate or some wheels,” he details. “We bring in national DJs from the likes of New York or Houston, and they work the skating circuit, so they're well-known DJs. We typically do that at my rink in Sacramento and my rink in Reno, which has a culture for the adult skating.”

A Hauntingly Good Time

Another option some roller rinks use to heighten the spooky factor at their location is adding a haunted house.

Leonard Pickel, owner of a haunted house event designing and consulting firm Hauntrepreneurs, says a rink can easily bring in a small haunted house by placing it on one end of their skating floor, in a play area, or even outside in a parking lot under a tent.

“The system that we recommend and sell to our clients is a freestanding system so you wouldn't have to screw it into the floor or brace it to the building in any way, shape, or form,” he explains. “It would just be basically panels that would stand up at the end of the of the floor. We would lay carpet down on the floor and then set the panels on top of that.”

For the past 25 years, Roll-A-Bout Skating Center has set up a haunted tunnel in the covered porch area leading to their front door that patrons to their annual Halloween skating party walk through to get into the building. “It's almost like a little haunted trail before they ever get in the building,” Pruitt explains. “We use tarps to hang from the roof of the covered porch hangs down to darken it up. And of course, there's some strobe lights, laser lights, and sometimes a fog machine in there.”

Pruitt says it's all about hitting the right balance of scary but not too scary, so it's enjoyable for all ages. “We claim it's scary, but the little kids love it just as much as the big kids do,” she says. “And the parents absolutely love it. They love to hear the kids screaming and hollering and running away, and they just had a good time.”

Monstrous Marketing

With the popularity of Halloween events for businesses and community organizations, properly marketing any special parties and attractions your rink will offer is crucial.

Criscione says next to word-of-mouth, email marketing is a rink's best tool for spreading the word. And social media can also be helpful, especially if you develop a Halloween promo video. “Everybody likes to watch videos nowadays,” he explains. “A good promo video for what's going on, whether it's just trick or treating or some kind of spooky setting or new decorations, it's a good tool to use to spread out across social media.”

Golebiowski says social media is their most significant marketing avenue for Halloween events through Facebook and Instagram. For their adult party, he says they create and post a “save the date” about six weeks in advance and start pre-selling tickets, which is what they usually do for their special events.

“The reason that we do that is just because we know exactly how many people are coming and we can be a little bit smarter when it comes to staffing for labor,” Golebiowski explains. “We'll get a pretty decent amount of pre-sales and that way we know exactly what to expect on those nights.”

And Pickel suggests using social media tools like Facebook advertising to reach people who are already going to haunted houses in your area. “That provides you the opportunity to while people are standing in line waiting to go into a haunted house thinking about what they're going to do after that — hey, let's go skating,” he says.

Hauntrepreneurs Inc. produces some of the top haunted houses around the country.

Photo credit: Hauntrepreneurs Inc.

10 Quick Tips for a Spooky Halloween

1. Before setting a date for your Halloween party, ensure it does not conflict with other major fall community events, like a homecoming football game.

2. Fake spider webs are easy to find at any store and can be put on almost anything as a decoration.

3. Try to purchase Halloween decorations the day after for cheaper to save for next year.

4. People like to dress up for Halloween, so give them the opportunity whenever possible.

5. If offering trick-or-treating stations, use a card or wristband to ensure kids only go through it once.

6. Tap local high school and college drama departments for “roaming talent” — people in costume for parties and haunted houses.

7. Consider partnering with a local nonprofit for your Halloween event — they can help you spread the word, and you provide them with part of the proceeds.

8. Although social media is essential, don't forget the power of email marketing and word of mouth.

9. Get your staff in on the fun and film a quick and fun promo video for your Halloween offerings.

10. Use social media to find volunteers to help set up and staff a haunted house or tunnel.