A group of Castleton students took a trip to The Great Escape in Lake George, New York for the Fright Fest event on Saturday. They arrived roughly at 2 p.m. and were set loose in the theme park.

The walls were all decorated with spider webs, plastic spiders.  Fog machines were on full blast to get people in the mood for Halloween. Even the music, which is usually a mix of 2000’s pop, was getting in on the action with songs like Spooky Scary Skeletons and Monster Mash.

Classic rides like the “Comet” and the “Flashback” were attracting large groups of people waiting for the real festivities to start. Little kids and even some adults could be seen walking around dressed up in costumes.

Fright Fest’s scary events don’t start until 5 p.m. so all of the students went ahead and tried as many rides as they could. Although for some the lines came as a bit of a surprise. “It was fun but I forgot about the lines,” Gabby Coons said.

Once the clock struck 5, the real fun began. The haunted houses opened their doors and the actors and actresses descended upon the park.

“The actors were really scary because the make-up was really well done,” Marissa Benson said. To help keep the park child friendly, there were specific scare zones on the map where the actors and actresses would be waiting.

The lines for rides suddenly began to evaporate as well since everyone wanted to try the many different haunted houses scattered about the park. One haunted house peaked at a 90-minute wait time.

The houses seemed to attract most of the students as well, although some were satisfied with just riding rides and avoiding most scary things.

Freshman Carolyn Laird said one of the haunted houses, Skull Manor, was not pleasing to say the least.

“Fun wasn’t the word I would use,” she laughed. “Someone pulled my weave out.”

As the night ended and the park closed, the many exhausted students headed back out to be taken home.

“I really enjoyed the trip, although I wish there were less people,” Izzy Gogarty chuckled as she boarded the van to go home.