Nice and eerie atmosphere in Germany's biggest leisure park - Halloween fun for the whole family

Evening dusk at Europa-Park. Ground mist is settling over fallen leaves, yellow and orange pumpkins, illuminated by flickering candles, are spread along the ways. Suddenly, eerie laughter, horrific creatures appear from nowhere - a shudder running down your spine, your heart standing still. Giggling goblins with skeleton fingers shoot past, hunchbacked ghosts with white, distorted faces disappear into the darkness. Laughing witches with cobwebs in their hair and tiny pumpkins around their necks make the streets come alive.

During Halloween, when ghosts, witches, goblins and magicians will gather at Europa-Park for a big spectacle, visitors will have gruesome surprises and experience a wonderful festival of lights. The themed areas Germany, Russia and Italy will turn into a truly creepy Halloween landscape with countless yellow, orange and white pumpkins. Starting in October, the nice and eerie Halloween Weeks will be the unchallenged highlight in autumn.

Don't miss the ulitmate horror highlight for the whole family: the big Happy-Halloween-Parade with more than 60 artists in creepy costumes. Bizarre, fantastic and horrific entertainment is guaranteed!

A special Halloween children's programme is waiting for our youngest visitors: on the open-air stage in the Italian themed area, they can admire a Halloween kid's show with Euromaus and his friends and in the magical garden, they can carve their own pumpkins into spooky masterpieces for Halloween or visit the big pumpkin exhibition with over 60 different kinds of pumpkins. A beautiful children's balloon-show can be seen on the Opera-Stage. In the German Alley, the little ones can visit the "school for witches? and learn the basics of witchcraft. Between the Russian and the Swiss themed areas, visitors can get lost in a big labyrinth. And if that's not enough, they can get creepy Halloween make-up and weird hairstyles in the Russian themed area. Last but not least, they can go inside the large Halloween-shop and buy a horrific costume. Once disguised, they can dare to explore the Halloween-Horror-Catacombs under the Greek Village, where weird creatures will make them squirm - because down there, strange things are happening! The visitors go on an expedition with our research team, looking for a legendary creature in the dark cellars of the Greek Village.

Already during the day, the nice and eerie Halloween decoration with over 120.000 pumpkins, corn plants and bales of straw, as well as the ghostly illumination of the park, will put the visitors into the mood for the festival of the dead, a cult which has been celebrated in America for many years. As legend has it, on October 31^st the dead are looking for live corpses in order to seize possession of them for one year. The living are trying to protect themselves by going out on the streets in weird costumes and making lots of noise in order to discourage the ghosts. In addition, they put flickering candles into hollow and carved pumpkins in order to chase evil spirits away.

Today, Halloween has a comeback especially among young persons. Traditionally a festival for young children, who disguise themselves in order to collect sweets in their neighbourhood, today more and more adults use Halloween as an opportunity to celebrate wild parties, where the weirdest costumes and the most bizarre ideas are awarded and celebrated.

"Trick or treat" is the motto during our Halloween Festival! In cooperation with Milka, Europa-Park offers the opportunity to win great prizes on different locations throughout the park. Tricky fun for our youngest visitors!

During the last week of the season, we will celebrate a great Halloween Festival every evening, with giant fireworks and a special show programme, starting at 6.30 p. m. A spooky special is the additional Evening-Parade of Ghosts and Goblins. In addition, we offer some delicious and creepy Halloween-Meals, such as potato-pumpkin-soup, American pumpkin-pie, pumpkin-gnocci and little "potato-ghosts?. In the beautifully decorated Rockcafé, witches will also serve a delicious Special-Halloween-Menu.

All those, who enjoy spending the night in a really creepy atmosphere, can stay overnight in our Halloween-Suite in the Europa-Park Hotel Resort, which will be covered with cobwebs. The children's beds will be observed by ghostly eyes and Mr. Skeleton will sit on the parents' desk. A quiet tip for the little ones is the children's birthday party at Europa-Park: during Halloween the kids can celebrate a truly creepy party!

On October 31^st, we celebrate the great SWR3 Halloween-Party, featuring the popular SWR3 DJs Michael Spleth, Jochen Graf, Nicole Köster and Jan Garcia, top musical acts and the international artists of Europa-Park. In cooperation with SWR3 and powered by Milka and Coca-Cola, we offer a great autumn highlight for all music fans in Europa-Park's Halloween-Dome and Mystery Hall.

Tickets:

For the Halloween Festival we offer special tickets for 7,50 ? during advance sale, including processing fees (Phone: +49 (0) 1805 / 7 88 99 7) and for 9,50 ? at the box office. The festival starts at 6.30 p. m. on the festival-area, admission to the park is at 5.00 p. m. For visitors of Europa-Park, the Halloween-Festival is included in the regular admission price.

For the SWR3 Halloweenparty, you can get tickets in the SWR3 Service Center (Phone: +49 (0) 7221 / 300 300) and at Europa-Park (Ticketline: +49 (0) 1805 / 7 88 99 7) during advance sale for 18,50 ? (incl. fees) for the party and for 30,50 ? (incl. fees) for Europa-Park & party. At the box office the price for the Halloweenparty is 20,50 ? and for Europa-Park & party 32,50 ?.