The Circus returned to town in 2020 and 2021 in Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard – an outdoor scare maze developed by the Resort in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fact File
- Location: Area around The Games Bunker
- Scare Rating: 5 Pumpkins
- Opening Year: 2020
- Closing Year: 2021
Located behind The Games Bunker, Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard invited ‘townies’ into Barb Dwyer’s Reclaim Yard, where a menagerie of freaks, clowns and supernatural mutations were playing away the days, preparing for their next big show. What for years appeared to be an old junkyard actually hid the secret of what turned ‘townies’ into evil carnies…
With a compact route, hilariously chaotic performances and suitably psychedelic lighting, Toxic Junkyard was a fun maze. Its finale featured several chainsaw-wielding freaks coming for guests as they attempted to navigate a maze of chain-link fences and escape from the junkyard.
2020 was a tumultuous season for Alton Towers, arising from the operational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the social distancing restrictions that were in place, the Resort opted to add an outdoor scare maze to the Scarefest 2020 line-up. For this maze, the Resort revisited Freak Show, the concept that was the basis of a scare zone a few years prior from 2016-17, as well as roaming entertainment from 2018.
Considering that the Resort had little over a month to put the maze together, the fact the maze was mostly built from pallets and props from previous mazes, plus all the uncertainty over 2020’s event in general, we were pleasantly surprised by Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard.
Scarefest 2021’s maze line-up was unchanged from 2020. Hence, following its debut in the prior year, Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard made a return. The notable change for 2021 was that the main area of the maze was enclosed, with the erection of a scaffold roof structure, in order to make the maze more weather-proof.
However, this second Scarefest was the maze’s last, as the Resort looked to move on from the pandemic come Halloween 2022, with the area around The Games Bunker instead used for The Invitation, an audio-led scare experience.
Scarefest 2020
Scarefest 2020 saw the debut of a new outdoor scare maze, as well as a new family-friendly walkthrough attraction in the gardens.
Scarefest 2021
Following its debut the prior year, Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard made a return for Scarefest 2021, complete with a new canopy.
