Oracle Online

The Trail of Terror is an umbrella term used to describe a lavish October production put on by the creators of the annual Renaissance Festival. It claims stake as Minnesota’s best Halloween party, complete with a horrific maze and hallways, a haunted hayride, bonfire, and spooky characters stalking the grounds. Add in crafts, snacks, apple cider and a tavern for adults, and the only elements missing from this jittery rendezvous, according to several visitors, are the fun and safety.

“There is no organized security,” visitor Janet Sathre said of the Trail’s grounds. "There are kids, fourteen and fifteen years old, smoking cigarettes and throwing the butts into dry grass. Where’s the security? Where’s the kids’ parents?”

Beginning at 7 p.m. each weekend night, visitors are directed into a bumpy, unlit, and uncut field for parking. Walking from this abyss towards the light leads to the grounds where a large mass of people are attending the event.

The ticket counter functions as the entrance and as the information center of the grounds, providing visitors with a drawn map to help navigate the area. Each attraction is listed on the map along with restrooms and a first aid area.

Receiving no mention on the map, however, is a place to go with a complaint or if help is needed.

Another mother added she has seen some security walking around in red shirts, “but they are hard to recognize.”

Parents aren’t the only ones with concerns about security. A trail worker who wished to remain anonymous said that he has seen a couple of fights and said that he has been attacked by a drunken visitor. He was able to diffuse the situation on his own, but no security was around when he needed it.

“They have radios,” he said, but it takes them “a long time to get to the scene.” He also mentioned that several members of the security team were kids under the age of eighteen. “There are sixteen-year-old girls walking around in security shirts. What are they going to do?”

Danielle Schultz, the marketing coordinator for the event, claims that there is more to the security team than meets the eye. “We have about a dozen security men wearing red security sweatshirts on the grounds,” she said, and added, “a sheriff is always on duty at the event.”

The security team also includes twenty to thirty undercover people with radios, who function as the eyes and ears of the team. If a problem arises, they just have to call on the radio to get a swarm of security. Shultz claims that the only problem they’ve experienced is teenage mischief, such as young kids trying to sneak beer into the event.

Despite some possible security issues, the Minnesota crowd--consisting mostly of parents with children and teenagers with friends--is, on the whole, well behaved in its attempts to have fun and stay warm. Even as closing time approaches people continue to wait in line and explore the many attractions on the grounds.

The east end of the grounds has the entrance for the three-quarters of a mile Haunted maze. On the north is the entrance to a hayride that takes people through the Minnesota River bed. In the center of the grounds are concession stands and a sixty-foot tall bungee jumping device made for two people at a time. People wait in lines for the Haunted Halls along the parameters while listening to renditions of N’Sync and Toby Keith songs coming from the nearby karaoke booth.

Each of the Haunted halls has a different theme: the Haunted Mansion, Clown house, Jungle House and Upside Down House. The Upside Down house seems to be a crowd favorite, with its mind-bending spiral of lights being the centerpiece of the hall. “I felt bloody drunk,” exclaimed a visitor upon exiting the hall.

Although admittedly fun, the most frustrating part of the event seems to be waiting in long lines, which have caused a riff among some visitors.

“It gets worse and worse every year,” commented visitor Josh Smith. Josh sat warming up with friends inside Club Scream, a heated tent with a dance floor, live music, a tavern, fortune-teller and craft booths.

“We waited in line two hours to go on the hayride, and it wasn’t scary,” he said. Josh’s friend Rebecca Smith added that their goal had become “trying to get our money’s worth more than to have fun.”

Schultz explained that the event has been marketed very well this year and more people are coming than expected. On a busy night, she said they can expect 7,000 people to show up. Although they are working on adding more attractions and sideshows, Shultz believes that some waiting in line is necessary for visitors to feel the full effect of the show. “You don’t want to rush a scare,” she said.

The Trail of Terror is now in its thirteenth consecutive year. Although it has become a regular event in the community, it hasn’t had much of a chance to give back to the community that supports it.

“It’s hard to market this event to charities,” Shultz explained on the phone. Considering all the gory, blood-covered themes and the beer sponsorships advertised throughout the event, it isn’t hard to see why.