Traumatica is the yearly horror festival at Europa-Park. You have to be at least 16 years old to enter but it’s definitely targeting an adult demographic. This year’s Traumatica featured 7 walk through haunted house experiences, each one with its own theme and live actors. As well as several live shows, a Traumatica exclusive horror VR experience and a few open Europa-Park attractions and a plethora of food trucks. At the end of the day it’s really a celebration of all things horror and halloween.
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81. Halloween Special | Villainous Night at Disneyland Paris & Traumatica at Europa-Park – AirMagique – Unofficial Disneyland Paris & European Theme Park Podcast
This is also an extra ticketed event which begins at 6:45 in the evening and ends at 11:30 p.m.. Regular tickets cost 41 Euros, which grant you access to the event. For those who definitely want to experience all the houses we would recommend opting for the more expensive ShoxterPass which costs 92 Euros per person and not only grants you access to Traumatica but let’s you skip the queues of each house once as well as the massive queue and bag check to get into the festival.
Which saves a bunch of time and was the ticket of our choice. There’s also a night club called the Vampires Club, which one can enter for 7 Euros extra. As well as exclusive experiences which are quite pricey and cost as much as 312 Euro per person. These change from year to year but usually offer some exclusive scare experiences.
Spoiler & Parental Advisory Warning
We will be discussing some but not all the gory details. If you are visiting the event there are still plenty of surprises to be had.
Haunted House Highlights
Each house was unique and featured it’s own highlights. However, there were a few that stood out:
TAROT HOUSE – Coven – Themed to a Witch/Fortune teller house that begins by letting groups of about 5-8 people entering a pre-show room. In which a fortune teller greeted us by gazing into a crystal ball behind a podium, before the entire room went dark. When the lights came back on the fortune teller was standing right in front of us and jump scared us effectively. Another neat room in this house had festival goers walking through caged in pathways surrounded by fog and a laser swamp. Scare actors dressed as witches would jump up out of the fog and bang on the cages, got a few good scares out of that. It also featured a fantastic giant puppet themed to a daemon that could blow red coloured fog out of its mouth.
PETTING ZOO – FAMILY REUNION – was one of two open air houses. PETTING ZOO was themed to a redneck, backwoods, incest, cannibal family who are celebrating their daughter’s wedding. One moment that stuck with us was one of the scare actor who was managing the Shoxxter Pass queue integrated the sharpie they were holding into the spiel. So the way the Shoxxter Pass works is you get an armband by the entrance and the managing scare actor of each house then crosses out one of the 7 boxes on your band with a permanent marker.
Anyway this creepy looking redneck would put on a little show, pretending to sniff the sharpie and going cross eyed saying “its really good”. They would even offer it to the folks waiting in line, which was really fun. Another memorable element was that the entire open air house was decorated with chopped off limbs and gore. As well as a festive wedding feast comprised of decapitated heads, blood and human brains. With a scare actor popping out of the gory wedding cake and another running behind festival goers telling them their the next course on the menu.
Our two last honourable mentions include – Skin Deep – Backstage – which featured these aesthetic but extremely messed up looking sculptures made out of human body parts. Reminded us a bit of the Hannibal TV-series and the – Unkown – house which featured scare actors in impressive looking alien costumes.
At the end of the day many houses are on par with what you would experience at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, which we would rate as the worldwide flagship event. Traumatica is just on a smaller scale overall and only features 1 scare zone with live actors. That’s something that could be expanded upon in the future. The houses are beautifully themed and intricately decorated. You really feel like your stepping into a horror film, and a good looking one at that.
Entertainment Highlights
Even though there were three stage this year, the most exciting one was the flagship Traumatica Circus. There are two shows most evenings of Traumatica. The day we visited there was one at 9 p.m. and another at 10:30 p.m.. We recommend downloading the official Traumatica app to get those infos for the day of your visit.
The Traumatica Circus was basically what it sounds like. A horror themed circus show. It was honestly amazing, featuring a ton of unique stunts that we haven’t seen before. If you enjoy Cirque du Soleil style shows this is for you. Animal lovers will also be happy to know that none were forced to participate in the show.
Some highlights of the show included a sway pole stunt. This pole almost reached the top of the giant circus tent, with a performer climbing up and doing various acrobatic stunts while the entire pole swayed over the audience. It was really unique and fun to watch.
Another included the gag of the century. So this guy comes on stage, makes a bunch of funny “frat guy” style jokes and even picks out an audience member to help with a whip stunt. Where he places two straws on the audience member and then whips them into smaller pieces. Honestly, our anxiety levels of watching that stunt were through the roof. However he performed it perfectly, all while making dirty jokes which were quite funny. After sending the audience member back to their seat he suddenly rips his shirt off. To reveal a pair of beautiful breasts, complete with nipple tassels. Strobe lights turn on and the formerly, hyper masculine performer suddenly turned into a beautiful feminine creature. With long hair, high heels and the whole shabang. It left us gooped, gagged and seriously entertained.
Traumatica Virtual Reality Horror Experience
This was something completely different. Another new experience that we have yet to see elsewhere. The entire experience took place in the Curse of Cassandra attraction, in the greek themed area. Curse of Casandra is a Madhouse flat ride, these are usually manufactured by Vekoma. However, a similar attraction under the name Mystery Swing was created by Mack Rides, a.k.a. Europa-Park’s proprietors. The ride is designed to be an optical and physical illusion, consisting of several rows of seats attached to a swaying gondola within a rotating drum. The ride creates the impression that the rider is turning upside down, whereas it is actually the room that is moving around them.
But instead of seeing and hearing the regular attraction. We got virtual reality headsets placed on our heads and everyone had to sit on one side of the attraction. Probably so the video in the helmets could synchronise properly with the attractions movement. The storyline was officially called the “fallen”.
During the 4 minute experience you dive into the shoes of a murderer. It starts with your birth in the hospital, which then proceeds to your messed up childhood. All the other characters in this animated horror experience have these super creepy blacked out eyes. The attraction basically just swings back and forth but the video moves so quickly and completely fills your field of vision that it feels more intense than it really is. You then proceed to murder a bunch of people, and are thrown in jail before being strapped to the electric chair dying. But the makers of this VR horror experience don’t let anyone of the hook that easy and you (now a corpse) get to experience your entire autopsy in gruesome detail. Ending with a thrilling plunge to the fiery pits of hell. It was an insane experience.
Very entertaining and I would recommend it to anyone with strong nerves and a love for horror themed media. There are a few jump scares in the VR experience as well. But honestly if you’re attending Traumatica, jump scares are one of the main emotional components of the entire event.
Is Traumatica: Festival of Fear Worth a Visit?
Yes! We would visit Traumatica again. For anyone attending who only has 1 night at the festival we would highly recommend the ShoxterPass if its within budget. You can experience everything the event has to offer. If you can manage it we would say get dinner before going to Traumatica so you don’t waste any precious time on dining. You only have four hours to experience it all and there is so much to do. Also check out the fabulous Traumatica Circus, the entrance is a little hidden inside the gift shop.
If you do decide to get the regular ticket without a ShoxterPass. Be sure to arrive early because the regular line and security check to get into the festival is massive. I would say 30 minutes before entry at the latest. Better to arrive one hour before the doors open. Overall, Traumatica is a fabulous horror event that caters to a mature demographic.
There is so much to see and do and so many good scares to be had. If you are a fan of the horror genre, Traumatica gives you the chance to step into that fantasy. You can engage with the walk around characters and see all the twisted thrills inside the various houses. It was a scary good time.
Have you attended Traumatica before? Let us know in the comments below.
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