Fear City Attendance Within Projections

Unless you were a zombie, it was hard to miss the much-talked-about thrill-filled haunted attraction Fear City, which ran last month in Morton Grove.

The 40,000-square-foot attraction was a critically acclaimed Halloween hotspot in October, gaining attention from major media publications such as the , WGN and . But now that the walking dead have returned to the underworld and special effects are packed away for next year, how did Fear City fare?

Earlier:

“It was invigorating. We feel good about how the whole thing unfolded,” said Fear City’s Marketing Director Tony Duffy. “Every day the show was different and the show was better (as it went along).”

As far as the numbers for overall attendance throughout the month, Duffy said they were “within our projections.” When the facility was originally proposed earlier this year, .

While exact numbers still need to be calculated in order to gain a full perspective, he added that the general reaction to Fear City was positive.

“We had a pretty significant flow of traffic, especially on the weekends,” Duffy said. “I was really happy with the response that we received and the attention that we got.”

Broad marketing and media outreach helped generate buzz about the attraction, drawing people from all over the Chicagoland area. Support from the village as well as local businesses like , which hosted some of the casting meetings for Fear City, also added to the attraction’s success.

“We’ve been really grateful, obviously we had a lot of support from Morton Grove itself, from the village and businesses we partnered with,” Duffy said.

Morton Grove’s said they witnessed first-hand some of the benefits after partnering with Fear City.

“I believe that we did have an influx (of business),” said Katie Kats, manager of Pequod's Pizza. “There was an increase because we had pizza sold there and we also had advertisement through (Fear City).”

The Village of Morton Grove will be breaking down numbers in terms of the impact of Fear City on the local economy once sales tax revenue is received.

“There is no doubt that Fear City has benefitted the local economy with tax revenue as well as increasing the number of people visiting the community from elsewhere,” wrote Community and Economic Development Director John Said in an email. “It should also be stressed that this was the first year for this business, and their numbers should be expected to grow in the future.”

Fear City has a five-year contract to utilize their 8240 N. Austin Ave. location and will return next year, bigger and better. Duffy said staff already started planning for 2012 and will bring new surprises for those who dare to enter again.

"It’ll be changed up," he said. "We’ll change a number of rooms and change what the experience is, the storyline will change and we’ll aim to produce another unique experience." 

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