Festival Fright Nights 2026

I had the pleasure of being invited to experience Thirteenth Floor Entertainment’s 2026 Festival Fright Nights at Winchester Mystery House for their media night. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed myself and wanted to share a little more about the experience beyond the sample I shared on Instagram.

Full transparency. It was not my plan to attend this year. The prior year, although fun, didn’t really motivate me to check it out a second time. If you are unaware, I am no stranger to Winchester festivities. As such, my expectations for events on the property rarely match the average tourist’s. When I received an invitation, we decided if we could get a babysitter, I would give it another chance. Surprisingly, 13th Floor flipped my opinions! They learned from what did and did not work in 2025 and made changes that really paid off. By the end of the evening, I was looking forward to how this could continue to improve in 2027.

If you want to hear more from the moment, I was pretty good about documenting my impressions after exiting each experience. Give it watch!

Festival Fright Nights 2026

This year marked the 2nd year since 13th Floor took over running the Haunt attraction at Winchester Mystery House. I was pleasantly surprised by the changes made to the haunt as a whole. The whole experience certainly felt like a Halloween festival, but geared towards adults. Upon entering the property, you’re greeted by a cider stand and the merch booth. At the front of the house, guests could enjoy smores stations and a variety of food stations throughout the property. Perfect for those needing a snack break between maze walkthroughs. As the sun set, a full moon rose and a chill grew in the air. It couldn’t have been a more perfect autumnal evening.

Changes to Main Mazes

Unlike last year, guests had the ability to pick and choose which of the three walkthroughs they wished to experience. The option to walk through them again, if desired, was also available. Since there was no overarching story to connect the mazes, this worked very well. At least I really enjoyed it. It was just a scary maze to walkthrough instead of having a storyline to try navigating through. Some may like a connecting story, so take that into consideration.

The scares were also more intense this year; utilizing mannequins and impressively still scare actors. It was challenging to judge when a scare would actually happen. Of the three main mazes, my favorite was the second – The Root of All Evil. I just love what they are able to pull off in the greenhouse. As such, he scares are delightfully intense – my sense of dread growing with every corner turned.

Add-On Experiences

I loved that the Houdini add-on experience, “Do Spirits Exist?” made a revamp return. This was my favorite experience last year and I was excited to see it return. For other add-on experiences, we got to experience the Underhouse. Surprisingly, this turned out to be the most intense of scare and my favorite maze of the night. This add-on maze took place in the basement and was very jarring with how open-ended it was. There was no path to follow along. You just explored the basement and hoped the scare actors didn’t jump at you before you found the exit. It was extremely fun and well worth adding to your ticket. There was another experience, which we didn’t add, where you played hide-and-seek with ghost children. It was a very big hit based on what I overhead from passerbys.

A big change from last year to this was the placement of the speakeasy. Last year, it was located in a less-than-ideal part of the first maze. This year, they had a designated space past the shooting gallery. You just had to show your VIP badge and you were able to enter. They set up a lager space with specialty cocktails you could only find there. In addition, there was rotating live entertainment like a seance and a magician.

As far as I saw, this was also the only area where you could purchase the novelty cups. Which was a nice perk and, from a marketing standpoint, I could see being a more beneficial placement. Visitors paying for the VIP access are most likely looking to purchase a novelty glass too. Additional bar spaces were throughout the property outside of the speakeasy. However, if you wanted premium cocktails, you would need access to this location.

Final Thoughts for Festival Fright Nights 2026

Did you find yourself disappointed by this haunt last year? I strongly recommend giving it a second chance. You can still purchase your tickets for Thursday through Friday evenings until November 1st. As I mentioned before, they are learning and adapting. How they utilized the property’s spaces in 2026 left me impressed. This applies to both the maze set-ups AND the scare actors. I found myself cornered by three actors at one point, laughing in fear. Although terrified, I relished the moment. Here’s to counting down to how Thirteenth Floor Entertainment will reimagine Festival Fright Nights for 2027!