Halloween horror park opens at Tallinn Song Festival Grounds with witch school and bar to the afterlife

A themed horror park called Halloween Park has opened at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, ahead of Halloween, the late-October holiday known for costumes and spooky characters. Visitors are met by horror-film characters and assorted creatures, and the park also offers themed installations, tarot card readings, a witch school and a bar that leads into the afterlife.

The park's residents include vampires, zombies, ghosts, evil nuns, a scary clown and a maniac with a chainsaw. Parents of more impressionable children can put a special red protective bracelet on them. Animators in frightening costumes then avoid startling those young visitors.

Park organiser Lauri Viikna says children are afraid at first, but then take photos and even sit on the animators' laps, so there are no problems. He noted that he first organised a Halloween celebration in Estonia back in 1992, when everything was completely different. This year the emphasis is on Halloween itself, the themed decorations and installations, rather than only on scares. He said the organisers were once accused of Satanism, but he sees the park as a show, comparable to theatre, where witches, devils and other characters also appear.

Tarot and the bar

The grounds include a cemetery and a witch's house where visitors can learn their future through tarot cards. The fortune teller offers a choice of several decks. One is in the style of Mexico's Day of the Dead, celebrated right after Halloween. This is the Santa Muerte tarot deck, drawn by a young Ukrainian artist for a small publishing house. Tarot reader Elbe Kuldmäe says she received the cards a month before the war began and that the deck is now rare.

One of the creepiest locations is the bar, whose guests enter the afterlife. In a corridor they pass statues of Egyptian gods linked to the cult of the dead. Behind the counter, a young witch offers brave visitors vampire blood with a hibiscus flavour. Witch barista Eleri explains that it is a non-alcoholic juice drink made specially for Halloween.

The park also has a witch school, where visitors can rent a broom and try to take off on it.