Earlier today Busch Gardens Williamsburg pushed a handful of blockbuster changes out to the Howl-O-Scream website. Most notably among them was a basic skeleton for this year’s event.
Howl-O-Scream 2021 Lineup
Howl-O-Scream 2021 is slated to feature five houses, four terrortories (read: scarezones), and four shows. Of those five houses, three will be new with two returning from 2019. Two of the four terrortories will also be new for 2021. On the show front, two of the four total shows at this year’s event will be returning and two will be new.
It has been a while since Howl-O-Scream 2019, so for some context, lets take a look at how this year’s skeleton compares side-by-side with the previous Howl-O-Scream’s lineup.
2019 Houses:
- The Vault: Overtaken [New]
- Circo Sinistro
- Demented Dimensions
- Dystopia
- Frostbite
- Lumberhack
2019 Terrortories:
- Axe Alley
- Fool’s Court
- Garden of Souls
- Ripper Row
- Sideshow Square
- Vampire Point
2019 Shows:
- Jack is Back [New]
- Monster Stomp on Ripper Row
- Night Beats: Revamped
2021 Houses:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown
- Unknown
2021 Terrortories:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown
- Unknown
2021 Shows:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown
- Unknown
As you can see, for being the first Howl-O-Scream since the COVID-19 outbreak, this year’s attraction selection is looking mighty healthy! We’re down a house and we’re down two scarezones, but Busch Gardens Williamsburg is actually adding an additional show this year. Considering the financial burdens and staffing shortages that have resulted from COVID, we really can’t complain at all about the robustness of 2021’s lineup.
Better yet though is just how many new attractions are expected at this year’s event. Looking at 2019’s lineup, there was only a single new house, no new terrortories, and one new show. Compare that to this year’s three new houses, two new terrortories, and two new shows. Quite a respectable showing indeed!
Now, if the basic information above was all we had to share this evening, that wouldn’t make for a very good BGWFans article. We’d post it to social media and toss it on the ParkFans forum, but we wouldn’t take the time to write up a full post about it here. So what justifies this article you ask? Lets start fleshing out that skeleton Busch Gardens Williamsburg so kindly provided this afternoon!
Leaks & Rumors
After a bit of light grave robbing, we’ve unearthed a few clues that point to the return of a couple Howl-O-Scream 2019 attractions that fit perfectly into the details Busch Gardens Williamsburg revealed today. These attractions aren’t officially part of Howl-O-Scream 2021 until the park announces them of course, but for now, we’re fairly confident in this list (note the additions in blue):
Houses:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Circo Sinistro
- Dystopia
Terrortories:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown
- Unknown
Shows:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Monster Stomp on Ripper Row
- Jack is Back
Analysis
Everything from this point on is going to assume that we’re right—that Circo, Dystopia, Monster Stomp, and Jack are all coming back for 2021. If subsequent announcements from Busch Gardens Williamsburg end up contradicting this information, most of the analysis below will be rendered useless. Just keep that in mind if you’re reading this a bit after it’s published.
Houses
Lets start with the houses. If Circo Sinistro and Dystopia are both returning, that means that The Vault: Overtaken, Demented Dimensions, Frostbite, and Lumberhack are all doomed. Replacing this specific collection of houses is fascinating—specifically because two of them are in Festhaus Park and two of them are inside Curse of DarKastle.
Festhaus Park was (and likely still is) earmarked for a major coaster addition sometime within the next few years. On the Curse of DarKastle front, rumors have been flying lately suggesting that entertainment’s grip on this incredibly prominent building may soon be coming to and end as well. In fact, we wrote about the possibility of entertainment having to pull out of Festhaus Park and DarKastle back in May when we leaked plans for a massive event facility planned for the Oktoberfest area.
That said, the planned entertainment warehouse project is certainly not on track to be finished by this year’s Howl-O-Scream and, as far as we know, neither Festhaus Park nor DarKastle are on the verge of imminent construction. The Vault: Overtaken was already demolished pre-COVID so its death is a given, but why strike Lumberhack, Dimensions, and Frostbite this year?
Truthfully, right now, we just don’t know. The locations of the three new, unknown houses will be very juicy pieces of this much larger puzzle though.
If Busch Gardens Williamsburg leaves DarKastle and Drachen Fire’s station vacant this year, it will strongly suggest that someone other than entertainment is about to take possession of those areas—lending a ton more credence to the idea that the Festhaus Park coaster is still on the horizon and something new may be on the way for DarKastle as well. If, however, entertainment choses to reinvest into either or both of the spaces, that will suggest that entertainment likely isn’t anticipating losing access to those areas imminently.
Assuming for a moment that Vault, Dimensions, Lumberhack, and Frostbite are all on the chopping block because entertainment is being kicked out of Festhaus Park and DarKastle, we need to start paying very close attention to other areas of the park that have been used for Howl-O-Scream attractions previously.
Given that Battle for Eire has been closed since 2019 and may never return, its building seems like prime real estate for a house this year. Catacomb’s old spot in the backstage area of the Royal Palace Theatre could be up for grabs this year as well—especially if the return of Twas that Night isn’t a given for Christmas Town this year. A new house in the Woods Maze location (previously?) home to Lumberhack could make a lot of sense too.
Anyway, as you can see, there is a lot of uncertainty about house locations being used this year right now. Hopefully additional announcements, information, and leaks over the coming days and weeks will help clear some of this fogginess up.
Terrortories
Without knowing which terrortories are returning, it’s hard to speculate too much on what the rest of the scarezone lineup may look like this year. That said, I do have a fairly well-reasoned guess as per what the two returning terrortories might be…
The best guess I have for a returning territory is Ripper Row. Not only has it become somewhat of a staple tone-setter for Howl-O-Scream, it also pairs thematically with its expected-to-return, neighboring show, Monster Stomp on Ripper Row. In fact, the second part of Monster Stomp on Ripper Row’s name almost necessitates the existence of Ripper Row. I’d be really surprised not to see it back on this year’s roster.
My second pick for “most likely terrortory to return” is Sideshow Square. Assuming Circo Sinistro is back for 2021, the return of its sister scarezone, Sideshow Square, feels somewhat inevitable. Those two attractions function both as a thematic and logistical pair for one another.
Shows
So we believe Monster Stomp on Ripper Row and Jack is Back are both slated to return for 2021. If this is correct, it would necessitate the death of Night Beats: Revamped (a loss few are likely to feel). There is a group who will feel the loss of Howl-O-Scream 2019’s Des Festhaus show though: Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s culinary department. Because of this fact, a Night Beats: Revamped replacement in Das Festhaus for Howl-O-Scream 2021 seems essentially inevitable.
The final new attraction for Howl-O-Scream 2021 is far more puzzling though—another new show somewhere other than Das Festhaus. The most obvious answer here is likely the return of a Halloween show in Il Teatro di San Marco (the theater next to Marco Polo’s Marketplace for the uninitiated). The last time we saw a Howl-O-Scream show here was in 2018 when Starfright Orchestra played on select nights. Maybe Starfright is back from the dead again?
There’s also the possibility of a curveball here too—Il Teatro di San Marco could, once again, sit dark and the new Howl-O-Scream show could show up in the Abbey Stone Theatre, the Royal Palace Theatre, or any number of other spots. This will be another very interesting announcement to watch for.
Frankensteining it All Together
Below I’ve included one final Howl-O-Scream 2021 attraction listing—this time with the announced details (green), the leaked returning attractions (orange), and some of our best guesses as well (yellow).
Houses:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Circo Sinistro (Behind Roman Rapids)
- Dystopia (Below Escape from Pompeii)
Terrortories:
- Unknown [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Sideshow Square? (Festa Italia)
- Ripper Row? (Banbury Cross)
Shows:
- Unknown (Das Festhaus?) [New]
- Unknown [New]
- Monster Stomp on Ripper Row (The Globe Theatre)
- Jack is Back (Killarney)
As always, everything above is subject to change. Even if the leaks are right currently doesn’t mean they will continue to be correct in the coming days and weeks—there’s still plenty of time for plans to shift. As for our guesses, any of them could very well be wrong. Regardless, hopefully this article helped give you some idea of what you may be able to expect from the long-awaited return of Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s best seasonal event!
To stay up to date with all of the park’s official Howl-O-Scream announcements (and maybe even a few more leaks along the way!), like BGWFans on Facebook and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram. If you’re a hardcore Howl-O-Scream enthusiast like we are, consider jumping into the HOS 2021 discussion over on our forum, ParkFans.net, as well!
August 3th Update
The day after we published this article Busch Gardens Williamsburg stripped all of the information we reported on in the first section of this article from the event’s website. A before and after screenshot of today’s edit can be found in our tweet embedded below.
Maybe the attraction lineup for this year’s Howl-O-Scream isn’t actually finalized yet? Maybe things are still in flux? Maybe the park realized they gave us too many breadcrumbs to follow? Who knows. It’s certainly an interesting development though.
Lastly, the park also announced today that they’d be unveiling more information about the event on August 10th so keep an eye out for that next Tuesday!