Halloween Light Show?

[DisneyMatt10]

Hey everyone,

I'm a little new here, so I apologize if this has already been discussed before. But I have some questions about doing a Halloween light show. 

For those of you who have done Halloween light shows, how do you go about running them? (and by that, I mean how long do you run them?)

Do you run them the entire month of October, or do you just run them on Halloween night, or just the week before. Do you highly promote it with signs and such like would be done with a Christmas light show?? Any advice you have for a Halloween light show is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
~Matt

[Plumber Plays with Lights]

My Halloween show starts small midway thru Oct.  I keep my carved singing pumpkins on the porch until Halloween day, then I move everything to the edge of the front yard. At the end of the night me and the family pick up all Halloween props and bring inside. I don't get many viewers during the month but our neighborhood is super popular for trick or treating. We will have 3 or 4 families watching for 5-10 mins at a time. Plus I use Halloween to test new equipment for Christmas ( new controllers, new RGB lights, and anything else I can sneak out)

[1983ss454]

I run mine from the 1st weekend in October to Halloween night, after the trick or treaters stop I start tearing it down and Christmas starts going up the next day 

[oilmoney]

Halloween night only for me, just something for the people to watch while they're waiting to go through the haunted house. This year it looks like halloween will be observed on the 28th where I live as it's the Saturday night....

[Grinch]

I turn the lights on the first weekend of October and shut them down as soon as Halloween is over.  Then the next day I start setting up Christmas to turn on Thanksgiving Night when the entire Family is here to see the lights turn on for Christmas.

[jerrymac]

Mine run from two weeks before Halloween through Halloween.

[EmmienLightFan]

This year, I ran my display on Halloween only. Very few people noticed it and that the lights were synchronised with the music.

This year I will run from mid October.

I will try to have all lights up by the first week of October, so I can record videos and upload them to YouTube.

[sax]

Halloween is my main display. Christmas is the small one.

 

I have ran from the beginning of October to halloween, from mid October and this last year was just the week before.

 

Best response from show watchers is the month long show.  I plan to do that this year again.  I never advertise.  I fear too much traffic....though it hasn't been a problem.

Halloween used to be dead in my neighborhood so it is fun to watch 30+ families standing and watching the show Halloween night.  It is the only night I put a radio out.  Other nights is through the transmitter only.  And I get 2-3 cars at a time watching. 

[Orville]

When I first started it was the entire month, after 2 years of doing it that way, decided the last two weeks of October worked out best.  So I only do it the last 2 weeks of the month.  If Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday night, that night I will run the show up 'til midnight.   Most nights the Halloween show runs from 7:30pm-10pm Sunday-Thursday, 7:30pm-11pm Friday and Saturday, but been considering cutting that back to 9pm Sunday-Thursday and 10pm Friday/Saturday for show shut down times.

 

I usually have close to 30+ songs, so the show length runs just under an hour and a half, but also seriously considering breaking the songs up over several nights and doing specific songs each night, or possibly 2 to 3 shows a night, each with different songs to cut the time down to about 30 minutes for each show.

 

I usually don't promote my shows with the exception of letting folks in the neighborhood know when it'll be up and operational, however, if they promote, can't blame me for the traffic snarls if they'd happen top develop.

[DisneyMatt10]

Thanks everyone for the Feedback! It's definitely helping me figure out what to do scheduling wise!!

 

Another question I have for those of you who do Halloween shows is:

What are some good Halloweeeny (?) Songs to use?? 

Thanks,

- Matt 

[1983ss454]

22 minutes ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

Thanks everyone for the Feedback! It's definitely helping me figure out what to do scheduling wise!!

 

Another question I have for those of you who do Halloween shows is:

What are some good Halloweeeny (?) Songs to use?? 

Thanks,

- Matt 

I like ghostbusters, thriller, and this is Halloween. I also have a small child that loves Mickey so I use a song called they don't scare me, with Mickey Mouse. 

[kingfish]

here is my Halloween list  

halloween list

 

adams family
bring me to life
call of the zombie
dragula
friends on the other side
ghostbusters
grim grinin ghosts
halloween montage   [matt stuart]
it must be halloween
i want candy   bow wow wow
live and let die
monster mash
o fortuna
radioactive
runnin with the devil
sandman
somebody i use to know
spooky scary skeletons
this is halloween
thriller
time warp
tubuler hell
twillight zone rod sterling opening
twillight zone opening rod sterling
welcome to my nightmare
who let the ghost out
witches brew
witches witchve
sandman
somebody i use to know
this is halloween
tubuler hell

 

 

 

[mpageler]

With what I sepnd on this hobby, I'm going to run both halloween and xmas display as long as possible...withing reason.

 

So my halloween goes on 1st weekend in Oct.  If  halloween falls on a thur/friday, may run it through the weekend.

 

[Orville]

This is my Halloween Song List:{2014 list} {And this is only a partial list of the Halloween songs I have acquired!}

Song Name:............................Duration:
[ ]2001intro.......................................01:22
[ ]7th Guest Theme-EDIT............................00:44
[ ]Addams Family-EDIT..............................00:49
[X]American Psycho 2...................................01:08
[ ]Army of the Dead-SHORT_EDIT.....................01:04
[ ]Bad Things......................................02:40
[X]Believe in Me...................................03:16
[X]Believe in Things You Cannot See_EDIT...........01:54
[ ]Bodicea-SHORT_EDIT..............................01:00
[X]Born To Be Alive.....................................03:10
[ ]Cemetery Gates-SHORT_EDIT.......................00:54
[ ]Cemetery Remains................................01:11
[X] Witch Intro & Come Little Children........................ 00:51
[X]Cool to Be a Witch 2_0................................03:46
[ ]Corpse Bride-SHORT_EDIT.........................00:46
[X]Dark House........................................02:28
[ ]Dead Outlaw-SV..................................02:52
[ ]Do You Believe In Monsters-EDIT.................01:53
[ ]Gargoyles.......................................02:45
[ ]Get Gerty.......................................00:25
[X]Ghosts-EDIT.....................................02:26
[X]Graveyard - Dead and Buried Remix-SHORT_EDIT..............01:15
[X]Graveyard_EDIT..................................02:14
[X]Grim Grinning Ghosts............................02:35
[ ]Groovy Graveyard-EDIT...........................03:05
[ ]Halloween-EDIT..................................02:58
[ ]Hang Me High_EDIT...............................02:55
[ ]Haunted Mansion V1..............................00:28
[ ]Hextentanzplatz {Witches Dance Floor}...........02:52
[X]House Of 1000 Corpses-EDIT............................02:35
[ ]I Spit On Your Grave_EDIT.......................02:47
[ ]I Wanna Be a Monster-EDIT.......................03:43
[ ]I'm a Monster-EDIT..............................03:28
[ ]IT_EDIT.........................................01:08
[ ]Jack-O'-Lanterns_EDIT...........................03:24
[ ]Killer..........................................01:16
[ ]Little Dead Girl................................04:09
[ ]Living Dead Girl-EDIT...........................02:13
[X]Living in a Haunted House..............................02:56
[X]Lullaby from Rosemary's Baby....................02:03
[X]Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum......................03:11
[ ]Main Street Electrical Parade-EDIT2.............02:36
[ ]March of the Dead-EDIT..........................02:04
[ ]Mars Attacks - Main Title-EDIT..................01:09
[ ]Masque of Sorrow-SHORT_EDIT.....................01:00
[X]Mona The Vampire................................01:37
[ ]Morbid Fascination-SHORT_EDIT...................01:04
[X]Munsters Theme..................................00:42
[ ]Nature Trail To Hell-Custom Edit................01:40
[X]No One Lives Forever............................04:11
[X]Not Your Savior.................................03:09
[ ]Oggie Boogie....................................02:33
[ ]Over At The Frankenstein Place..................02:41
[X]Pet Sematary....................................03:22
[ ]Phantasm-EDIT...................................01:32
[X]Pumped Up Kicks.................................04:06
[ ]Raven's Hollow_SHORT_EDIT.......................00:38
[ ]Redoubt.........................................01:34
[ ]Shadows Still the Light.........................06:44
[X]Shadows-SHORT_EDIT..............................01:34
[X ]Shake Your Bones................................02:36
[ ]Silent Hill Homecoming-SHORT_EDIT...............01:56
[X ]Silver Shamrock song............................00:47
[ ]Sololiquy-SHORT_EDIT............................01:19
[ ]Something Wicked-SHORT_EDIT.....................01:02
[ ]Spaceballs End Title Music......................03:39
[X]The Apparition..................................01:04
[ ]The Fog End Title-EDIT..........................00:23
[X]The Good Times Goose Bumps Motel................03:50
[ ]The Uninvited-EDIT..............................01:12
[X]The Witches Ghost-SV............................02:01
[X]Theme to 'The Dead Matter' remix................02:47
[ ]They Don't Scare Me_EDIT........................01:06
[ ]Toccata And Fugue...............................02:06
[X]Trick -or- Treat................................01:59
[ ]Undead Hunters-SHORT_EDIT.......................01:22
[ ]Very Scary Halloween............................01:19
[X]Wake The Dead.....................................03:06
[X]We Wish You a Happy Halloween-EDIT.....................01:31
[X]Weird Science-CUSTOM_EDIT.......................01:41

[X}Who Let the Ghosts Out-Extended Edit..........02:03

[ ]Witch on the Housetop-EDIT......................02:08
[X]Witches, Witches, Witches.......................03:02
[ ]Woe-SHORT_EDIT..................................00:47
[X] The Zombie Shuffle_EDIT-01.................02:44

____________________________________________________________________________
LEGEND:
[ ]Song Title/Name = Sequence is still a Work In Progress{WIP}
[X]Song Title/Name = Sequence Completed

[DisneyMatt10]

Thanks for all the responses, and ideas of what music I can use!! I can't wait to start working on the Halloween light show! 

I have to get the Christmas Light Show fully programmed before I can start the Halloween show, but regardless it's going to look great!  (I hope)

[1983ss454]

15 hours ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

Thanks for all the responses, and ideas of what music I can use!! I can't wait to start working on the Halloween light show! 

I have to get the Christmas Light Show fully programmed before I can start the Halloween show, but regardless it's going to look great!  (I hope)

I find it easier to bounce back and forth, when I get stuck on a Christmas song I will work on a Halloween song. 

[canadianchristmas]

All I do now is halloween, and for 2015 I did Disneyland's halloween screens fireworks soundtrack it was very successful. A little too successful almost... I got a bunch of news coverage so I had about 1700 people all watching the show at once on halloween. 

And when I get bored of programming my main halloween show sequences like this happen....... 

One thing I also found nice about 2015 was I was able to tell a story with my show, because I used one long soundtrack instead of a bunch of little songs. For this reason I think people stuck around longer.

[Orville]

On 2/7/2016 at 10:14 AM, 1983ss454 said:

I find it easier to bounce back and forth, when I get stuck on a Christmas song I will work on a Halloween song. 

Me too, if I get stuck on a song and just can't seem to get any further with it, I'll also go and work on either a different song for Halloween or for Christmas.  Then when I get back to the one that gave me trouble I can usually finish it, although sometimes I may have to work on it in many different stages depending on the complexity of the music.

 

But it sure helps to break them up at times like this.

 

NOTE: There are a few songs that are in my list that are not or may not be geared exactly to Halloween, but the music sometimes in some songs just fits nicely or was just interesting/fun to sequence for Halloween.      There's no set rule that says all songs for any given holiday have to match that holiday's theme exactly.  It's all a matter of personal preferences and what one likes and enjoys musically.    Just have fun and go with what you or your children enjoy!   That's the main gist of it all.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by Orville
Just to add some info about my previous song posted listing

[Old Sarge]

from what I have watched... most people have more non Christmas songs in the Christmas shows then they do Christmas songs anyway...

It really doesnt matter what music you use as long as it is something you like... and many use the same songs/ music over and over so much it gets really boring to watch and listen to... especially TSO stuff.... it is like everyone has to do the exact same songs as someone else.. 

 

do music you like... example... look as some of the NONTRADITIONAL things that many different bands and groups have dome and think to yourself... do you think it has a spooky sound or subject that can be used for Halloween etc.... example... Black Magic Woman, Running with the Devil, I Want Candy, Welcome to My Nightmare, as a few examples.. 

 

same for Christmas.... noone says it has to be the traditional Christmas music... mix it up like the beach boys, some country Christmas, maybe a show early for the kids with kids Christmas tunes... and a later one for more grown up or older stuff.... Take maybe some traditional and add some techno beat to it as your own mix.... etc... main thing is to HAVE FUN... dont worry about trying to make all the people here in the forums happy with what you want or what you like to do..

e mail me and I will send you some things I have to maybe give you some ideas... 

 

retired_old_sarge@yahoo.com