Behind the Thrills of Tampa Bay’s BEST Halloween Events
There are some pretty amazing Halloween events around Tampa Bay, but have you ever wondered how event planners make it all happen? Or where they draw their inspiration as they dream up these nightmarish concepts? We went on a hunt to talk to the people who are conjuring up all the Halloween trickery in Tampa Bay to find out!
Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Brad Tucker/Art Director and Creative Lead for Howl-O-Scream
TBPM: Let’s talk about the new haunted houses and scare zones at Howl-O-Scream in 2026! Where do you draw your inspiration? Where do the ideas come from?
Brad Tucker: I draw my inspiration from anything and everything. It could be anything, like seeing something incredible at one of the other large haunts around the world or something as small as a crazy looking bug! Some things just really stick with you or cause some kind of spark in your head, and those are the things that make for great inspiration.
Then it’s just figuring out what I can do with that spark to make it into something that works for what we do.
TBPM: How does it all come together?
BT: It begins with some group discussions about ideas, themes, what’s popular or up-and-coming and how they could work for our event. From there, I will take our final concept and begin to put together some imagery based on that theme and how I can use it to tell our story.
Next, I’ll begin to draw up each scene and every detail that you’ll see for each experience. Many days later, all those drawings will go to a scenic build team to begin construction.
The whole process takes a lot of teamwork and brainpower, but the end result is always worth it!
TBPM: What are you most excited about this year?
BT: This year I’m very excited for a few reasons. We’ve brought back our Dark Side of the Gardens theme, which was previously a fan favorite. It’s also our first time taking on an Intellectual Property for one of our haunted house experiences with Anaconda: Fear Has No Escape. Lastly, we’ve brought back our Fiends show, which was a staple of Howl-O-Scream Tampa for many years. There’s definitely a lot to be excited about at Howl-O-Scream 2026.
TBPM: For kids who want to do your job when they grow up, any advice?
BT: I was that kid growing up and watching adults have fun scaring people and creating the experiences so many people enjoy. For me, it was following that path. I was involved backstage and in scenic construction with my school theater. I went to college for theatrical design and eventually found my way to Busch Gardens Tampa.
I knew I wanted to do Halloween professionally, so I kept on that path until I got where I am today. It definitely took some time, but I never lost sight of the end goal.
Brick or Treat at LEGOLAND® Florida Resort
Ryan Wood/ LEGO Model Shop Manager at LEGOLAND Florida
TBPM: It’s busy here in the workshop! Getting ready for Brick or Treat looks like a true team effort!
Ryan Wood: It takes an incredible number of people to make an event like this happen. We work with partners from Merlin Magic Making, LEGO and our partners at RWS, our entertainment vendor, as well as all our internal attraction partners.
TBPM: As we walk through the new Brick or Treat Street, it’s pretty amazing how the team’s creations make you feel as if you are the size of a LEGO minifigure!
RW: That authenticity and realistic recreation of the LEGO pieces is a big part of what we strive for here at LEGOLAND. All these elements are upscaled perfectly from pieces that you can get in the botanical sets or a castle set. These are all completely spot on, so they obviously did their research.
TBPM: What else are you seeing here in Brick or Treat Street we should be on the lookout for?
RW: I’m spotting little Easter eggs that I want to ask some people about because I’m a Lego lover, and a dad, and an employee, so I’m kind of appreciating all these little things all at the same time. That’s what I mean about that authenticity. Like, the LEGO frogs are actually… a big sort of inside joke in the LEGO fan community.
Every time a frog comes out in a new color that LEGO produces, people go nuts for it. There are people who collect every color. And there are some LEGO set designers who slip in frogs in their sets, even when a frog doesn’t necessarily belong in that set. So, to see multiple frogs scattered around Brick or Treat Street is a nice nod to what’s happening within the LEGO company today.
TBPM: Now to the workshop and your team’s work to add a Halloween twist to MINILAND! What’s it like to hear guests’ reactions?
RW: It’s so rewarding to hear immediate feedback from guests, being able to pivot and react to either things that are entering the social zeitgeist or respond to other things that are going viral. You know, things like Jimothy. Is Jimothy in MINILAND somewhere?
We’ve also slowly, over the years, been getting more like candy pieces, whether they’re printed as candy or they just happen to be molded and look like candy. We try to put more of those in MINILANDERS’ hands. LEGO makes more and more food pieces every year, and we try to throw those in and incorporate them as much as we can.
But even things like Halloween last year, with the Pumpkin building event, being able to have the autonomy to, on the fly, make the decision to be like, hey, can we just leave these in MINILAND as a growing, living pumpkin patch! And I loved that last year. And that was not something we decided on before Brick or Treat started.
TBPM: We love this! Any building tips for kids so they can potentially get their pumpkin displayed in MINILAND?
RW: We’re kind of fond of the kids who kind of go nuts and go crazy with their parts. There’s one over here with very, very leafy hair … so we do keep a few like that, that are just kind of goofy or fun.
Creatures of the Night at ZooTampa
Brandon Agan/Art Design Productions in partnership with ZooTampa
TBPM: Tell us a little about the story of the new haunted realm your company and ZooTampa’s team built here at ZooTampa’s Creatures of the Night, Scared of the Dark.
Brandon Agan: Right here [at the realm entrance], there’s going to be a big magic lantern. And that’s kind of like the main part of the story: When the light goes off in the lantern, the creatures start to come out. So, it’s on in the beginning, and as you go further down the path, there’s a replica of the same exact one. And the light has gone out. That’s when the witch will tell the story of what’s going to happen, and then you walk through the rest of the path as all of the things start to unfold.
We work really closely with Scott Swenson, who does all of the creative [at ZooTampa] as well. He helped come up with a lot of the main plot points, and then we start to dive off of that and kind of expand upon it.
I think the one for this one was just like utilizing things that everybody’s seen before — classic creatures that people know and are familiar with and kind of turning it into this nightmare-fueled kind of dream that you’re walking through.
TBPM: How did you come up with the right balance of spookiness here for all ages?
BA: We didn’t want to go so scary for some of the younger audience that we have, so one thing I kept telling my team was, like, think about it as if we’re doing an episode of Scooby-Doo where you have some of the spookiness and some of the old creepiness to it, but it still is fun. We did the same with the way we painted everything — a little bit, like it should be coming out of a storybook.
TBPM: How did you get your start in designing and building events like Creatures of the Night and teaming up with attractions?
BA: Me and the co-owner, Zach Ramos, started in the film industry. We did commercials, film, live events, conventions and things like that, and that’s where we got our start doing set design, set building and fabricating.
When we jumped over to the zoo, we took a lot of that knowledge and just turned it into something more for live events, for people walking through, so there are a little bit of extra things we do than we did on film sets.
We’re incorporating a lot of fog machines and animatronics, and we have a lot of sensors that will go off as people walk through. Different things will happen, right? That’s kind of how we try to bring it into real life here.
TBPM: What inspired you to get into this career field?
BA: I’ve always been a really big fan of movies and television and creative things like that. I would always watch movies and be very interested in how they created the world.
TBPM: What’s your advice to kids who may want to do what you do when they grow up?
BA: For anybody, especially younger people, I would say just get experience in any way that you can. It’s a really good industry as far as being very welcoming for new people, or people wanting to learn how to get into it. I have people in this crew who, prior to this job, had a small amount of experience, but I saw that they were very driven, and they were really committed, and they had a lot of really fun ideas.
Spooktacular at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Malissa Spencer/Senior Manager of Entertainment
TBPM: Where did the idea of the theming of Spooktacular at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay come from? It’s so magical!
Malissa Spencer: When we first created this, three years ago, a lot of our market research was with our own family. The dance party soundtrack — I played it in my house, watched my children dance to it and saw what resonated with them. We have our own dance parties at night in my home. So we did all the things that we think children love.
Kandy’s art wall was inspired by the rotating display of my kids’ art at home, and Professor Pufflemintz’s Kooky Spooky Science Show grew from our kitchen-counter experiments.
We loved bringing Lucy the Sleepy Dragon to life last year! My daughter, Lucy, and her dragon counterpart both love long naps, spicy ramen and hope to save the world through conservation.
Fun Fact: The new character Mr. Skelly was inspired by a drawing by Malissa’s younger daughter, Stella!
TBPM: How does the creative process work when transforming the park for a new season?
MS: The creative process is truly a team effort. Behind every event are developers, concept artists, scenic fabricators, build and install teams, music and lighting designers, choreographers, training teams, costume designers and seamstresses — it really takes a village to produce a live show. It’s not uncommon for us to plan and build events a year or two in advance. Christmas preparations are a year-round labor of love.
Our warehouse is always buzzing with “elves” fluffing garland and decorating trees. Tree wrapping in the park starts as early as July, with overnight installation shifts to make sure everything sparkles on time.
TBPM: What project stands out as a career highlight?
MS: Definitely Kandy’s Spooktacular! The creative process was such a joy. It was like a real-life acting exercise — “yes, and!” The event artists were wonderfully collaborative and open.
Together, we spent months developing the storyline and details, pouring our hearts into something we’d be proud to share with our own families. The story of Kandy the Witch grew from watching my children play. I listened to their stories, their songs, and borrowed pieces from their imaginative world to bring Kandy and her friends to life.
Every year, when the gates open and we see kids and adults experiencing the magic for the first time, we still tear up!
Whipping Up Spooky Good Fun Flavors at LEGOLAND Florida Resort
The recipes aren’t being sent from some corporate office in a big city far away. Everything you’ll be snacking on this Halloween season was dreamed up right here, and we’re finding out what the inspiration was behind some of the best Halloween treats!
José Alemán/Executive Chef at LEGOLAND® Florida Resort
TBPM: There are some cute, festive menu items at Brick or Treat! How does your team come up with the ideas?
José Alemán: We had some brainstorming sessions a few months ago to start thinking about Halloween. Halloween in June is what I call it. And then, we just keep testing, trying until we come up with something we all agree is where it needs to be. We have a development kitchen, and that’s where we get to play. We have all sorts of toys and flavors and just get to mix and match.
TBPM: The special events have to be fun to work on!
JA: Yeah. Being able to play with all those things and marry the stories with Brick or Treat and with the characters specifically — we have Spider Lady Lemonade — a little bit of those colors there and a gummy spider at the top. That’s where we’re able to tell you this is something Spider Lady created for everyone.
I used to work at a more traditional kitchen and then moved over to LEGOLAND, where I get to play with food and focus on what kids would like. You’ve got to get in that mindset of what a kid would enjoy and be a kid every day. I have three kids. I know what flavors they like, but I obviously think it’s not just my kids; I have to see what other kids like.
TBPM: What are your favorite treats at Brick or Treat this year?
JA: My favorites are either our Monster Loaded Fries or our Pumpkin Pie Apple Fries. They come in a souvenir LEGO Minifigure head.
Make Spider Lady’s Lemonade at home!
Ingredients:
- Blood orange flavoring (two pumps)
- Lemonade
- Ice
- Blueberry boba
- Spider gummy
Directions:
- Blend ice, lemonade and blood orange flavoring until slushy.
- Coat a clear glass with squiggles of red raspberry syrup.
- Add the slushy mix to the glass and top with blueberry boba and a spider gummy.
*Article originally published in the October 2026 issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine.