Warrington Halloween Event Cancels Two Nights Over Storms

The owner of a sold-out outdoor Halloween attraction in Warrington says cancelling two nights because of bad weather was the "hardest decision" of the whole event.

Barbara Ikim runs Halloweenville at Partridge Lakes, which has been open since 2 October. She called off Friday and Saturday night after Storm Austen brought heavy rain and strong wind on Friday and several trees fell at the site. Storm Boelo was expected to cause further problems.

"Even though when I made the announcement today it looked calm, I just couldn't take that risk," she said. A massive tree had come down, and she said that together with the forecast it was "that eye-opening moment of nothing is going to be worth that happening".

Ikim, a mother of two, said she thought about how other parents would feel taking children into woodland under weather warnings for wind. She asked herself, "would I be excited or would I be terrified?"

The event is fully booked until it closes on 1 November, so tickets for the two nights had to be refunded. She said that made the decision harder, because "there's going to be a lot of really disappointed kids that can't come now".

Preparation and power cut

Ikim said the team has learned over the years to secure the event from the start, with everything strapped and pegged for an outdoor event in October. They still spent about four hours on Saturday securing the site and laying down barriers.

The site lost power on Saturday, she said in an update on the event's social media feed. She said the team would make the decision "100 times over" when children's safety was at risk. "The forecast was not wrong," she said, adding that the storm would have been dangerous and "completely terrifying" for anyone under trees and near a lake.

She said storms are very stressful for her business and can cause many sleepless nights, but are "just part of the parcel of running outdoor events".

Source: BBC News