{"id":396077,"date":"2026-09-10T18:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396077\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:26:12","slug":"busch-gardens-howl-o-scream-kicks-off-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396077\/","title":{"rendered":"Busch Gardens&#8217; Howl-O-Scream kicks off this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"519\" data-attachment-id=\"367693\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/howloscreamfacebook\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HowlOScreamFacebook.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1280,853\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HowlOScreamFacebook\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HowlOScreamFacebook.jpg?fit=780%2C519&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HowlOScreamFacebook.jpg\" alt=\"A dramatic, low-light night photograph of a scare actor performing during Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida. Lit by warm orange spotlighting against a dark wooden fence, a costumed figure stands centered while wearing a long-sleeved, blood-stained shirt and a tattered burlap mask with hanging frayed strands covering their face. The figure holds an index finger up to their lips in a &quot;shh&quot; hushing gesture, set against dark shadowy backgrounds and red accent lighting in the distance.\" class=\"wp-image-367693\"  \/>Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida. Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=1418326960481689&amp;set=pb.100069131966032.-2207520000&amp;type=3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HowlOScream \/ Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are just 50 days until Halloween, but it\u2019s never too early to shit your pants in a haunted house. <a href=\"https:\/\/buschgardens.com\/tampa\/events\/howl-o-scream\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/buschgardens.com\/tampa\/events\/howl-o-scream\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay<\/a> can help and has added a new scary maze to its offering in 2026 (but please don\u2019t ask anyone there to wipe your ass).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnaconda: Fear Has No Escape\u201d\u2014complete with giant animatronic reptile heads\u2014is new for longtime fans of the fall pastime, in addition to a pair of new scare zones and the \u201cFiends\u201d live show. Six houses in total are there for guests along with many of the rides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Howl-O-Scream happens select nights Sept. 11-Oct. 31 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, and tickets start at $48.99.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cheetah_hunt_sun_beam_1_.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/tampa-newslettersignup-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAiECLjru3gB6BLYKOKFLfkVZsqFAgKIhAi467t4AegS2CjihS35FWb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbreak.com\/@c\/1599764?s=01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CreativeLoafingTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cltampabay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cltampabay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/cltampabay.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/collections\/september-03-09-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 03 \u2013 09, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead his 2016 intro letter\u00a0and disclosures from 2022 and 2021.\u00a0Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/author\/rroa\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ray Roa\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida. Credit: HowlOScream \/ Facebook There are just 50 days&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19617,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-396077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-busch-gardens","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}