Dorney Park in Allentown has earned a spot on USA Today’s 10Best list of the country’s top theme park Halloween events, with readers voting the Halloween Haunt No. 10 nationwide in the 2026 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
The National Recognition
The USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for theme park Halloween events draws nominations from amusement parks across the country, with the final rankings determined by public vote. Dorney Park’s finish at No. 10 places the Allentown park alongside events at larger venues in major metropolitan areas, and marks continued national attention for a regional park that serves the greater Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, and New Jersey market.
The 2026 Halloween Haunt runs select Thursday through Sunday nights from September 18 through October 31.
Two New Attractions for 2026
Dorney Park added two new experiences to this year’s Haunt lineup. Blair Witch: No Signal is a new haunted maze drawing on The Blair Witch Project film franchise, designed as an immersive walk-through experience. The Conductor is a new live production staged inside the park’s McTavish Steel Yard area, combining percussion, violin, and pyrotechnics in a theatrical show format.
What the Full Haunt Includes
Beyond the new additions, the Halloween Haunt features six total haunted mazes, five scare zones staffed by performers, four live entertainment experiences, and hundreds of monsters throughout the park, alongside regular thrill rides operating after dark. The mix of mazes, street scares, and shows has been the foundation of the event for several years, with new attractions cycling in each season to bring returning visitors something fresh.
From HalloWeekends to Haunt
The event readers just ranked tenth in the country started in 1998 as HalloWeekends, the fall program Cedar Fair was rolling out across its parks after buying Dorney Park in 1992. It carried that name for ten seasons.
The 2008 season is where the current event begins. Dorney announced what it called the largest expansion of its Halloween program since HalloWeekends started, renamed the whole thing Halloween Haunt, and opened three new attractions: Club Blood, CornStalkers and Terror Square. The next year the park pushed the program to 13 haunted attraction experiences, close to the scale it runs at now.
The lineup has turned over steadily since. Ghost in the Machine arrived in 2023. In 2024 the park added Tricks and Treats, a daytime version for families who want the fall decorations without the scareactors. Blair Witch: No Signal and The Conductor are this year’s additions.
Dorney Park and the Lehigh Valley
Dorney Park is one of the Lehigh Valley’s largest seasonal employers and tourist draws, located on Hamilton Boulevard in Allentown near the Lehigh County and South Whitehall Township lines. The Halloween Haunt has grown into one of the park’s signature seasonal events, extending the operating season into October and drawing visitors from well beyond the immediate region.
At a Glance
- Dorney Park’s Halloween Haunt ranked No. 10 in USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for theme park Halloween events in 2026
- New for 2026: Blair Witch: No Signal haunted maze and The Conductor live show combining percussion, violin, and pyrotechnics
- Full event includes six haunted mazes, five scare zones, four live entertainment experiences, and rides after dark
- Halloween Haunt runs select nights September 18 through October 31 at Dorney Park in Allentown
- The event began in 1998 as HalloWeekends and was renamed Halloween Haunt in 2008
