Halloween haunted house or trail

Turn a classroom block, hall or empty house into a scary walk-through and charge entry, with a spooky-food stall at the exit.

Typically raises

$1,600

$500–12,000 per event

About $53 per organiser hour

Based on one school haunted house night

Is it right for us?

Money: $500–2,000
Work: Weeks, part-time
Helpers: 16–40 people
Lead time: 1–2 months
Red tape: Some

Uncommon: still a novelty in NZ, so it draws a crowd

People: 10-25: scare actors in shifts, queue marshals, door/ticket sellers, a first-aider and a stall crew (estimate)
Organiser time: 20-40 hours incl. design, set build, roster and teardown (estimate)
Lead time: 6-8 weeks to book the space, recruit actors and gather props (estimate)
Up-front cost: $300. Black plastic, fabric, battery lights, props and face paint; most can be borrowed or donated (estimate).
Risk: Low: costs are mostly decorations; the main risk is a poor turnout on a wet night.

Can suit, but rarely run by: Primary or intermediate school, High school, Scouts or Guides, Community group, marae or service club, Kapa haka, choir, theatre or band

When: Spring (Sep–Nov), Halloween

How big a job: Several weeks, part-time, 16–40 people

How it works

The money, as an example sum

Sell at $5 a ticket, keep $5, so 380 tickets = $1,900, or about $1,600 after about $300 of costs. That’s about the typical result.

Using the figures on this page. Your prices and costs will differ.

Where the money figure comes from

Macandrew Bay School's haunted house in an old dental clinic raised more than $500 with gold-coin entry (ODT). St Patrick's School Napier's 'Fright Night' raised $1,600 for its senior syndicate (NZ Catholic). A one-off haunted house in a newly bought Devonport home drew more than 800 visitors over two nights and raised over $12,000 (Devonport Flagstaff, Aug 2025). Typical figure uses the Napier school result.

Last checked October 2026. Ran this? Tell us what you raised and we’ll use real results to improve the figures.

Step by step

Remember NZ Halloween falls in spring with long evenings; plan sessions after dark or black out the space fully.
Get written permission for the building or grounds, and agree finish times with neighbours in mind.
Design a one-way route with a clear 'chicken exit' halfway through for anyone too scared.
Run two levels: a lights-on 'little kids' session early, and a scarier session later (age-guided).
Recruit older students or parents as actors; brief them: no touching, no chasing outside the route.
Sell timed tickets online or at the door ($5-10 per person is common for small events, estimate) and cap group size per entry.
Put a marshal at the start and end of the route with torches and radios or phones.
Add a spooky-food and drink stall at the exit where queues form.
Do a full walk-through with the lights on beforehand to find trip hazards.
Pack down the same night and photograph the space for the building owner.

Getting the word out

Even a well-run plan fails if nobody hears about it. There are two asks, and the first one goes out first.

Ask for help: Helpers for the day or night, and local businesses for prizes.
Ask people to buy: People to book tickets or tables, and turn up.
When to start: Ask for helpers first, as soon as the date is set. Start the public ask about 3–4 weeks out, and book newsletter and paper notices before that: small newsletters close early.

Where to put it

School, club and church newslettersYour own newsletter is free and read by the families most likely to say yes. Check when it closes.
PostersPosters at the school gate, the clubrooms and shop windows, with the date, place, price and how to pay.
Local Facebook pages and community groupsPost in your town’s community page and local groups (check their rules), and share from your group’s own page.
Email lists and group chatsYour members’ email list and the class, team or church group chats. Short, with one date or one link.

The full guide to getting the word out: every channel from flyers to the evening news, with lead times and costs.

What you’ll need

Place: NeededYour own grounds or hall
Landowner’s permission: NeededYes, in writing
Council permit: Not needed
Food rules: CheckNo registration if you sell food to fundraise for a good cause up to 20 times a calendar year. It must still be safe and suitable, and your council may need a stall permit
Alcohol: Not neededNo alcohol sold
Gambling rules: Not neededNot gambling
Health and safety: CheckA simple risk check and briefing
First aid: NeededA first aider and kit on site (recommended)
Insurance: CheckCheck your cover

Usually in a school building or hall with the owner's permission; keep evacuation routes clear and check haze machines against fire alarms. A school is a PCBU under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Make more from it

Spooky food and drink stall at the exit
$100-400 a night (estimate)
queues and excited kids leaving the trail
Glow sticks and torches for the queue
$50-200 (estimate)
cheap stock, high markup in the dark
Guess the eyeballs (lollies) in the jar
$50-150 (estimate)
simple add-on in the queue

Stack it: on its own, about $1,600. With the 3 priced add-ons above, roughly

$2,100est.

What you can get donated

Props and costumes from families; black plastic and timber offcuts from a hardware store; lollies for the exit from a supermarket.

Tips

Queues were 'several hundred metres' long at the Devonport event, so a separate queue area with music and a food stall keeps people waiting happily (Devonport Flagstaff).
Using a building that is about to be renovated or demolished means you can decorate freely; the Devonport house was about to be renovated (Devonport Flagstaff).
A gold-coin early session followed by a priced later session suits mixed ages; Macandrew Bay reopened with gold-coin entry (ODT).

Watch out for

Very young children get genuinely frightened; a lights-on session avoids tears and complaints.
Some families and churches avoid Halloween; offer a neutral 'spooky' or 'glow' theme if your community is mixed.
Blocking exits with drapes or props is a real fire risk.

Free tools for this

Event budget and break-evenCover hire, food and prizes before you set the ticket price.
Cash float and takings counterDoor and food-stall cash, counted in pairs and banked the next day.
Event run sheetOne timed plan for set-up, the event and pack-down.
Checklist for any ideaBefore, on the day and after, built from this idea’s own steps and rules.

Typical rules

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015: a school is a PCBU and must manage the risks; a volunteer association with no employees is not a PCBU (WorkSafe), but you still owe visitors a duty of care. Write a simple risk plan: trip hazards, dark areas, exits, crowd flow.
Keep fire exits and evacuation routes clear and lit. Haze or smoke machines can set off fire alarms; check with the building owner before using one.
Food sold at the exit is covered by the Food Act 2014 fundraising exemption if you sell fewer than 20 times a year, but it must be safe and suitable (MPI).
Using a public building or council hall needs the owner's written permission and may require their event or hire conditions to be met.

Check the details

Selling food · MPI: Fundraising and community event food safety rules

Sources

Researched October 2026. All fundraising ideas

* General fundraising information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Money figures are examples and estimates, not promises. Check current official requirements before you commit. About this guide