Phobia is a new for 2019 event set in High Gosforth Park, next to Newcastle Racecourse. As it was completely new I didn’t really know what to expect for this event. Signage to find the correct car park was scarce in the dark, but I eventually managed to find the right place and having parked up, in I went.
Theming was sparse in the ticket tent and the subsequent glass walled marquee, which had a bar, a photo op with props and I’m assuming a bit later some food options. I had a short wait before I was gathered with a group of four others to start the Phobia experience. Phobia follows the long walk in the woods format with some scare parts in a variety of different sections.
First off, Phobia had a very impactful start as we were gruffly instructed by a pair of balaclava wearing goons to line up against a fence before we had hoods placed on our head. We were then led in to the back of a minibus for a very entertaining drive the length of the home straight of the Racecourse with some crazy driving from our abductors. Eventually we stopped, were led out of the van, had our hoods removed and I was handed a small flashlight, before our captors silently drove off, leaving us somewhat confused on our own.
What followed was a fun, and very muddy walk through the woodland and various buildings, which have many of the usual scenes each nicely themed with some game and fun actors in the rooms and woods. It had a couple of elements that I’ve never seen before such as using a kiddie’s inflatable maze populated with a scary clown actor and at one point we were harassed by a goon on a quad bike. The chainsaw wielding hillbillies were good value, terrifying the group of four that I was with.
Overall this was a fun event with some good actors providing some decent scares and creepy elements. Personally I’d have preferred a few more actors in most of the scare zones, and obviously since this is its first year running, Phobia clearly doesn’t have the budget of the larger, more established events so theming and sets weren’t on the same level you’d get in the bigger attractions. It definitely has a lot of potential and I hope, following 2019’s run, that I get to experience it again in 2020 bigger and better.
