Knott’s Berry Farm, the originator of the theme park haunt experience, has canceled plans to hold their popular Knott’s Scary Farm event for 2020. This comes after California took the lead in reported cases statewide with 509,926 infections and 9,501 fatalities. The announcement arrived quietly in a Park update on the Knott’s Website from Jon Storbeck, Vice President & General Manager of Knott’s Berry Farm.

“We have been so grateful for the opportunity to welcome guests back to Knott’s Berry Farm to enjoy our recently introduced Knott’s Taste of Calico event as well as the unique experiences in our California Marketplace, despite the challenges that have come with the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to thank our guests and associates for making Knott’s a safe place to visit during this challenging time. We appreciate everyone’s support and cooperation with the park’s new health and safety measures – we are getting through this together.

Although we continue to work with government officials as well as health and safety experts on developing guidance to re-opening the full theme park, we are unfortunately still unable to announce an opening date. However, we remain optimistic for the remainder of 2020 and want to share a few important park updates:

• • Starting August 21, guests can enjoy an all-new outdoor dining and retail experience in a way that only Knott’s Berry Farm could offer, with the all-new Taste of Knott’s. Expanding upon the Taste of Calico experience, Taste of Knott’s will celebrate 100 years of classic flavors from around the park with unique food, drink and merchandise offerings. Guests may enjoy Taste of Knott’s throughout Ghost Town, Fiesta Village and the Boardwalk area on weekends through September 13. We look forward to offering more of these unique dining and retail experiences until we are able to reopen the theme park fully.
  • Also, on August 21, the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel will reopen for lodging.  Guests may learn more about special Taste of Knott’s hotel packages at Knotts.com.
  • In the meantime, guests may continue to enjoy select offerings from the California Marketplace including alfresco dining on Grand Avenue from Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant, Knott’s Chicken-to-Go Restaurant, the Farm Bakery and Berry Market as well as items from our specialty retail stores.
  • Regrettably, due to continued operating restrictions related to the pandemic, we have had to make the very difficult decision to cancel our highly anticipated 2020 Knott’s Scary Farm event. The unique features of Scary Farm will not allow us to operate within the constraints recommended by the CDC and public health experts.  We know that this news is disappointing, but we look forward with great enthusiasm to making 2021 Knott’s Scary Farm our best year ever. 
  • When we can fully reopen the park, we look forward to introducing Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair, our all-new 4D interactive dark ride that celebrates a beloved classic attraction with a reimagined gaming twist.  Guests will climb aboard themed vehicles equipped with “jelly blasters” to try to recover stolen boysenberry pies as they travel through whimsical environments such as the Boysenberry Pie Factory, Frog Forest, Fortune Teller Camp and Weird Woods.  The ride culminates in a celebration at the County Fair.

Please keep in mind that all 2020 Season Passes and add-on products have been extended through 2021. Our entire team is hard at work getting ready for what will be a fantastic year ahead, including our rescheduled Knott’s 100th Anniversary celebration!

We all look forward to having fun safely for the rest of this season and beyond. There’s still plenty of summer fun to enjoy this year with the new Taste of Knott’s outdoor event, plus Knott’s California Marketplace retail and dining venues.

Again, I want to thank you for your continued support. I hope to see you on the Farm very soon!”

With the Halloween season bearing down upon us, and COVID-19 cases nowhere near where they should be, this is not unexpected but tremendously disappointing for fans of Halloween and haunt events. Despite the bad news, it makes us appreciative of the care Knott’s puts into the guest experience which includes not only the fun of the theme park but the safety of their visitors. With the cancellation came the promise of an even bigger and better Haunt in 2021. WEAR YOUR MASKS PEOPLE!