Pigeon Forge turns into a Halloween playground each fall when Rowdy Bear Smoky Mountain Fun Park transforms into its seasonal Boo Park for the Boo Bash event. Held on select nights throughout September and October, the event combines unlimited-ride access with trick-or-treating, a scavenger hunt, a dance party and a lineup of fall-themed food and drinks, making it one of the more complete family Halloween outings in the Smoky Mountains.

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Rowdy Bear’s Boo Bash

Location: Rowdy Bear Smoky Mountain Fun Park, Pigeon Forge, TN, next to the local goat attraction and across from the Titanic Museum
Dates: select nights in September and October
Nights it runs: Tuesday, Friday and Saturday
Hours: 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (trick-or-treating 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
Price: $39.99 per person; $9.99 for children under the minimum riding age of 3
Local discount: $10 off per ticket for Sevier County residents
Included: four hours of unlimited rides, trick-or-treating, scavenger hunt, two dance parties, photos with Rowdy Bear

The park sits right next to a local goat attraction and directly across from the Titanic Museum, placing it in the heart of the Pigeon Forge Parkway entertainment corridor. That location makes it easy to pair a visit to Boo Bash with other nearby attractions on the same trip, since much of the area’s dining and entertainment is within a short walk or drive. Guests coming from other Parkway attractions can plan their evening around the 6:00 p.m. start time and simply walk or drive over once earlier daytime plans wrap up, without needing to build in extra travel time across town.

What Boo Bash actually is

Rowdy Bear Smoky Mountain Fun Park operates as a standard amusement park for most of the year, offering wristbands for one or two hours of unlimited rides. During Boo Bash, that format gets a seasonal overhaul. The park adds Halloween decorations, trick-or-treating stations, a scavenger hunt built around candy corn props scattered through the grounds, and a dance party featuring the park’s mascot, Rowdy Bear. The ride wristband itself gets extended well beyond the usual one or two hours, giving guests a four-hour window instead.

This is not a haunted-house style event and it is not built around jump scares. The tone stays firmly on the family-friendly, not-so-scary side of Halloween programming, which makes it a fit for younger children who want costumes and candy without anything designed to frighten them.

When Boo Bash runs

Boo Bash takes place on select nights across the fall season rather than every day of the week. According to the park staff, the event runs every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night during September and October. Checking the specific calendar before planning a visit is worth doing, since the schedule is tied to those three nights each week rather than running as a daily event.

The unlimited-ride portion of the event runs from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., a four-hour block that replaces the shorter one- or two-hour wristband windows sold on regular park days. Guests who arrive right at 6:00 p.m. get the full run of the event, including the earliest trick-or-treating slots before the candy at some stops runs low.

Boo Bash ticket pricing

Admission to Boo Bash is priced at $39.99 per person, which covers the four hours of unlimited rides along with trick-or-treating access. For younger children who fall below the park’s minimum height or age requirement to ride, a reduced ticket is available at $9.99. That lower-priced ticket does not include rides, but it does include trick-or-treating, the dance party and photos with Rowdy Bear, so families with a mix of older and younger kids can still bring everyone along without paying full price for children who cannot yet ride.

The minimum age to ride at the park is three years old, and children under that age (or otherwise too small for the rides) are the ones who qualify for the reduced ticket. A Sevier County resident discount is also available, taking $10 off the price of a ticket for locals, which is worth mentioning to the ticket window if purchasing in person.

Guests do not need a wristband to enter the park in general. A separate park hopper pass exists for those who simply want ride access without attending the Boo Bash program itself, though that pass follows the park’s standard structure rather than the extended Boo Bash hours.

Trick-or-treating at Rowdy Bear

Trick-or-treating runs during the first stretch of the event, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and is open to guests of all ages rather than being limited to small children. Seven separate trick-or-treat stations are set up around the park, and guests carry a card that gets punched at each stop after receiving candy. Visiting all seven stations means making a full loop of the grounds, and staff have noted that the earlier stops tend to have more variety before supplies run low closer to 7:30.

Treats handed out at the stations have included cheese balls, pretzels and Rice Krispie treats, along with pieces of Reese’s and even a cinnamon roll topped with whipped cream at one stop, so the lineup goes beyond straight candy at several stations. That mix of snack items alongside traditional candy is one detail that stood out to guests moving through the stations, since it gives trick-or-treaters something closer to an actual treat rather than just another handful of wrapped candy. Since the window closes at 7:30 p.m. sharp, families who want to prioritize trick-or-treating over rides should plan to knock out the stations first, especially if visiting with younger kids who move at a slower pace.

Costumes are welcome and encouraged throughout the event, for kids and adults alike. There is no stated restriction limiting costumes to a particular age group, so the whole family can dress up for the night.

The candy corn scavenger hunt

Layered on top of the trick-or-treating stations is a scavenger hunt built around candy corn decorations placed throughout the park. Guests look for letters hidden on these candy corn props as they move through the grounds, then piece the letters together to solve a word. Once solved, bringing the answer to the park staff earns a prize.

The scavenger hunt is designed to be figured out independently rather than announced outright, so part of the appeal is simply keeping an eye out while walking between rides and trick-or-treat stops. It works well as a side activity that keeps older kids engaged even after they have made the rounds for candy.

Dance party and photos with Rowdy Bear

Rowdy Bear himself, the park’s mascot, hosts a dance party twice during the event. The first session runs from 6:30 p.m. to 6:50 p.m., followed immediately by a window for photos with Rowdy Bear. A second dance party and photo session takes place later in the evening, from 7:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m., timed to start right as the trick-or-treating window closes.

This is one of the few Boo Bash activities that reduced-ticket guests, meaning children too young to ride, can fully take part in alongside everyone else. Between the dance parties, the trick-or-treating and the photo opportunities, younger kids who cannot yet ride the coasters still have a full slate of things to do during the visit.

Rides and attractions included with the wristband

The four-hour Boo Bash wristband covers the park’s full ride lineup, and the two headline attractions sit right next to each other in the middle of the park, split by a large decorative spider set up for the season.

The first is Rowdy’s Sky Patrol, an elevated ride that lifts riders into the air while they aim a mounted gun at targets scattered along the course and try to rack up points. Riders must be at least 40 inches tall to ride with an adult, and the combined weight of riders is capped at 375 pounds.

The second is Rowdy’s Hot Rod Racers, a ground-level ride where one rider in the pair controls the speed, making it easy to take it slow for a calmer lap or open it up for more of a thrill. Both attractions can be ridden as many times as guests like during the four-hour window.

Beyond those two headline rides, the park’s midway includes a rotation of carnival-style rides, among them the Spinnamaker and the Giggler, along with a ride called the Hyperactive that had a set of skeleton riders decorating it during Boo Bash.

A playground area is also available, with a posted maximum weight of 150 pounds for guests using the equipment. The whole park is dressed for the season with spider and spider web decorations layered throughout Boo Park, plus fall-themed music playing over the grounds.

Two more activities are included with the wristband:

summer tubing set up on the hillside, and axe throwing for guests aged 10 and older. For the tubing, guests grab a tube and ride a conveyor belt back up to the top after each run, and like the rest of the wristband-covered attractions, it can be ridden as many times as desired.

Axe throwing takes place across a set of lanes, with staff on hand to help guests get set up, walk through basic safety guidelines, and get a target in front of them for some friendly family competition. For Boo Bash nights specifically, the park adds extra lighting and special effects to several attractions to match the Halloween theme.

Because the wristband covers unlimited rides for the full four hours rather than a fixed number of ride credits, guests who find a favorite ride can simply return to it again and again rather than rationing turns, which is a meaningful difference from ticket-based ride models used at some other regional attractions.

Trigger Town: the gel blaster ride

One of the standout attractions included with the Boo Bash wristband is Trigger Town, a gel blaster experience built around an old western town setting. Riders move through the town aboard tractor-pulled carts, holding down an automatic trigger to fire gel blasters at targets along the route, including a section themed around shooting at zombies. Staff offer safety goggles before the ride begins, and the controls are simple enough that first-time riders pick them up quickly. For Boo Bash, the park has added lighting and special effects to the Trigger Town course, giving it a different look and feel after dark compared to how it runs during the daytime.

One detail worth knowing before visiting: while nearly every other attraction on the wristband can be ridden as many times as guests want, Trigger Town is limited to one ride per unlimited-ride wristband. That makes it worth doing earlier in the visit rather than saving it for later in case time runs short. It is also one of the attractions worth prioritizing on a first visit, since it offers a different pace and format compared to the two headline rides and the carnival attractions elsewhere in the park.

Food and specialty drinks

Boo Bash comes with a seasonal food and drink menu that goes beyond the usual park snack stand. Pizza, hot dogs topped with chili and cheese, and nachos are available as savory options, alongside a rotating lineup of specialty popcorns. Staff have described having seven different popcorn flavors on hand during the event, including caramel corn, cookie crunch and buffalo ranch, with buffalo ranch called out by staff as a personal favorite. These specialty popcorns have a reputation for selling out quickly on busy nights, so grabbing a bag earlier in the evening is a safer bet than waiting until later.

On the drink side, the park offers around six or seven specialty beverages built for the season. One notable option is a green apple slushie topped with purple-tinted vanilla cold foam and gummy worms, offering a sour-and-sweet combination along with a fun visual presentation. Another is a drink served with a syringe used to mix in additional flavoring, built around a starry-soda base with vanilla cherry notes and topped with candy teeth for a Halloween-appropriate garnish.

Both drinks lean into the seasonal theme with their presentation as much as their flavor, and they’re worth trying even for guests who are not otherwise planning to eat a full meal at the park. In a side-by-side taste comparison, opinions landed on both sides: one taster preferred the syringe drink for its vanilla cherry, soda-like flavor, while the other leaned toward the green apple slushie for its sour, icy quality. That kind of split suggests either drink is a safe bet depending on whether a guest prefers something fruitier and creamier or something tart and icy.

Importantly, the specialty drinks and food are available to anyone visiting the area, not just guests who purchase the unlimited-ride wristband. Guests do not need to be riding at all to park nearby, walk in, and pick up a drink or a bag of popcorn, which makes Rowdy Bear a reasonable stop even for visitors who only want a fall-themed snack while exploring the rest of the Pigeon Forge Parkway.

What happens during bad weather

Outdoor amusement parks are subject to weather delays, and Rowdy Bear is no exception. Rides are paused when conditions turn unsafe, including during rain and lightning. On nights with poor weather, guests may find themselves waiting indoors or shifting their visit toward the indoor food and drink offerings until rides resume, so it is worth building some flexibility into evening plans during Boo Bash season, when fall storms can move through the area with little warning.

For guests who want something scarier: Rocky Top Mountain Coaster’s Zombie Invasion

The same ownership group behind Rowdy Bear also operates Rocky Top Mountain Coaster, which runs its own Halloween-season event called Zombie Invasion. That event leans into a scarier, more intense theme aimed at older kids, teens and adults who want a Halloween experience with an actual scare factor built in, rather than the family-friendly trick-or-treating format at Boo Bash.

Families with a wider age range, or groups that include guests who specifically want a spookier night out, might consider splitting time between the two events or picking Zombie Invasion instead if younger children are not part of the group. Boo Bash remains the better fit for families prioritizing costumes, candy and a calmer atmosphere over scares, and it works especially well for families with a toddler or preschooler in the group who is not ready for a haunted attraction but still wants to dress up and get some Halloween candy.

Since both events are run by the same ownership group, a group with a wide age range could realistically plan a fall trip that includes an evening at Boo Bash for the younger kids and a separate night at Zombie Invasion for the teenagers or adults in the group who want more of a scare. Doing both across a multi-night Pigeon Forge stay would give a family a genuinely full range of Halloween-season options without asking younger children to sit out an event built for older guests.

Tips for planning a Boo Bash visit

Arriving right at 6:00 p.m. gives guests the best shot at working through all seven trick-or-treat stations before the 7:30 p.m. cutoff, particularly with young children who move slower between stops. Since the scavenger hunt runs the entire time the park is open for the event, it can be tackled at any point in the evening, including after trick-or-treating wraps up, making it a good activity to fall back on once the candy stations close.

Because the wristband allows unlimited rides rather than a set number of turns, riders with a favorite coaster or attraction can simply return to it repeatedly rather than spacing out rides to make ride credits last. Checking the event calendar in advance is also worth doing, since Boo Bash runs only on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights rather than every day of the week during September and October.

Guests planning to attend with children too young to ride should factor in the $9.99 reduced ticket, which still covers trick-or-treating, both dance party sessions and photos with Rowdy Bear, so no one in the family group is left without something to do for the evening.

Trigger Town’s one-ride limit is another detail worth planning around. Since every other attraction on the wristband allows unlimited repeat rides, guests who want to make sure they get their single Trigger Town run in should fit it into the early or middle part of the visit rather than treating it as something to save for the very end of the night, particularly on nights when weather might cut the evening short. Sevier County residents should also remember to mention their residency at the ticket window, since the $10 discount is not necessarily applied automatically.

Who Boo Bash is best suited for

Boo Bash is built for families with kids in the toddler-through-elementary range who want a Halloween outing built around costumes, candy and rides rather than scares. The reduced $9.99 ticket for children under the minimum riding age means the event still works even for families with a baby or very young toddler along, since that ticket covers trick-or-treating, the dance parties and photos without requiring a full-price ride ticket for a child who cannot yet use the rides.

Groups without young children can still get plenty out of a visit, since the unlimited four-hour ride window, Trigger Town, axe throwing and the seasonal food and drink menu are not tied to trick-or-treating in any way. A group of teens or adults could reasonably skip the trick-or-treat stations altogether and still get a full night of rides, gel blasters and specialty popcorn out of the ticket price.

Frequently asked questions about Rowdy Bear’s Boo Bash

How much does Rowdy Bear’s Boo Bash cost?

Boo Bash costs $39.99 per person, which includes four hours of unlimited rides and trick-or-treating. Children under the minimum riding age of 3 can attend for $9.99, which covers trick-or-treating, both dance parties and photos with Rowdy Bear, but not rides.

What nights is Boo Bash open?

Boo Bash runs on select nights during September and October, specifically Tuesday, Friday and Saturday each week. It is not open every night of the fall season.

What time does Boo Bash start and end?

The event runs from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Trick-or-treating specifically runs during the first part of the event, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Is there a minimum age to trick-or-treat?

No. Trick-or-treating at Boo Bash is open to guests of all ages, not just young children.

How many trick-or-treat stations are there?

There are seven trick-or-treat stations set up around the park. Guests carry a card that gets punched at each stop after receiving a treat.

Is Boo Bash scary?

No. Boo Bash is designed as a family-friendly, not-so-scary Halloween event built around trick-or-treating, a dance party and rides. Guests looking for a scarier experience can instead visit Zombie Invasion at the affiliated Rocky Top Mountain Coaster.

Is there a discount for local residents?

Yes. Sevier County residents receive a $10 discount per ticket.

Can kids too young to ride still attend?

Yes. Children under the park’s minimum riding age of 3 can attend for $9.99, which includes trick-or-treating, the dance parties and photos with Rowdy Bear, even though it does not include rides.

Getting tickets

Tickets for Boo Bash can be purchased in advance online through the park’s website, which is generally the more convenient option for guests who already know which night they plan to visit, particularly given that the event only runs three nights a week. Same-night wristbands are also available at the park for guests who prefer to decide day-of or who are already in the area.

Boo Bash offers a fuller lineup of activities than a typical evening at Rowdy Bear Smoky Mountain Fun Park, combining trick-or-treating, a scavenger hunt, dance parties, seasonal food and drinks, and four hours of unlimited rides into a single ticket. For families visiting Pigeon Forge during the fall season and looking for a Halloween event that skips the scare factor in favor of costumes, candy and rides, it stands out as one of the more well-rounded options in the Smoky Mountains.

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