Frightening sounds of screams, strobe lights in the air, figures lurking the shadows; but this year for the second time, darkness engulfs the sky and silence lingers in the air where screams used to occupy.

On Oct 5th, the local outdoor scare adventure, Nightmare at Beaver Lake announced it has been postponed for the second year in a row. 

The Nightmare at Beaver Lake is Sammamish Rotary’s major fundraiser event. Their aim was to create an event that not only gave back to the community, but allowed for involvement amongst the teenagers on and off the scare floor. 

Nightmare at Beaver Lake has been a scare production since 2004. It is a heavily volunteer-run show working alongside the Rotary Club of Sammamish, Scare Productions, and City of Sammamish. The first year of Nightmare’s production, nearly 4,000 patrons walked their way through several haunting indoor outdoor theatrical sets. 

The ¾ mile long production attracted people from all over the city and beyond. By 2006, there was a boom in attendance of over 8,000 people. In 2011, the attraction increased its attendance by 50%.

“This year Nightmare is not going to roll,” said Oliver Mcilwain, a former actor for Nightmare. “It’s sad, but hopefully it will be back next year,”

As Halloween fast approaches, fellow patrons and actors that have participated in Nightmare at Beaver Lake as a yearly tradition are devastated to see the vacancy of Beaver Lake park this spooky season. Prior to the postponement of Nightmare at Beaver Lake, there was speculation that the haunting scare was to be permanently closed. 

“Nightmare’s organizers discussed suspending the haunt after our 2019 season,” said Dana Young, the Artistic Director for Nightmare at Beaver Lake. “But an outpouring of support and interest from both our volunteers and patrons caused us to start planning a 2020 show before the start of the pandemic.”

The concerns for the closure of Nightmare are put to rest. The support from the Sammamish community and desire for the continuation of the show motivated Nightmare’s organizers to keep the show running.  

 The 15 year scare has not reached its final end. 

While the event is important to the community because of the excitement Nightmare at Beaver Lake delivers during the Halloween season, the Nightmare coordinators’ biggest concern for their community has always been safety.

According to Young, “it became clear to us that we would not be able to hold pandemic safe work parties… a haunt of our nature would be nearly impossible,” 

The consequences of this resulted in the 2021 cancellation of the show. 

Although there are decreasing rates of COVID cases in King County, the constant change in restrictions continues to regulate social activities. Due to the Delta variant, the possibility of hosting a public production safely following changing protocols for all participants would not be possible.  

Even though it is unfortunate that Nightmare is postponed again, the production hopes to be back in 2022, ready to re-welcome the fear that falls over Beaver Lake park during October.