TAMPA, Fla. – Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s Halloween event, Howl-O-Scream, will return earlier than ever and once again feature haunted houses, the park announced Wednesday.

​The separately-ticketed event runs select nights from September 10 through October 31, with activities starting at 7 p.m. each event night.

Howl-O-Scream will feature five haunted houses this year. Although Busch Gardens has not yet shared what the themes for the houses will be, two of the houses will be new while the other three will be past themes that have been “reimagined.”

In addition to the haunted houses, this year’s event will feature eight scare zones scattered throughout the theme park (as well as three “unpredictable hordes”), the “Fiends!” dance party at Festival Field and “The Rolling Bones” cover band at Dragon Fire Grill.

Busch Gardens skipped the haunted houses for last year’s Howl-O-Scream because of the COVID-19 pandemic and opted instead to offer 10 open-air scare zones to allow for health and safety measures such as physical distancing.

Tickets for the event are now on sale. Prices vary by date and range from $29.99 per person to $44.99 per person for a single-night tickets. Busch Gardens is also offering an “unlimited admission” ticket for $79.99.

For more information, visit howloscream.com.