TAMPA, Fla. — It’s one of the largest events hosted since the pandemic first started, and at the “Haunted Carnival” in Tampa, there’s fun for the whole family.

The “Haunted Carnival” is set up in the parking lot just west of Armature Works, and it’s a four day event that runs through Halloween.

“It’s a combination of a few things, and some people might be confused.  Is it a carnival? Is it a DJ thing? Is it a Halloween party? Well, it's really all of those, and it's all ages,” said Michael Piper, President of Pied Piper Productions.

Pied Piper Productions is putting on the event, and Piper says this is the first large scale event his company has done post pandemic.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday you can come out to enjoy some of the rides, the food, and games with the kids, then after 7pm, it’s the adults turn to have fun with live DJ’s and bands.

Piper says over 4,000 tickets have already been sold, and he expects that number to double by the end of the weekend. He said people here in Tampa Bay are ready to get back out and enjoy life, in a safe way or course. He admits, though, that after 15 years of putting together events here in Tampa, the pandemic brought his business to a screeching halt.

“The pandemic was obviously a challenge for everyone, but in our scenario, we plan events six months to a year out, we went from that to not knowing what's happening next weekend, so when things started to loosen up, we started to catch up, and it's nice now to be able to plan something at a nice open place like Armature Works with an all ages event,” said Piper.

The Haunted Carnival is open from 4pm-11pm on Friday, 2pm-11pm on Saturday, and 2pm-9pm on Sunday.

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales goes directly to Heartbeat International, a charitable organization that helps people in need receive pace makers.