Vapouround magazine ISSUE 11 | Page 135

Front Line also went for the killer visitor experience at Vaper Expo - The Big Weekend. In keeping with the juice line’s military theme their interactive stand featured a top secret former Cold War nuclear bunker which has been taken over as the new HQ for Front Line’s juice production. However experimental gas was accidentally leaked into the bunker in 1966 and now the ghosts of military personnel wearing gas masks haunt the facility. If you imagine a theme park ghost ride then you have the idea behind this adventure. It was designed to scare visitors and it was quite a scary experience with unexpected events at every twist and turn inside the ‘facility’ being toured. From the moment you entered it was very dark. Visitors were led into a vestibule area and asked to watch a short TV presentation which gave some information about the facility where Front Line now made their juices. “Welcome to the Frontline secret military facility,” read the message on the wide screen TV.…you are about to embark on an access-all-areas tour of the front line liquid HQ.” The message kept flickering on and off and going in and out of focus. This is exactly the kind of effect you see in sci-fi movies where the hero is trying to coax an abandoned spacecraft back to life. Normally the flickering screens mean something is about to go badly wrong and this was exactly what was about to happen to the Front Line visitors. Soon the image on the screen faded, the room went dark and there was a brief period of silence only punctuated by screams from among the visitors. A klaxon sounded and staff told visitors they had to leave the facility without delay. As people left there were sparks, loud noises, tumbling barrels, blasts of air and all accompanied by lots of screams. This was scary, very enjoyable and a lot of fun. Conclusion: For me, I thought Front Line had the edge over Riot Squad because it was so totally different and unexpected to have a house-of-horrors type experience at a Vaper Expo. Riot Squad did better at integrating the overall visitor experience with the launch of their new juice and full marks to them for getting everyone talking about Iron Bruise which, after all, was a key objective of the experience. VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 11 135