WHAT: Meltdown
WHO: Luna Springs & Bacardi
WHERE: Luna Springs Digbeth (Digbeth Arena, Lower Trinity St, Deritend, Birmingham B9 4AG)
WHEN: 18 – 31 October, 2023 (Extended to 4 November)
PRICE: £14-£19
OUR RATING: Do It!
This Halloween season Storefront City had the opportunity to experience our first pop up scare attraction at Luna Springs Digbeth, an energetic events venue featuring live music, DJs, a beautiful food and drinks tent, a fairground ride and lots and lots of treats – not to mention a scare maze! Presented in association with Bacardi, and created by the masterminds behind Genius Creations / Twisted Attractions, this pop up scare attraction was nothing like our expectations for what we thought might be a smaller event. Instead, Luna Springs presents a high calibre immersive attraction in the arches of the Duddeston Viaduct, and we can’t applaud them more for such an incredible production!
There is plenty to do at Luna Springs either before you head into the haunt or afterwards if you need to calm yourself down from the adrenaline spike (or enhance it!). Luna Springs has created such an amazing atmosphere at their venue, and while we’re not based in Birmingham it was clear this was the place to be on a night out in the city. Due to our hectic review schedule we ended up doing an afternoon slot for the experience, but we hope they return in 2024 as we’d love to spend an evening there with all of the amazing entertainment on offer. The food and drinks marquee even has fun Halloween themed treats too, from Pina Ghouladas to Petrifying Punch, and even Pumpkin Patch Grilled Halloumi Burgers and Grim Reaper Dogs. Yum!
But now for the main attraction – the maze itself! In addition to being immersive, what made Meltdown so unique was how site specific the event was. Beneath the arches stood a fully fledged Atom Facility powered by a company called Goretech, a private tech corporation who created this cutting-edge research facility in Birminham, known for its role in nuclear research (Birmingham is also home to The Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research). And we were about to take a tour through this renowned atomic facility – but would we ever make it out alive?
Heading into the attraction, it was clear we had taken a step back in time, pestered in the queue by an older woman looking for her cat, and then given a debrief in the weathered lobby of the research centre itself by an authoritative woman named Ethel May. The waiting area we were placed in primed us for the immersive experience we were about to have, as the lobby was dimly lit with low throbbing pulses of red light through the thick smoke, the sound of a geiger counter in the background, and old posters on the wall introducing us to Victor Isotope, whose leadership and guidance at Goretech led it to its revolutionary success.
After this introduction we were then led into the attraction itself, meeting all sorts of questionable characters in completely realised sets including a small run down canteen with old food and discarded cigarette butts, a room full of typewriters where a researcher interrogated us, and even a children’s room within the facility where we were forced to draw with crayons. Every single member in our group were completely immersed in the performance and asked to take part in various ways – one of us were even forced to distribute a victim their medicine via syringe!
All the actors in this production gave it their all, and the set design gave them a space to do this (not to mention an incredible amount of other sensory and practical effects including air guns, crawl spaces, radioactive waste and even a finale scene with pyro!) We don’t want to give it all away, but do expect to fully take part in your own adventure at Meltdown, and we suggest you soak in the electric and immersive atmosphere along the way. But be careful – Victor Isotope has evil intentions at his facility, and you might not make it through to the other side!
Final Thoughts: Meltdown lasts about 15 minutes, but while a relatively quick maze it is incredibly detailed and due to the theatrical flair you really get quite a performance. This isn’t a maze where figures just jump out at you in the dark – every room is fully realised and thought out, and interactions with actors are thorough and memorable. And Luna Springs isn’t just the scare maze – it’s an entire experience, with all the additional fun elements surrounding the haunt attraction to give you a heck of a night out. Slots are flexible, with the haunt even running from midday to the late evening on some performance days. And while the main event is 18+, they even provide slightly tamer sessions Monday-Wednesday earlier in the day for younger enthusiasts. Overall, we can’t recommend Meltdown enough as a pop up attraction, it exceeded all of our expectations!
