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Events

Fright Academy's Ticket Terms and the Clock Behind Them

The Guild's house runs Oct. 9 to Oct. 31, 2026 with 23 daytime windows and nine evenings. Museum tickets are date specific and non-refundable, the exchange clock closes at 5 p.m. on the original date, and group house orders run by telephone.

The house and its dates

The Children's Museum Guild opens its 62nd annual Haunted House on Oct. 9, 2026 and runs it to Oct. 31 at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, 3000 North Meridian Street. The house is Fright Academy, presented by PNC.

The museum publishes two clocks. Uranus Fudge Factory Friendly Hours run Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a Wednesday second window from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. and a Sunday window from noon to 5 p.m. Frightening Hours run Thursdays through Saturdays, 4 to 9 p.m.

The calendar a buyer books against

The museum closes Mondays, so Oct. 12, Oct. 19 and Oct. 26 carry no house window. Twenty of the 23 days in the run stay open. Seventeen Tuesdays through Saturdays, three Wednesdays with two windows each and three Sundays give 23 daytime windows, and each of the nine evenings runs five hours.

Eleven dates fall on a Thursday, a Friday or a Saturday. No Frightening Hours run on Friday, Oct. 9 or on Halloween, which leaves nine evenings: Oct. 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30. The last evening of the season is Friday, Oct. 30.

Four further events sit inside the window. The museum lists a Member Preview Party on Oct. 3, Museum My Way on Oct. 13, After Dark: Sports and Spells for guests 21 and over on Oct. 17, Twilight Fright on Oct. 24, and Feast with the Witches on select dates.

What the ticket terms fix

The museum states that tickets are date specific and that admission prices vary by season and day of the week. Tickets are non-refundable, and the value of an unused ticket can be applied to a new date when the exchange is made by 5 p.m. on the original ticket date.

The house ticket sells on its own. General admission is $9, museum members pay $8 and Access Pass holders pay $5, and a house ticket does not include museum admission. The museum's plan page lists an additional fee to visit the house in October.

The group route

The house carries a three-step ladder: $9 a ticket from 1 to 19, $7.50 from 20 to 99 and $7 at 100 or more. The museum takes group orders by telephone through Customer Service at 317-334-4000, and the ladder prices the house alone.

A second discount sits on museum admission. Groups of 20 or more take 20 percent off general admission, bought in advance in a single transaction.

What the two clocks do to a booking

Three Wednesdays carry two sessions in one day, so a group can hold a morning window and an afternoon window on the same date. The nine evenings run five hours each and close at 9 p.m.

The date-specific, non-refundable term fixes a buyer's date at purchase, and the 5 p.m. exchange clock on the original ticket date is the window for moving it. A group order settles the date in one conversation with Customer Service.

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