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Is the Blacklight Slide Event Worth It?

Blacklight Slide boasts of an incredible glowing experience on the largest nighttime slide in the country. But is the event worth it? Read about the Blacklight Slide in my review. 

The Blacklight Slide lets you race down inflatable slides filled with glow-in-the-dark water, dance to local DJs, and get covered in neon glow.

But is the Blacklight Slide event really worth it? We didn’t really think so. And I’ll show you why in this Blacklight Slide review.

We did the Blacklight Slide back in 2017 when it came to Atlanta. Looking into updates for this post, I found a lot of people saying they were scammed by this company when they removed dates without warning and never refunded money or responding to emails. So definitely beware of that.

Atlanta Blacklight Slide

Blacklight Slide Review

In this review, I’ll cover the price, the registration process, the slide itself, and the blacklight party, and let you know why I don’t think this event is worth it.

The Price

When we first bought tickets for the Atlanta Blacklight Slide months before the event in October, the “early bird” price was $20 instead of the “regular” $50 and the deal said it was ending at the end of the month. We figured it was a pretty good deal and bought them.

When my friend looked again in March, it still advertised the $20 early bird deal, again ending soon.

When we looked the day before the event, the early bird deal was still in effect, ending that night.

So don’t be fooled; I don’t think the price ever goes up.

Looking at the price in 2023, it lists the regular price at $40 and it’s on sale for free (you pay the fees). That in itself is sketchy to me (you can’t actually register for an event at the time or writing).

Their website also states that they don’t offer refunds.

The Location

I’m putting this section in here because when I went in 2017, this was an actual event. Updating this post in 2024, part of the scam seems to be that the event just doesn’t exists at all anymore even though you can still give them money for it.

Their Facebook page and Instagram page are full of comments from people who booked, and then the event was cancelled with no notice, and many with no refund. Dates were suddenly switched to TBD. But really, it seems like the event never existed in the first place.

One commenter went to the venue where the Blacklight Slide was supposed to take place, and the venue had no idea about the event. These comments are from 2022.

The Blacklight Slide’s parent company Cool Events USA also does Bubble Run 5k, Mud Run, and other running events. Comments on their social media show that even these events are being cancelled without notice or refunds as recently as the end of 2023. The whole operation seems to be a scam.

Additional Costs

Then add to that the price of our inner tube (the tubes cost $10 each to buy through the event, but you can buy them for a little less if you buy a multi-pack of inner tubes on Amazon), which the website said had to meet their size requirement of a maximum 36 inches. 

We also had to pay parking ($10).

Then to lock our stuff away close by, we had to rent a locker ($10).

We were now up to $50 for unlimited trips down the slide, a glow in the dark tattoo, a hand towel, the blacklight party, an inner tube, a locker, and an unspecified donation to a local charity. You can also purchase other merchandise like neon paint.

Waiting in Blacklight Slide Line

Registration for the Blacklight Slide

Registration hours were from 5-7 p.m. Even with arriving just before 6, we sat in a line of cars for 30 minutes before the one lane of cars became a free-for-all of people making their own lanes.

We parked and went to wait in line for registration. This was more of a giant blob of people. After a while, a group split off and created their own line, causing a mass of people to move to fill in the gap. This is really the only reason we got as far up as we did. We then waited for over an hour in this line to register and receive our tiny towels.

Sliding was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but they were already letting people in early. I’m not sure if this is some sort of VIP privilege you can buy or if they just realized they needed to keep the mass of people moving somewhere. Either way, we didn’t get through registration until well after 7:30.

Things to note: The line moved slowly probably because many people had not signed the waiver beforehand. If you had already signed your waiver online, as we had, it only took two-seconds to scan your ticket and collect your wristband. This, of course, makes the hour-long line even more infuriating.

Another thing was that we, and many others, assumed you had to pick up your pre-ordered inner tube at the separate Pre-Order Merchandise tent. But this was not the case. I feel bad for the people who had already stood in both that line and then the tube blow-up line before registering, because my friend who had pre-ordered her inner tube received a ticket at the registration tent to take to the tube blow-up line to collect her tube.

Sliding the Blacklight Slide

After all that waiting and blowing up our tubes, we proceeded to our next line: the slide line.

There were three giant blow up slides and two lines that you entered from the outsides of slides 1 and 3. These two lines snaked around ten times before a portion branched off to merge into the line for slide 2.

The DJ tried to keep the hype up, but I guess it really depends on who you’re around in line for if you’re hyped or miserable. We were behind a couple of teenage boys, so they kept the energy up around us for our first wait in line.

In line for our first slide, we waited for nearly an hour.

As the night went on and more people opted for dancing over sliding (it was a chilly night, so the water was freezing, especially once you were out of it), the lines got shorter, but still amounted to about a 30 minute wait.

The blacklight slide website said your tube had to meet their size requirement of a maximum 36 inches and that you can’t slide tube-less. However, we saw plenty of people sliding with much larger tubes and with no tubes at all. Maybe they’ve gotten more strict with it, but no one seemed to care while we were there.

The slide itself is 30 seconds of fun.

The water is a diluted glow, so you can see it glowing as you slide down. But you aren’t exactly covered in glow as the website stated. The water doesn’t leave a bit of glow on you; it’s really the neon paint they sell that leaves the fun, lasting glow.

After Atlanta Blacklight Slide

Blacklight Slide Party

The DJ started playing around 8:30 p.m. for the blacklight party.

It’s just your regular dance party EDM music, nothing special. The idea is for the water to douse you in glow and then you have a glowing rave, but for the most part no one glowed beyond the glow sticks they wore.

The event served food and alcohol. We didn’t bother checking it out, though, since we figured, as with any event food, it was just way overpriced and not worth it.

The whole blacklight slide event was supposed to end around 10 p.m., but we didn’t stay long enough to find out if that’s when they actually wrapped up.

From reading other reviews, they seem to close down pretty promptly at 10-10:30 p.m., which doesn’t give you much time to enjoy it after standing in long lines all night.

What to Bring to the Blacklight Slide

Honestly, it’s cheaper to buy all your blacklight accessories on Amazon instead of through the Blacklight Slide company. So here’s a list of things to bring:

So is the Blacklight Slide worth it?

We paid $50 to stand in line for nearly 4 hours and have maybe 2 minutes of sliding fun. I wouldn’t go again, and I don’t recommend it to anyone.

Plus, add in the recent scam accusations and the sketchiness I already noted with the weird pricing, and it just doesn’t all seem like it’s on the up-and-up.

Also note that this was a non-refundable event when we went, so think extra hard before you buy that ticket. There are a lot better things to spend your time and money on.

I hope you found my review of the Blacklight Slide event helpful!


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Cheers!

Paige

Is the Blacklight Slide Event Worth It?

What’s your opinion of the Blacklight Slide? Comment below!

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2 Comments

  1. The worst event I ever attended. Every where right from registration to tube filling to taking rife there is huge que. For registration spend 20 min. Where at even we get tattoo, band and towel. Why was it mandatory to have towel, which was itself useless. We got towel from home but we were forced to buy towel. Next the tubes cost $10 and to inflate that wait again for 20 min. After that height of frustration is waiting in que for Ride where just for 10 sec fun we need to wait for more than an hour. What a crap. We never dared to take second ride. All energy drained in the first ride. Organizer must have had some music while waiting in que so that people don’t find que as pain of ass. Even for DJ, the tubes which were thrown here and there was so frustrating that it hurt multiple times on my face and my specs got broke. I will never attend this event again and never recommend anyone else too.

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