The U.S. theme park chain Six Flags is challenging visitors to lie in coffins filled with slithering mealworms for a full minute in order to win a prize.

The game is part of the chain's annual Halloween Fright Fest and it starts this weekend.

The Arlington Heights (Illinois) Daily Herald said Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill., will award a family pack of 2008 season tickets to the person each weekend who can lie for one minute in a clear coffin filled with wriggling mealworms.

The prize is worth about $300.

Brooke Gabbert, public relations manager for Great America, said the idea was the brainchild of park employees who wanted to top the 2006 Fright Fest stunt, in which visitors were encouraged to eat Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

"It's really disgusting," Gabbert said of the mealworm contest. "Originally, we were only asking people to lie down in 10,000 worms. But it wasn't deep enough, so we ordered about 120,000 more."

She said contestants can wear ear plugs and goggles, but their mouths won't be covered so they can scream as park officials dump the worms on top of them.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International




Publication date: 06 October 2007   

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