March 1, 2024 • 65 mins
Episode 79-Hauntfest April Ghouls Preview with Roseann Harpold Published 1 March 2024 Hosts: John Schelt, Keoni Hutton & Leslie Reed
We're welcoming back Roseann Harpold, owner of Hauntfest with a preview of their upcoming festival April Ghouls, April 6-7 in Athens, GA. Whether you're a Halloween enthusiast, music lover, thrill-seeker, or simply a fan of captivating storytelling, this episode is a captivating deep-dive into the unforgettable world of April Ghouls. Tune in and discover how a love for all things spooky is transformed into a spectacular Halloween festival
Resources mentioned during this episode:
Hauntfest: https://mrh80504.wixsite.com/haunt-fest
Hauntfest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hauntfest.athens
Hauntfest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/277577708520019
2024 Convention Schedule: https://www.hauntingu.com/p/events-1609424025/
Haunting U can be found at www.hauntingu.com.
Sanguine Creek Estates: www.scehaunt.com
Chamber of Haunters Website: https://chamberofhaunters.com/
Sound Effects:
Music: Dance of Death http://www.purple-planet.com/
Thunder: Recorded by Mark DiAngelo Uploaded: 07.29.11 http://soundbible.com/1913-Thunder-... License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Modifications: Inserted over Dance of Death Music
Evil Laughter: Recorded by Himan Uploaded: 03.13.13 License: Public Domain http://soundbible.com/2054-Evil-Lau...
We couldn't continue to bring you awesome content without the support of our sponsors, particularly our Premium sponsors, the Chamber of Haunters and Fear Expo. Learn more here:
Haunting U is a production of Rocky Mountain Home Haunters LLC published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. All rights reserved
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:17):
Coming to you live from the Chamber of Haunter Studios, this is Haunting You.
I'm Jon Schultz. I'm Keone Hutton. And I'm Leslie Reed.
Welcome back, everyone, to the Haunting You podcast. We are so excited to have
you here. We are deep into convention season. It is March 1st.
HauntCon kicked off just a couple of weeks ago.
Okay, I got to level with all the listeners real quick. We're recording this on September 8th.
(00:40):
HauntCons are like two days. I have no idea how it's going to go.
But I think I'm really optimistic. I think this will be awesome.
I guess we'll find out.
But it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. Just want to throw out a couple
of really huge upcoming events before we dive into the topic of today's podcast.
(01:01):
Just a few days from now, we have Transworld Halloween Attraction Show in St. Louis, Missouri.
It is kicking off March 7th to the 10th. That is the biggest haunted attraction
trade show in the country.
If you have not gone, you may want to consider going.
St. Louis, Missouri, March 7th to the 10th. But that is not the show that we
are here to talk about today.
We want to continue on in the theme of the last few episodes,
(01:24):
highlighting the convention season, getting us hyped for all of the exciting
events that are about to kick off.
And in true Haunting You fashion, we are digging back into what we have already
done before because we're out of original ideas and not really.
They're just, you know, otherwise occupied.
Yeah. Our ideas are otherwise occupied?
(01:47):
Yes. I like that.
Yeah, we're going to stick with that. But anyway, so we are bringing back a
Haunting You favorite that we had here last year talking about her brand new events.
Well, last year she was talking about her brand new event that was just a couple
of weeks away from kicking off and ended up just being absolutely freaking spectacular.
(02:07):
And we are super excited that they have decided to do another show down in Athens, Georgia.
We have brought back Roseanne Harpole from Haunt Fest to talk about their new
show coming up here in just over a month.
Roseanne, welcome back to the Haunting You podcast. Thank you. Thank you.
Before we jump into the new show, we have to talk a little bit about how Hauntfest
(02:31):
Mayhem went just about a year ago.
Talk a little bit about the show and your experience.
Well, it was a lot bigger than I expected.
I mean, of course, I wanted there to be a lot of people there and I believed
in it. But oh, my God, I was running around the whole time.
I didn't get a second to myself because there were so many people coming in.
(02:52):
And the line was out the door the whole night.
The bands were amazing. People seemed to be having a great time.
We got a lot of good feedback.
Parking, we ran out of parking early on. And so I had parking.
I was throwing friends outside, like, take care of this. Can you find somewhere for this car to be?
And they had walkie-talkies. It was insane.
But it went astronomically well. And I'm just so glad that it went the way that it did.
(03:18):
Despite, I mean, it was even like sprinkling that day. And there were all sorts
of things like weirdly going wrong here and there.
All in all, like the whole thing came together and ended up being just incredible.
So you alluded to it a little bit. Like, what was the thing that ended up being
super frustrating that you didn't even think was going to be an issue?
(03:40):
Well, I mean, big time parking. We also there were a few different things like
we had the sink overflow randomly. Randomly.
There were some people like last minute and because it's like a volunteer event,
it's like, you can't really be mad, but also we like lost people last minute.
(04:01):
And so I just was having to pull people like shout out to my friend,
Matt, because he showed up, he had bought a ticket.
I was just hanging out and I was like, we got to put you to work. I'm sorry.
But, and then I had my dad at concession stands and he, the concession stand,
and he had to cook Cook the burgers, wrap the burgers, sell the burgers.
(04:21):
And there was a line forever because we lost our concession person.
Oh, no. We didn't win it. That's what I'm curious about.
Yeah. So Matt was the runner. And so he would just run to whatever thing was
missing a person whenever they needed it.
And I think he walked quite a few miles that evening.
He got his steps in, right? Yeah. But there's just all sorts of little things that would happen.
(04:44):
And you're like, all right, you got to go take care of that now. but it did
it worked out good though remember your dad was
going to be setting up a a mini haunted house there
at the at the show how did it work
that was another thing that was surprising to
me so we just kind of had to throw something together because we didn't have
woods to work with we didn't really have a space at all and so we just had some
(05:09):
black tarp and rope yeah like like roping trees together and throwing tarp over
it. And we had like glow sticks in there.
And I mean, it seemed like it got a few good scares, even though it was kind
of like a weird random setup.
But the line for that was insane.
For whatever reason, I guess I just thought that they would just run through
(05:31):
and there would never really be a line.
They'd just be going through. But that line wrapped like all the way around the venue. It was easy.
Yeah. Yeah. And you had a ton going on. There was a haunt. There was food.
You had conflict going on. There was the vendors doing sales and stuff.
And still, it sounds like people were getting backed up all over the place. Yeah, it was amazing.
(05:57):
But also, we don't want it to get backed up. We want a lot of people to be there.
So this year, we're trying to improve some of our systems and make sure there's
a will call line in the front and all sorts of processes for the trail.
Now that I know that's also insane.
Learned a lot, to say the least. Yeah, well, what a great segue into what we're
(06:19):
going to be talking about for the rest of the episode.
Your next event...
April ghoul which i just absolutely freaking love the name on brand for you very very on brand,
but april ghouls april 6th and the 7th athens still in athens yes still in athens
(06:40):
at southern brewing company the southern brewing company is this a new venue
or is that where you had it last time this is a new venue it was at rabbit hole
studios last year but southern brewing was like Like, we'll do it for free.
And I was like, oh, my God. And they're here.
Even better. Yeah. How did that partnership end up happening?
(07:01):
Honestly, it was just a dream come true. I just showed up to meet him.
I never really mentioned anything about, like, needing sponsors.
And he just straight up was like, yeah, you can just do it here.
And I was like, what do you mean? And, of course, we met after,
like, with the management. And they were like, you know, we want to support
the community and help people do this.
(07:22):
But like, we also have so many inquiries now that we're going to have to start
charging for it, but not now. He was like, you're, you're good for now.
It's like, if you come back next year, maybe we'll charge you. I don't know.
Yeah yeah awesome but it's
great yeah well it's just that's
awesome are they gonna you know start doing stuff with i mean
i'm assuming they're going to provide alcohol as well as space right
(07:45):
oh yeah and they they have this amazing backwoods area that actually is woods
which is where the trail is going to be this year oh nice yeah so you're actually
gonna be able to set up a trail rather than screaming at tarps oh yeah and there's
this really neat bamboo forest back there let's It's super spooky,
just even in the daytime.
So I'm excited to see what we can do with that space.
(08:08):
Sounds like the perfect venue. Yeah, it really does.
Let's talk about how to get there. If people want to attend,
it looks like... Wait, wait, two days. Two days now, not one. Yes.
Talk about it. Oh, okay. You made a face. I wasn't sure.
He makes lots of faces. It's okay. That's just the face. It's all right.
Yeah. So after last year went so well, I was really considering doing a full weekend.
(08:33):
And I really did want to do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but they have an event on Friday already.
So they were like, we'll let you do Saturday and Sunday. So we're working with that.
And Sunday is going to start and end an hour earlier than Saturday,
just because it's the the end of the weekend but strangely it has not really
affected planning as much as i thought it would because it's it's different
(08:56):
bands different vendors and stuff but it's like the same process so yeah i'm
really excited that you know it can be two days and it not be like overwhelmingly.
Difficult to plan but i'm hoping
in the future maybe i can end up doing a full weekend like a
lot of these conventions do sure festival yeah
exactly and you you kind of ride the line between
(09:17):
convention and festival already how did
that end up working out last year kind of combining those
what you would see at a traditional halloween convention
or enthusiast convention along with a music festival
i think like growing up going to festivals
i always remember there being vendors and there being music and
so to me it felt like a festival but i also
(09:39):
know that you know some people don't spend
as much time at the booths and so they're like you know i want more
activities to to do if it's a festival so that's another thing this
year we're like trying to add more things that make people
want to stay longer like a festival rather than running
through looking at everything and feeling like there's nothing else to
do but i i love
(10:00):
the festival aspect because i feel like the convention conventions now
are more geared toward the haunters and not just the normal like customer uh
whereas this is more focused on like anyone who loves halloween can come it's
not you know to buy a smoke machine it's to buy like a fun little thing like
a bone necklace or you know right.
(10:22):
But I really try to emphasize the festival part less or more than the convention
part, also because it's indoor outdoor.
A lot of conventions seem to be more indoor. And so this is supposed to be a
little more like an atmosphere that you walk into and can experience and do things there.
But let's talk about all the things you can be doing.
(10:44):
What's the best way to talk about this? Should we go like talk Friday or excuse
me, talk Saturday, then Sunday, or do you just want to hit kind of all the major areas?
Probably overall is good because they're they mostly overlap.
There's a few things that are different, but. OK, let's start with tickets then.
If people want to attend, how much are tickets? Where do they buy them?
(11:04):
Tickets are $15 a day or you can go both days for $25.
Yeah. Yeah. And if you want to get the tickets, you can go to www.hauntfest.us.
But there's also other ticket tiers. You can get an RIP, you know,
really important person to get.
I like that one. Yeah, that's good. That's good.
(11:27):
I like that. but there's different tiers to that so like
i think tier one is like you can get in early for
the vendors and get priority parking and stuff like that and then
as you go up it goes up in price and you get like merch and the very last one
includes flesh hook suspension which we can talk about later but and then the
haunted trail tickets sorry k has a confused look on the i think I think I heard
(11:52):
her say flesh hooked assistant. Yes, you did. Yeah.
You heard correctly. We're coming back to that. Okay. Okay.
But yeah, you can also get a haunted trail ticket. Unlimited pass is $15 and
a single pass is $8. So I think it's worth it. That's a lot.
(12:12):
Love it. Absolutely love it. And hours for the events, Saturday and Sunday.
Oh, yes. Saturday is 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. and then Sunday is 11 p.m. to 11 p.m. Oh, sorry.
What did I just say? 11 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wow. That was amazing.
4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Okay.
5 to midnight on Saturday and 4 to 11 on Sunday.
(12:35):
Yes. Got it. And I see there's a kids hour listed here on the website. What's the kids hour?
So basically, if you come before 6 p.m., the spooks and everything will be kind of stowed away.
We'll probably have them at the street trying to pull people in rather than
being in spooking everybody.
So if you have young kids who may be, you know, extremely afraid and want to
(12:55):
come earlier, that's probably the best time for them.
It's kind of like a family hour type deal where there's free pumpkin painting
for the kids and there's like a trick or treat.
We're going to have vendors and people who bring their cars are going to have
like, you know, candy to hand out. And that'll hopefully encourage people to go visit everybody.
But I'm trying to think, of course, there's the hayride that'll be going the whole time.
(13:17):
But there's a lot more, you know, kid friendly activities before six and then
at six will be the release of the ghouls.
And then they'll be out, you know, of course, if you're going to stay like there's
no kicking anyone out or anything, but you can get like a glow stick if you
don't want them to mess with you while they're free roaming.
Nice. Yeah. Yeah, I as the first thing that pops up on here is obviously,
(13:41):
you know, two of my favorite things, snakes and kittens.
So I love that those are two of your highlighted items as well.
But so let's let's go through and talk about the band lineup in your music.
Who do you guys have for that this time around?
So we have a lot more bands than last year, especially, you know,
(14:02):
because it's two days as well. So on Saturday, we have Karma Cat,
Beat Up, Tattoo Logic, who they played with us last year and they've been super supportive.
They also played for a promo event that we had in October.
Nick's The Scientist, The Wild, Florence Cardigan. I just saw their show the
other day. They're amazing. And House Guest.
(14:23):
And then on Sunday, we have The Young Frankensteins, appropriate,
Jacket, Hyper Sleep, Swear Jar, Parking Garage, Second Nature, and Roommate.
So seven bands a day and they're all
yeah we had a lot of a lot of
signups this year it was super exciting to go through and listen to everybody
there's just so much music in athens did you have to turn people away we did
(14:47):
we did it was kind of heartbreaking there were a lot of a lot of good musicians
out there and i'm i'm sorry to anyone that that didn't make the cut because
you they're They're all awesome.
Yeah. If it's too personal, feel free to tell me. But what made the difference
for you on deciding whether or not to ask a band to play?
We really had to look at a lot of different angles. If anyone had a Spotify,
(15:10):
we'd listen to the Spotify.
If anyone had videos on their Instagram, we'd listen to that.
Of course, they submit their own videos and they're all live performances.
So you can kind of hear both recorded and live. And then a lot of it,
because we're still so such a young festival business, we have to look at popularity,
you know, because we we have to be like, you know, even if a band is like slightly
(15:33):
better than another band, if one of them has an incredible amount of followers,
it's like you're the one who's going to bring the people to the festival. Right.
And it's it's not that anyone is more or less talented necessarily.
It's just the marketing aspect. And so it's tough when you have to think about
those kinds of things when you're picking people because it, you know.
(15:53):
But it all kind of went into a system and then everyone was like on a list and
we're having to mark people off.
And it's really hard to when you're like, we're friends with a lot of musicians in Athens.
And so it's really hard to turn people away, especially if you know them.
And you're like, it's not personal.
I swear, like I will go to your shows all all day long.
(16:15):
But it's a business decision. and so
it's hard but they are all
awesome and we're super thankful for everyone who
signed up we gave anyone who was turned away got like a
50 off discount to come to the fest that
ain't bad and a good way to bring in more people yeah and
to bring people back is just be like hey yeah absolutely yeah
(16:39):
we're gonna we're gonna do it this way what else involved in
the pumpkin can painting because i see googly eyes and that
always makes me giggle well of
course they can't be real pumpkins because it's in april but
i did get a bunch of little like plastic pumpkins
and about all sorts of painting supplies i have
an excess of craft supplies
(17:01):
because i have a really bad habit of finding
them and i'm like i'm gonna do something with that one day and then
i never do so i just have boxes and boxes of things i
can bring yeah things with them just not all of them and not all at once and
you know they store so nicely it's just they just can't know right yeah kindred
spirits but so i've got googly eyes i've got feathers and all sorts of crazy
(17:24):
stuff markers you know i'll bring anything that seems like it would be fitting.
But that'll be a fun little table, though, something people can sit down and do.
And we also have larger pumpkins that you can buy and paint because they're
like, you know, they're a little more expensive.
And also like these ceramic sugar skulls and they're like cat sugar skulls and
(17:45):
dog sugar skulls. Oh, nice.
So if the parents or anyone artsy comes that's older, they can like just sit down and paint.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that'll be a good thing to have, you know,
especially for just kind of the whole the whole group of, hey,
I mean, do something fun.
And what does this say about trivia? Yeah, so that's that's a new thing, too.
(18:08):
I I don't know if it was the brewery or what it was that sparked that idea.
But one of one of my buddies, Eric, who's been working with us this year,
he's really good at making games.
And so I was like hey Eric could you like
write up a trivia like a horror themed trivia
that we can do and then maybe we'll give away like a
(18:30):
basket of goodies from the vendors or something to whoever wins
and Southern Brewing also is giving away discounts on beers and things as prizes
throughout the trivia night but Eric like as soon as I said that he he got it
done it was amazing I like checked the google doc right after I sent the text
and he was typing I was like wow This is amazing.
(18:52):
He's excited about it. Oh, yeah. But I'm sure he's going to make way too many
and then we'll have to cut him down. But I'm excited to see.
Always better have too many. If I want to prepare myself to exceed your expectations
of the trivia, what should I study?
Wow, it's really broad. There's all sorts of categories.
It can be anywhere from like spooky lore from the olden days or it can be movies
(19:20):
or it can be related to haunts or any sort of,
spooky related things.
If it gives you chills then chances are it may show up.
Murder birds. If you got any murder...
Yeah, see?
(19:40):
She's in with the murderer.
That's me.
They're fun in the sense of they're absolutely horrifying but i'm reading about
them yeah i understand okay i i can't handle it anymore we have to talk about this,
(20:00):
what do you call it suspension suspension yes so,
So I'm just going to start from the beginning because I'm just,
I was so excited about this when I came up.
I have the same form that you fill out if you're a musician or an entertainer.
And last year, we didn't really get many entertainers. We had the UGA Juggling
(20:21):
Club, and that was awesome.
But it was really obvious. It says UGA Juggling Club.
But this time, I was going through the bands, and it said Cyanide Suspension.
And I was like, that's a band.
And then I click on it. That sounds like a band, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I'm seeing like all of these like like bloody pictures of like people
with hooks in their backs, like hanging and doing human blockhead with a nail
(20:45):
on their nose and all this.
And I was like, that is not a band. Oh, I see.
And they were willing to come. And they're from South Carolina.
Super awesome freak show. They
do fire stuff like fire breathing and fire dances and things like that.
At glass walking and the flesh hook suspension
is their specialty and i had never seen
(21:07):
that before apparently it's all over tiktok i've had friends tell
me about it but i i found out about
it when i was in high school yeah it's crazy stuff it's it's impressive yeah
it's supposed to be really thrilling and they are offering for anyone who wants
to do it they can make an appointment or just show up on site and they will
(21:27):
pierce you on site and hang you by hooks and you get to wait They will dangle me?
Yeah, they will dangle you. They will. Okay, I'll send you some.
Yeah, I did click on the link. And I just have to read this out loud so that
our listeners can hear. But definitely go check out Hauntfest's website.
You can find it through the Haunting You website under the events page.
But this is what it says about Cyanide Suspension.
(21:49):
Cyanide Suspension specializes in flesh hook suspension and freak show acts,
focusing mainly on the art of body horror.
They will be performing throughout the evening on both nights in the 18 plus
section. Shows are free, but if you'd like to attempt a Fleshwood suspension,
please schedule an appointment. Walk-ins are also accepted.
I just sent you a link to an image. I'm afraid. Man, do I know what's coming
(22:12):
to our room? Hey, welcome back!
The one I picked is much more artsy than horror, but again, there's a lot of
different ways that it's done.
Have you ever seen The Cell? Did you ever see The Cell?
The movie to sell when it came out, Jennifer Lopez, Michael D'Onofrio. No.
(22:33):
Roseanne, have you done this? I have not done it, no. Are you going to?
I probably will not have a real opportunity.
I'm going to be running around, all right? I can't be hanging around.
That's fair. That's fair. You've got to have both on the ground.
Holy crap. That's terrifying.
That's why it's in the 18 plus section. Exactly.
(22:56):
Totally fair. it also has a relationship to body lacing.
Yes which i recently found out
about that after the suspension thing i didn't know that was a
thing and that's beautiful like yeah i i
wonder if they ever do any of that because uh they they really
do like the piercing stuff so i'll have to ask but yeah that's one crazy new
(23:21):
addition and when i saw what it was i about passed out i thought it was so cool
they're all also like professional professionally trained scare actors and everything
and they've got the makeup going, they got the shows.
And I was like, this is incredible. And they're coming from South Carolina and
they're doing it for free.
And this is just like a dream come true. So just for all of our families who
(23:48):
are wondering, you know, we do have kids, how do we make sure they don't accidentally
end up in the 18 and 18 and over?
How do you guys have it set up to keep that age restriction in place?
So the plan right now, because it's just just
a big field we're gonna have caution
tape roping off that section and there'll be a big sign
(24:08):
that says 18 plus or r-rated or
something you know and underneath it'll be like just be
careful with your kids basically i'm hoping you know if there's any four-year-olds
running around they're probably not gonna run you know off because it's it's
such a big place i'm not too worried anyone's gonna sneak under the rope but
we will have like security out there so if if there is a problem though,
(24:32):
they can go snag the kid and bring them back.
But yeah, we'll have any sort of, you know, NSFW stuff in there.
Cause last year we, we just had stuff out in the open and I got a few comments after that.
They were like, my kids saw boobies and I was like, Oh no, no,
we're going to fix that this time. Sorry.
Oh, I mean, it happens.
(24:56):
You mentioned the scare actors. Are you guys still accepting some or are you full up?
Oh, no, we are accepting anyone who wants to come help, whether it's scare actors or general volunteers.
We always need more help. And, you know, especially with parking, how that went last year.
We'll accept people up until like the day before the event, because I do make
(25:16):
schedules ahead of time.
So please do sign up ahead of time if you are doing it.
But, you know, we could use as much help as we can get. So I'm not going to
turn someone away if they show up last minute.
How would they go about that? How would they go about getting them signed up? Sorry.
On the homepage of our website, there's a button that says Scare Actors,
(25:39):
and then there's another one that says General Volunteers.
And those take you directly to the form that you fill out to be a volunteer.
And then we'll contact you after the form's filled out.
Perfect. That's not bad. yeah i was assuming like
yeah you can never have too much help on something like that oh yeah
yeah and especially with the trail
being so long this year like last year it was
(26:01):
just like a little hut and this year it's it's a pretty good trail i mean it's
one that you can get lost in it so how long do you do need some sorry how long
do you think i think to walk it i guess it depends how scared you are i i really
i couldn't tell you right now to be honest because we're still,
working on having little booths in between that are themed, and so there may be some stops.
(26:27):
So it's really hard to know. Let's see.
In the end, you'll be running. Yeah.
Running out of the trip.
It seems like you're trying to capitalize on a number of people's different
fears. I want to talk a little more about the reptiles here for a second because I adore them.
Where are they coming from? Who's bringing them? How do we get to interact? All of that.
(26:50):
So last year we had them as well. The Georgia Reptile Society is coming and
bringing them and they have all sorts of people just in the club that have the snakes.
And so they'll just come with their snakes and be like teaching you about the
snakes and you can like pet them, whatever.
And then I think it's a ten dollar donation. You can hold a big old snake, take pictures with it.
(27:12):
So that's how they can help, you know, support animals and stuff.
Leslie's on her way with a fistful of cash.
Yeah, they were really great. We got some really awesome pictures last year from them.
All sorts of people holding snakes and they were right by the door.
So there was really no escaping them. If you were a great snake, you had to scoot by them.
(27:35):
But they've been super supportive. And they told me after that last festival,
they were like, if you ever do anything again, I'm gonna be mad if you don't reach out to us. Yeah.
I do appreciate how they are the top of the page on the activities page on their website.
Oh, yeah. I love that photo, too. Yeah, it's a really good photo.
(27:55):
That was from the Renaissance Festival. I can't take credit for that one,
but it's fitting. It's super fitting. It is.
And then just the next one with the Circle of Friends Animal Society's Appens Cat Foster Program.
Is this like an adoption program?
Yes. Yes, they bring the cats and they dress them up.
(28:17):
This was a photo from last year, actually. It's on the website.
I love the little voodoo.
Oh, yeah. They had bunnies and all sorts of different or bees.
I don't know why I said bunnies.
All sorts of fun costumes for them.
But they will come and they let you hang out with the cats, kittens, all sorts of fun stuff.
(28:38):
They were in a room last year. But again, this year it's going to be outside.
So I'm guessing it'll be like a little fenced in place
and you can go in there and you know wallow around
on the ground with some kittens so our
whole thing last year was like don't be afraidy cat you know if
you get spooked just go hang out with the kittens yeah we
(29:01):
we love them and and they actually they got a a lot
of donations last year they were super responsive about
it with me because i like to go back and ask you know how did you guys do because
i don't really get to see anything because i'm running around the whole time
right they said they i can't remember how many cats it was that they could cover
with the amount of money that they got but it was it was enough to be really
(29:23):
significant i definitely want to come back again
yeah you mentioned earlier your dad did all the food last year what do you have
planned for this this year.
So hopefully he doesn't have to be doing that. Yes.
We definitely got food trucks this year because last year was crazy.
And we were really just more worried last year about making sure everyone was fed.
(29:46):
It wasn't really like a moneymaker or anything. It was like a dollar for a hot dog or something.
But yeah, no, we reached out to as many food trucks as we could trying to see
who might be interested in coming.
And Cafe Racer was the first one to come in and
be like oh like hell yeah we'll do that and they they
are at like every athens event it
is great no matter what happens here they have a
(30:08):
truck there what kind of food they have burgers and fries but they do have like
vegetarian i want to say vegan but i'm going to be careful at least vegetarian
options um and we've got a couple more lined up or i say a couple more we have one lined up,
but I don't know if I should say their name yet because they're not completely paid. That's correct.
(30:31):
There should be one other food type, maybe tacos, that will be there.
All hail tacos! Yes!
Gotta love a taco truck. Gotta love a taco truck.
So, a couple of food trucks, and then, of course, the brewery to provide all
of your libations as needed.
And they are doing spooky cocktails for us that weekend as well.
(30:55):
On just the beer. Can you give any hints?
Hints on what the cocktails are? Yeah, have they told you anything?
Honestly, I have no idea at all. They just, they were like, we got some colored
stuff, we could do some little potions for you.
No idea what's in them. But maybe I'll find out next time I head over there.
Fair, fair. And I think, in my mind at least, what really sets your events apart,
(31:21):
the Harpold Manor s'mores.
Making you come back again. Yeah, it's the biggest event of them all.
So my dad, he has his little booth.
He likes to sell all his spooky things as well. So we're Harpold Manor.
That's what we call the haunt that we did at my house growing up was Harpold Manor.
So anyway, he's going to be selling little baggies of s'more stuff.
(31:47):
So there'll be, I think, two fire pits.
I think my business partner is bringing an extra one. So we've got fire pits
all around and you can s'more it up. Love it.
Fresh s'mores all night long. And you said that this is Saturday and Sunday, right? Yes.
Okay. So it's an hour from my corporate headquarters. I just need to plan a
business trip and then extend it a couple days and go play with Stacey and kids.
(32:13):
Yes. Are you planning to write this off? Well, not this part.
Except the before part. I have my standards. You're putting down business expense s'mores.
Okay, before we go any further, I think we need to take a moment to hear from our sponsors.
And then we'll jump right back into it with Will Harpold from Hauntfest April Ghoul. Bye.
(32:36):
Music.
From our sponsors, who, without them, we would have a much shorter show.
(32:59):
It's accurate.
Filed under technically correct.
Thank you for that, Les. You're welcome. I try.
You left me speechless. Excellent. I get points for that, right?
(33:21):
So we've talked quite a bit about everything that you have going on with this,
but I think there's still a few things that we have not really touched on.
So the one that I'm really excited about on top of everything else is the ghost stories.
Yes. So my business partner, Abigail, she just joined me this past year and she is an avid reader.
And so she brought up the idea of having horror authors come do book signings.
(33:46):
And I was like, Like, oh, that's genius.
And so she started reaching out to all the horror authors that she knew.
And then she was like, what if we did a thing where we had the horror authors
read an excerpt from one of their books or some sort of ghost story around the
fire pit so that people get to hear what they're writing and they get to,
(34:06):
you know, have a fun ghost story night because it's also fitting.
So we're super excited about that. There's some time slots and they're all filling
out different slots. Lots.
But I'll name off a few of the authors that are coming. Yeah, please.
I love this idea. Yeah. So William Sterling is one of them.
And he was with us last year. He helped out a lot. He was a sponsor.
(34:28):
And so he's actually vending this year. Super excited to have him back.
We've got Frightful Fables and Tales from the Gas Station, which Abigail is
absolutely obsessed with Jack Townsend.
And she she about passed out
that was her exciting moment like like my cyanide
(34:50):
suspension she had jack townsend and she called
me immediately when she found out that he'd signed up and she was like hyperventilating
and i was like what what is wrong with you and she's like you have to be joking
with me he didn't actually and i was like what what's happening i i didn't understand
and And then she's like crying of joy.
(35:12):
And then she's like, oh, sorry, I have to go. I'm in lab. I was like, there's no way.
This girl just slipped out in lab crying. Oh, that's outstanding.
Anyway, super excited that he's coming. He's also been a, he's a sponsor.
And he made this amazing blog post about the event that really pulled some more
(35:32):
people to the page. So nice.
Really cool. Any chance you can send me that so I can add a link to it in our
show notes? Absolutely, yes.
Lots of authors, and there's a couple more pending right now,
so there will be more probably, but those are the ones that I can say.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. I absolutely love that other thing.
That's something that we started doing for our Halloween show.
(35:55):
Every year we read spooky stories that we've loved.
So to see that go live, like, that's really cool. I think it's cool.
Yeah. to highlight authors and just again,
have give people a chance to to bring their
own creativity oh yeah and if anyone out
there is a writer i mean you don't have to have written a book
(36:15):
to do this so if you want to come read a story we can add
you to the list and also the point of having the two fire pits was one is like
if you just want to hang out you know and then the other one is like activity
fire pit come listen to stories and do all the and have your s'mores and so
that's why abigail is bringing hers because Because she's like,
(36:35):
I want them to have their special little spot.
So it's not too loud, not too close to the bands.
It's s'mores and ghost stories. I mean, what more could you need?
Right? A round of fire? Come on.
With haunted cocktails. With haunted cocktails. Holy crap. It's going to be
a great night. Right? Oh, yeah.
(36:55):
And beyond all of that. Go ahead, John. I was just going to say.
So the other thing you mentioned that I haven't really, I think it's so unique.
Because you said there's a car show going on for this one. Yes. Not just any cars.
So last year, one of our vendors, Bettina Wasserman, she is really awesome.
(37:17):
She does Wicked World, Incredible Booth,
But she brought her hearse last year, and it was a hit. I mean,
everyone was taking photos with it.
And I even got a comment. I did a survey last year on everyone,
and someone was like, I wish I had more time with that car.
I was like, you know, maybe I can do something with that.
(37:37):
And I know there's, like, a few people in Athens that are good friends that have hearses.
So I was like, maybe, you know, I can ask them. Or maybe there has to be more
people with hearses if these three all know each other.
Yeah, I totally think of others because that's kind of a tight-knit community.
Yeah, and so now I've been joining all these hearse Facebook groups and everything.
(37:58):
I'm like, anyone want to bring their hearse? I'd love to see what your algorithm
looks like right now. Right.
We've gotten some interest, so we'll see how many we can rack up.
But yeah, I want to stick as many spooky cars out there as we can.
And it's also open to people who want to show their car that's not a spooky
car as long as you make it spooky.
Spooky so you've got to decorate your car
(38:21):
if you're gonna bring it and there's like a on the
website there's a place i think it's called haunted car showcase
where you can submit photos of your car just make
sure if it's a normal car it is decorated in the photos because we need to know
that you're you're serious about this we need to see dedication here right no
slackers i need to clarify is the excessive rust on my bumper scary because
(38:44):
it terrifies me i mean does it if you're.
But bettina with the hearse she she is like a magical person because the other day she,
messaged me and she was like you should have this guy at haunt fest and she
sent me this youtube video of this guy with a ghostbusters car it was like just
(39:07):
like the car from the movie yeah i saw that and i'm just like oh this is he
must live in like minnesota or somewhere like Like that is not here.
And I look up and Athens, Georgia. I was like, what? No way.
We've got at least two here in Denver. Still? That's amazing.
(39:28):
Wow, I didn't know that was a normal thing to do. Wow. I love it.
I thought it was normal. Yeah.
The Ghostbusters car club. I was going to say, is this the guy who just did it because he loves it?
Because I know in Southern California there is a Ghostbusters club that will
actually go around and do parties and things.
(39:50):
They're all dressed up. They have the The Ecto-1, it's a whole thing.
I met him at Midsummer Scream last year.
Is it similar here in Athens, or is this just an enthusiast who made the Ecto-1?
If I'm being completely honest, I don't really know now that you've said that.
I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't either until I ran into the mic.
(40:11):
But, I mean, he is a film teacher, so I was like, maybe it is an enthusiast thing.
But he does have all the costumes. so and we're filming
a promo video coming up and he was like yeah i can
like insert all of the like streams so you
can be tackling a ghost in the video and what's really
amazing about that whole thing is you
(40:33):
know i saw his youtube that's all the information i had on
this guy i could not find him anywhere like he
hid it and i had to put
a 15 year old on it i was like i know
you can find him and like the next
day she sends me this link that's got
like information i was like i don't know how you found this i had
to write this man a letter this is a dark web stuff
(40:56):
right here it was amazing so when i saw that i got a text from some random number
i was like who is this he's like oh i'm the ghostbusters guy and i was like
no way there's no way that works see john i thought We need a kid to run our social media.
I'm sorry. I missed that. I was talking to John. See, John, I told you we need
(41:19):
to get a kid to run our social media.
Oh, yes. Well, mine's too young.
Yeah, his son is like three. Oh, well, he still may be better than all of us.
I don't know. He's definitely better than me.
You got the older kids. That's true. My 10-year-old. I don't know, though.
(41:40):
I know my son. I don't think I wanted his thoughts out in the world. Oh, goodness.
Walkers. Yeah.
Walkers are dangerous. Well, the younger one is scarier.
We're talking about getting grounded the other day. And my eight year old comes
(42:00):
out with. I know a way to get grounded.
Like when you take a picture and throw it at your sibling and it has glass and
it cracks and cuts them and they bleed.
Yes. Yes. That will be grounded, son.
And my wife and i just look at each other like where the hell did that come from,
oddly specific it's very specific hasn't
(42:24):
happened yet but we're i keep my eyes open now exactly okay
we have not yet talked about my personal favorite thing
uh shopping if i want to do some shopping what are
you going to have available all sorts of things
we already mentioned and the authors and they're doing book signings and
selling their books but we also have like a.
(42:46):
Myriad of things we've got
jellies from the cryptid cannery that
is like that's i always love finding
businesses that are automatically like they're not normally scary
businesses but they make them scary all the time
and i just so when i see something like the cryptid cannery and
like last year we had ghoul next door that does
(43:08):
creepy cookies i'm like this is just like there's
other people out there that like call me around it's just
great tell me more about the cryptid cannery what do they do so
they do jams and jellies and they have all
yeah i know and they've got all these like spooky
stickers for everything and their logo
i'm pretty sure they design all of the monsters and
(43:29):
stuff for their cans yeah well they're jars i
think but it looks delicious so there's like
foodie things like that we've got wicked tuft coming
that does tufted rugs and they're actually nice
like they're all spooky tufted rugs
evil twin clay company is another one that's halloween in your face and it's
(43:51):
like halloween earrings and all these like handcrafted things like that we've
got just name it a few random ones here but holy fire for just coming i was
gonna ask about that one nightmaker i assume um.
He makes like knives and swords and all sorts of things, but he brings his forge with him.
So he's like blacksmith there and you can see it's really great at night because he'll be hitting it.
(44:17):
And there's like sparks flying in and all my gosh, that's a showing of itself.
Oh yeah. And he's also a weightlifter. I, on his, his Instagram is world's world strong as blacksmith.
And so he, he's always lifting weights. Yeah. So I reached out and I was like,
hey, weird question, but would you want to like do that at the festival?
(44:40):
Like, would you want to like every hour or something like lift something really
heavy and make a show out of it?
He's like, yeah, let's do it.
You got to get him in the cyanide suspension.
Yeah, you got to get him in cyanide suspension together and have him like dangling people.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's hanging. Well, exactly.
(45:04):
It's genius to talk to
them about that yeah you can also
get a leather stuff crocheted stuff trying to
just look through the list what is namaste tchotchkes they
do all sorts of different things i'm pretty
sure i don't want to say wrong but i'm
pretty sure they do like like crystal things and all
(45:25):
sorts of like witchy things like i think they've got cards and
things like that and the young crone also is with
them young crone I like that yes under the
slab does like I don't know what
material it is it's some sort of mineral rock that they carve things into and
it's all spooky stuff spooky little carvings I'm pretty sure they have some
(45:49):
other things too but there's a lot it's like anything that you can imagine what about oh.
Forgive me if i butcher this empyrean laser yeah
i i'm gonna be honest i've never said it out loud so
i'm gonna say that you're right but i don't i don't know you know
what do they do they do like laser work so
(46:12):
i'm not sure how it works but i
know they somehow do something in a
laser and then it shoots the thing on the on the
wood and then oh so like laser etching yes yeah
but yeah i think they they do all sorts of different
etching things so yeah yeah and
we do like vendor highlights every week so on
(46:35):
our instagram which is at hotfix.athens you can go check out individual vendors
and including the food trucks and all that well we try to highlight everybody
so soon we're gonna have to start doing bi-weekly highlights because we're getting
so many vendors then be able to hit everyone each week but yeah so if you want
to see photos of any of the artwork work,
or if you want to see their tags and go to their pages, that's where you can find that information.
(47:01):
Perfect. I think the important thing with this one is we make sure that we watch,
Kay's, you know, business card during this.
Watch his paper cards. You're implying.
Did you know what I'm implying? You're less...
You're more a hazard than I am.
Leslie, you are our financial person and that's why I don't consult with you
(47:24):
when I go to the bathroom. You tell me no.
No. I tell you to check with your wife. I'm picturing you with a great-sized
sack and just throwing things in left and right.
That's about right. You're not wrong.
Oh, one thing. One big thing. I always mention this and I just forgot.
(47:46):
Taxidermy is a huge thing. It's sort of like oddity.
Jewelry with bones or you can, I'm pretty sure Wicked World has like some,
What are they called? The ones in liquid. Help me. You know what I'm talking
about? Oh, it's like in jars. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So lots of like cool, spooky, like witchy animal art or like bone art,
(48:09):
which is, that's, I love that kind of stuff.
Like, I don't know if you guys have been to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo
before, but they're like a huge inspiration to me.
They have all sorts of taxidermy and stuff like that. Sure, sure. Nice.
But. Awesome. awesome uh do
you want to get take a moment and talk about some of your sponsors give them a shout out
(48:30):
absolutely well first of all you guys
haunting you as a sponsor and sponsored last year so y'all are amazing i love
you guys appreciate that i gotta be honest like we had a solid boost the weekend
that your show went like we could visually see a a spike in people who checked
(48:51):
checked out the website, checked out and downloaded episodes.
So we really appreciate the partnership with you because we got something out
of it as well. Yeah, I'm super glad.
So just to mention some of the venues, because like Southern Brewing,
obviously a big shout out to them because they're letting us use their venue.
B&B Theaters, we did an event with them back in October.
(49:11):
And Sauce House the same. We had a Halloween party there that was helping to promote the festival.
And they also just today like donated a gift
certificate for the raffle basket so they like just
keep coming for more coming back for more i'm like wow you're already
a sponsor but now you're like up here you know
awesome william sterling who's
(49:31):
one of the authors is he's also the host of killer
mediums podcast he donated some books and things of his for the raffle basket
whimsy loops donated this cute i want to have to show you this because it's
so cute sorry listeners you're not going to get to see it oh my gosh that is adorable crochet ghost.
(49:55):
I love it that's great
we have Dark Knight
Audities is donating the raffle basket Tales from the Gas Station Jack Townsend
again super great Holly V Hutch Designs Clay Henson Sound and Lighting is giving
us a great deal on the music stuff so So they're coming and being the sound
(50:16):
techs and all that. So you'd shout out to them.
Oh, gosh, I'm going to butcher the name again. What'd you say it was? I went with Empyrean.
Empyrean? E-M-P-Y-R-E-A-N. Listeners, pronounce it yourself.
Put it in the chat for me because I can't find it for some reason.
It's right next to the Sponting You podcast.
(50:38):
That's because I'm looking at the wrong page. It's in the chat.
This is probably terribly butchering it but every time I read it I want to say
Empyrean like no that can't be it yeah they have a pretty cool logo though I dig it yeah they do.
Let's see. I mentioned Killer Mediums. And then Little Decisions Podcast.
(51:00):
This is actually run by this woman named Victoria who came to the festival last year.
And at the end of the survey she filled out, she was like, I actually have this,
podcast about kindness.
Would you do that with me? I was like, that's really sweet. And so we just did that the other day.
She's awesome. And I think she wants to learn more about you guys because I
(51:22):
mentioned you. Feel free to pass along our podcast. Oh, yeah.
But yeah, huge shout out to everyone that has donated anything,
money, space, anything for the raffle basket.
And, you know, any prizes that we can get are great because that means we can do more games.
Yeah. But, you know, without the prizes, it's hard. So I think I want a hockey you T-shirt.
(51:44):
Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Let's see. We don't give away my shirt. Yeah, we do.
Yeah. Drop us your address and we'll send you a T-shirt. You can use as a giveaway.
Oh, thank you so much. That's awesome. Yeah. We've got a bunch.
That's great. Yeah, no, people love that stuff.
We had some last year from, what was it? The Halloween T-shirt company.
(52:09):
Oh my god, I love them. They're great.
They've taken a lot of my money. The shirts are really awesome. I love those shirts.
Also, I have to mention Summit Historic Properties. They don't have a logo.
That's my dad's company but he does so much for us it's not even funny like
(52:29):
this haunt is going to be a lot of him going out there with a hammer and nails
figuring stuff out so you know i know he's my dad but also,
he's amazing just as a person so yeah it's awesome having someone supportive
like that in your corner right yeah and to anyone listening if you go to the
sponsor page you can click on any of the logos and it'll take you to their page
(52:50):
their instagram or their website or whatever if it's a a podcast.
You can listen to their podcast just clicking on the link.
Please do so because we love them
love it love
it well what have we missed what have we forgotten to
talk about i don't know you may have hit everything i say that but i'll okay
(53:11):
while you're thinking go through your social media website everywhere that people
can find out more information about contest april rules all right so instagram
i mentioned earlier but it's It's at hauntfest.athens.
And we currently have a lot of giveaways going on.
So just like check up on it every now and then, because we've usually got some sort of deal going on.
(53:34):
And our Facebook is the page itself is Hauntfest LLC, because that's like the business page.
But then the group for the event is Hauntfest April Ghouls. And there's also
an event within that that's Hauntfest April Ghouls 2024.
All sorts of different events within that for promotional stuff.
So just peek at the website or sorry, at Hauntfest LLC, and you'll see all of that there.
(53:58):
And then other contact info is on the website. You can contact us through the contact page.
What am I missing? Oh, the website, I guess, is again, www.hauntfest.us.
I always say us, and then I hear other people say US.
That's what it's supposed to be.
(54:18):
It works. It works. Yeah, fair enough. The listeners can find links to all of
those right in the show notes for this very episode to make it nice and easy
to connect with Haunt Fest in any way that works best for you.
Oh, and the one thing I just saw that I forgot to mention.
Always. Our price is $20. So please get your tickets ahead of time.
(54:38):
It's $5 less or like it's only $5 more to get both days if you get them ahead of time.
That's right. That's right. just go ahead and do that. And it helps us out.
You know, it's like an RSVP kind of deal. Did you get an idea of how many people are coming?
Honestly, no clue. But I'm guessing a lot more than last year because we have
(54:59):
already a lot more tickets sold now than we did last year. But luckily, it's a bigger venue.
Yeah, we're still two months out right now. Yeah.
But last year, the door sales were insane. It was like three times the amount
of pre-sale tickets. Wow.
If you don't want to wait in a line, please, dear God, buy tickets now.
(55:25):
Do this early. Yes. That's Hauntfest Mayhem happening Saturday,
April 6th and Sunday, April 7th in Athens, Georgia.
$15 per day or $25 for both days. You can find all of those tickets on their
website. Buy them now. Yay.
Okay. Okay. Anything else before we wrap it up with Roseanne?
(55:50):
Just me remembering the one thing that I forgot. What was it?
Hey, there you go. The hayride. We're talking about the car show.
The hayride. Oh, hayride. Ooh.
I'm getting the pulse of my behavior. Are we still rolling? All right. Yeah.
So the hayride. Because parking was crazy last year, we're really trying to
work it out this year as best as we can.
(56:12):
Southern Brewing parking is also a pain.
They already have people lined up on the street on a normal Saturday.
Of days so i went around to the businesses surrounding southern
brewing and asked can we use your parking lot on these days and they're
like you know so we got a lot of businesses that said yes to
that and there's street parking and all that but we don't
want people to have to walk super far so we were like what
if we made it fun so we've got a hayride that's gonna be you have a hayride
(56:36):
the big people up and take them in and i do want to mention this just because
i think it's It's a really amazing story. And this guy is incredible.
On my mom's birthday, we went to a hibachi place.
And we sat next to these guys that they're like country boys.
(56:58):
You know, it was like one of those weird situations where you want there to
be a chair in between the family. It's just weird, you know,
when you don't know these people.
So we were all having our own separate conversations for a while.
And then one of them spoke up and they were like, hey, like,
how are you guys doing tonight?
And so we started chatting and they started learning more about us.
We start learning more about them they're like yeah we we own this
(57:19):
and this farm and all this and my dad brings
up the festival and of course i'm like a little nervous about it
i'm like do they really want to know about this and but then i was like you
know what we're actually looking for a hayride you guys have any connections
that could help us with that and the guy's just like oh i'll do it more stuff
for the community i love that and then they bought all of our dinners,
(57:44):
Oh, that's awesome. So just strangers that you meet at a hibachi place.
And now you never know what's going to happen if you just strike up a conversation.
So shout out to Alan, because that's awesome. That's freaking awesome.
We'll have that up on the website soon. And we'll have like a parking plan.
So you'll know like where you can and can't park and all that. Yeah.
(58:07):
People want to know where the hayride is running so they can park.
We'll have a little trail drawn out or something, but closer to time.
Yeah, of course. That is absolutely fantastic. And I...
Watching how Hot Fests has evolved just from the first event to this event,
you are making just the freaking leaps and bounds.
It is so freaking cool. Thank you.
(58:31):
I'm excited.
I just want to find a way to get out there.
Please. I said, I'm going to try and plan a business trip, honestly.
Yeah that is april 6th and 7th in athens georgia definitely
go check out their website at hauntfest.us or hauntfest.us
you know however you feel rosanne thank you so much for taking the time out
(58:53):
to come chat with us tell us all about hauntfest it looks like it's gonna be
a ton of fun and i hope you have just all kinds of people come out and have
a good time yeah thank you guys so much for having me it's always a blast hey
everyone kiyomi here just cutting in in real quick.
So between the time that we recorded the podcast and when we're releasing it.
Hauntfest had a couple more announcements that they wanted to get out.
(59:15):
So correction to what we talked about during the podcast, Cyanide Suspension
will not do flesh hook hanging for the guests who are coming.
However, they are doing Gravity Boot Suspensions and Saran Wrap Suspensions.
So if you are interested in doing either of those, go check out the Hauntfest
website and you can can sign up for appointments for that.
(59:36):
And even more exciting is there is going to be a celebrity appearance at Hauntfest.
Ari Lehman, the actor who played the first Jason Voorhees on Friday the 13th,
is not only making a celebrity appearance on both days of Hauntfest,
April 6th and 7th, but he is also playing with his band,
(59:58):
First Jason, on Saturday night starting at 11 30 p.m.
You can pop by his booth on either day for a picture, autograph,
and merch, and then rock with First Jason to end the night with a bang on Saturday.
So, two super exciting announcements that happened after the podcast was recorded,
and wanted to make sure we got that out to all of you. Back to the original.
(01:00:18):
Holy shit, Hot Fest sounds like it's going to be just an absolute freaking blast.
Yeah, I definitely need to plan a road trip sometime around there.
You totally need to see if you can make a business trip. You totally need to
see if you can make a a business rep.
Well, I think you should.
That's a good use of company money. I love it. The best use of company money. I thought you would.
(01:00:45):
Oh, freaking love it. Well, it is, of course, the first of the month.
And so we have to take a moment to hear what is happening in the world of the Chamber of Haunters.
So let's take a moment and have a... Chamber's Corner.
The Haunting Podcast is the official podcast of the Chamber of Haunters.
(01:01:06):
And we like to take a moment every month to give them an opportunity to tell
us everything that is happening within the world of the Chamber.
So let's see what the president, Mr. Robert Knowlton, has for us this month.
The Chamber of Haunters will be offering a 50% discount for anyone joining during
Transworld's HAA show from March 7th to the 10th, 2024.
The Chamber of Haunters will have a booth at the inaugural East Coast Haunters
(01:01:28):
Convention in April 2024.
Please plan on stopping by to visit us and see what we can do for you.
We have also had some new additions to our Chamber Board of Directors and are
excited for all that we have in store for our members in this industry with
new ideas and ways in which to move forward.
Please know that we are here for you and hope to be able to serve you.
If interested in joining the Chamber of Haunters, please go to our website at
(01:01:50):
chamberofhaunters.com.
Watch our Facebook page for the 50% off discount code, which can be used during Transworld's HAA show.
The Chamber of Haunters hopes to see you there and get to know you better.
Alrighty, thank you for that update on the Chamber's Corner For what's going
on at the Chamber of Haunters What do we have up next?
Well, we are still deep into convention season And so we'll be talking conventions
(01:02:14):
for a while However, it's time to start planning for our next haunt Can we get
like a fancy table with actual blueprints?
I have news It's official,
The Coast Guard is sending me back to Maryland. That may add to it.
Thank you, Precinct State, is going to pick up right where we left off. As best as we can.
(01:02:39):
As best as we can. Once we find the doors.
I'm a little bit worried about the doors because I loaded them all up into my
box trailer and then I left them with my buddy Ty.
He's got a property down in Southern Virginia and he was going to store it there for me.
But they had just been sitting there in the trailer for, by the time I get there,
(01:03:01):
the better part of two years.
And I'm a little bit afraid of what has infested it.
I'm going to go with mold and fuzzy things. That's a ton of what I'm expecting.
Potentially live fuzzy things. Fingers are crossed. We'll see what happens.
If it's fuzzy things, just add it to the haunt. All of that to say,
(01:03:22):
I don't know that we're going to be able to pull off off a full Sanguine Creek
Estates experience this year.
But those are the things that we're going to be talking about in the upcoming
episodes of the Haunting You podcast.
So if you want to follow along, please go check us out on our website at hauntingyou.com,
just the letter U, and find us on social media at facebook.com slash hauntingyou
(01:03:43):
and Instagram at Haunting University.
And definitely go check out all the really cool content we have on our YouTube
page. That's youtube.com slash at hauntingyou, just the letter U.
Okay. Do we have anything else we need to talk about tonight,
guys? I don't think so. I think it's got pretty well covered.
And if you are in the Georgia area of Athens, Atlanta, etc.,
(01:04:05):
definitely go check out Hauntfest.
They've got a really, really great lineup this year. Get some s'mores,
listen to music, listen to ghost stories.
It sounds like it's going to be an absolute freaking blast.
But in the meantime, we will call it a night.
So from all of us here at Haunting You, stay spooky, my friends,
and happy We'll be right back.
(01:04:26):
Bye, everyone. We are incredibly thankful to all the sponsors who make this
show possible, particularly our premium sponsors, the Chamber of Haunters and Fear Expo.
You can learn more at chamberofhaunters.com and fearexpolive.com.
Check out the Haunted U podcast at hauntedu.com for more information on everything that we do.
Music.
(01:05:14):
Haunting You is a production of the Rocky Mountain Home Haunters,
LLC. LLC all audio clips and sound effects are used under a creative commons
attribution or public domain license from purple planet music at purple dash
planet.com or the sound Bible at soundbible.com.
Please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode.
(01:05:35):
Her constant professionals.
Music.
(00:17):
Coming to you live from the Chamber of Haunter Studios, this is Haunting You.
I'm Jon Schultz. I'm Keone Hutton. And I'm Leslie Reed.
Welcome back, everyone, to the Haunting You podcast. We are so excited to have
you here. We are deep into convention season. It is March 1st.
HauntCon kicked off just a couple of weeks ago.
Okay, I got to level with all the listeners real quick. We're recording this on September 8th.
(00:40):
HauntCons are like two days. I have no idea how it's going to go.
But I think I'm really optimistic. I think this will be awesome.
I guess we'll find out.
But it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. Just want to throw out a couple
of really huge upcoming events before we dive into the topic of today's podcast.
(01:01):
Just a few days from now, we have Transworld Halloween Attraction Show in St. Louis, Missouri.
It is kicking off March 7th to the 10th. That is the biggest haunted attraction
trade show in the country.
If you have not gone, you may want to consider going.
St. Louis, Missouri, March 7th to the 10th. But that is not the show that we
are here to talk about today.
We want to continue on in the theme of the last few episodes,
(01:24):
highlighting the convention season, getting us hyped for all of the exciting
events that are about to kick off.
And in true Haunting You fashion, we are digging back into what we have already
done before because we're out of original ideas and not really.
They're just, you know, otherwise occupied.
Yeah. Our ideas are otherwise occupied?
(01:47):
Yes. I like that.
Yeah, we're going to stick with that. But anyway, so we are bringing back a
Haunting You favorite that we had here last year talking about her brand new events.
Well, last year she was talking about her brand new event that was just a couple
of weeks away from kicking off and ended up just being absolutely freaking spectacular.
(02:07):
And we are super excited that they have decided to do another show down in Athens, Georgia.
We have brought back Roseanne Harpole from Haunt Fest to talk about their new
show coming up here in just over a month.
Roseanne, welcome back to the Haunting You podcast. Thank you. Thank you.
Before we jump into the new show, we have to talk a little bit about how Hauntfest
(02:31):
Mayhem went just about a year ago.
Talk a little bit about the show and your experience.
Well, it was a lot bigger than I expected.
I mean, of course, I wanted there to be a lot of people there and I believed
in it. But oh, my God, I was running around the whole time.
I didn't get a second to myself because there were so many people coming in.
(02:52):
And the line was out the door the whole night.
The bands were amazing. People seemed to be having a great time.
We got a lot of good feedback.
Parking, we ran out of parking early on. And so I had parking.
I was throwing friends outside, like, take care of this. Can you find somewhere for this car to be?
And they had walkie-talkies. It was insane.
But it went astronomically well. And I'm just so glad that it went the way that it did.
(03:18):
Despite, I mean, it was even like sprinkling that day. And there were all sorts
of things like weirdly going wrong here and there.
All in all, like the whole thing came together and ended up being just incredible.
So you alluded to it a little bit. Like, what was the thing that ended up being
super frustrating that you didn't even think was going to be an issue?
(03:40):
Well, I mean, big time parking. We also there were a few different things like
we had the sink overflow randomly. Randomly.
There were some people like last minute and because it's like a volunteer event,
it's like, you can't really be mad, but also we like lost people last minute.
(04:01):
And so I just was having to pull people like shout out to my friend,
Matt, because he showed up, he had bought a ticket.
I was just hanging out and I was like, we got to put you to work. I'm sorry.
But, and then I had my dad at concession stands and he, the concession stand,
and he had to cook Cook the burgers, wrap the burgers, sell the burgers.
(04:21):
And there was a line forever because we lost our concession person.
Oh, no. We didn't win it. That's what I'm curious about.
Yeah. So Matt was the runner. And so he would just run to whatever thing was
missing a person whenever they needed it.
And I think he walked quite a few miles that evening.
He got his steps in, right? Yeah. But there's just all sorts of little things that would happen.
(04:44):
And you're like, all right, you got to go take care of that now. but it did
it worked out good though remember your dad was
going to be setting up a a mini haunted house there
at the at the show how did it work
that was another thing that was surprising to
me so we just kind of had to throw something together because we didn't have
woods to work with we didn't really have a space at all and so we just had some
(05:09):
black tarp and rope yeah like like roping trees together and throwing tarp over
it. And we had like glow sticks in there.
And I mean, it seemed like it got a few good scares, even though it was kind
of like a weird random setup.
But the line for that was insane.
For whatever reason, I guess I just thought that they would just run through
(05:31):
and there would never really be a line.
They'd just be going through. But that line wrapped like all the way around the venue. It was easy.
Yeah. Yeah. And you had a ton going on. There was a haunt. There was food.
You had conflict going on. There was the vendors doing sales and stuff.
And still, it sounds like people were getting backed up all over the place. Yeah, it was amazing.
(05:57):
But also, we don't want it to get backed up. We want a lot of people to be there.
So this year, we're trying to improve some of our systems and make sure there's
a will call line in the front and all sorts of processes for the trail.
Now that I know that's also insane.
Learned a lot, to say the least. Yeah, well, what a great segue into what we're
(06:19):
going to be talking about for the rest of the episode.
Your next event...
April ghoul which i just absolutely freaking love the name on brand for you very very on brand,
but april ghouls april 6th and the 7th athens still in athens yes still in athens
(06:40):
at southern brewing company the southern brewing company is this a new venue
or is that where you had it last time this is a new venue it was at rabbit hole
studios last year but southern brewing was like Like, we'll do it for free.
And I was like, oh, my God. And they're here.
Even better. Yeah. How did that partnership end up happening?
(07:01):
Honestly, it was just a dream come true. I just showed up to meet him.
I never really mentioned anything about, like, needing sponsors.
And he just straight up was like, yeah, you can just do it here.
And I was like, what do you mean? And, of course, we met after,
like, with the management. And they were like, you know, we want to support
the community and help people do this.
(07:22):
But like, we also have so many inquiries now that we're going to have to start
charging for it, but not now. He was like, you're, you're good for now.
It's like, if you come back next year, maybe we'll charge you. I don't know.
Yeah yeah awesome but it's
great yeah well it's just that's
awesome are they gonna you know start doing stuff with i mean
i'm assuming they're going to provide alcohol as well as space right
(07:45):
oh yeah and they they have this amazing backwoods area that actually is woods
which is where the trail is going to be this year oh nice yeah so you're actually
gonna be able to set up a trail rather than screaming at tarps oh yeah and there's
this really neat bamboo forest back there let's It's super spooky,
just even in the daytime.
So I'm excited to see what we can do with that space.
(08:08):
Sounds like the perfect venue. Yeah, it really does.
Let's talk about how to get there. If people want to attend,
it looks like... Wait, wait, two days. Two days now, not one. Yes.
Talk about it. Oh, okay. You made a face. I wasn't sure.
He makes lots of faces. It's okay. That's just the face. It's all right.
Yeah. So after last year went so well, I was really considering doing a full weekend.
(08:33):
And I really did want to do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but they have an event on Friday already.
So they were like, we'll let you do Saturday and Sunday. So we're working with that.
And Sunday is going to start and end an hour earlier than Saturday,
just because it's the the end of the weekend but strangely it has not really
affected planning as much as i thought it would because it's it's different
(08:56):
bands different vendors and stuff but it's like the same process so yeah i'm
really excited that you know it can be two days and it not be like overwhelmingly.
Difficult to plan but i'm hoping
in the future maybe i can end up doing a full weekend like a
lot of these conventions do sure festival yeah
exactly and you you kind of ride the line between
(09:17):
convention and festival already how did
that end up working out last year kind of combining those
what you would see at a traditional halloween convention
or enthusiast convention along with a music festival
i think like growing up going to festivals
i always remember there being vendors and there being music and
so to me it felt like a festival but i also
(09:39):
know that you know some people don't spend
as much time at the booths and so they're like you know i want more
activities to to do if it's a festival so that's another thing this
year we're like trying to add more things that make people
want to stay longer like a festival rather than running
through looking at everything and feeling like there's nothing else to
do but i i love
(10:00):
the festival aspect because i feel like the convention conventions now
are more geared toward the haunters and not just the normal like customer uh
whereas this is more focused on like anyone who loves halloween can come it's
not you know to buy a smoke machine it's to buy like a fun little thing like
a bone necklace or you know right.
(10:22):
But I really try to emphasize the festival part less or more than the convention
part, also because it's indoor outdoor.
A lot of conventions seem to be more indoor. And so this is supposed to be a
little more like an atmosphere that you walk into and can experience and do things there.
But let's talk about all the things you can be doing.
(10:44):
What's the best way to talk about this? Should we go like talk Friday or excuse
me, talk Saturday, then Sunday, or do you just want to hit kind of all the major areas?
Probably overall is good because they're they mostly overlap.
There's a few things that are different, but. OK, let's start with tickets then.
If people want to attend, how much are tickets? Where do they buy them?
(11:04):
Tickets are $15 a day or you can go both days for $25.
Yeah. Yeah. And if you want to get the tickets, you can go to www.hauntfest.us.
But there's also other ticket tiers. You can get an RIP, you know,
really important person to get.
I like that one. Yeah, that's good. That's good.
(11:27):
I like that. but there's different tiers to that so like
i think tier one is like you can get in early for
the vendors and get priority parking and stuff like that and then
as you go up it goes up in price and you get like merch and the very last one
includes flesh hook suspension which we can talk about later but and then the
haunted trail tickets sorry k has a confused look on the i think I think I heard
(11:52):
her say flesh hooked assistant. Yes, you did. Yeah.
You heard correctly. We're coming back to that. Okay. Okay.
But yeah, you can also get a haunted trail ticket. Unlimited pass is $15 and
a single pass is $8. So I think it's worth it. That's a lot.
(12:12):
Love it. Absolutely love it. And hours for the events, Saturday and Sunday.
Oh, yes. Saturday is 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. and then Sunday is 11 p.m. to 11 p.m. Oh, sorry.
What did I just say? 11 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wow. That was amazing.
4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Okay.
5 to midnight on Saturday and 4 to 11 on Sunday.
(12:35):
Yes. Got it. And I see there's a kids hour listed here on the website. What's the kids hour?
So basically, if you come before 6 p.m., the spooks and everything will be kind of stowed away.
We'll probably have them at the street trying to pull people in rather than
being in spooking everybody.
So if you have young kids who may be, you know, extremely afraid and want to
(12:55):
come earlier, that's probably the best time for them.
It's kind of like a family hour type deal where there's free pumpkin painting
for the kids and there's like a trick or treat.
We're going to have vendors and people who bring their cars are going to have
like, you know, candy to hand out. And that'll hopefully encourage people to go visit everybody.
But I'm trying to think, of course, there's the hayride that'll be going the whole time.
(13:17):
But there's a lot more, you know, kid friendly activities before six and then
at six will be the release of the ghouls.
And then they'll be out, you know, of course, if you're going to stay like there's
no kicking anyone out or anything, but you can get like a glow stick if you
don't want them to mess with you while they're free roaming.
Nice. Yeah. Yeah, I as the first thing that pops up on here is obviously,
(13:41):
you know, two of my favorite things, snakes and kittens.
So I love that those are two of your highlighted items as well.
But so let's let's go through and talk about the band lineup in your music.
Who do you guys have for that this time around?
So we have a lot more bands than last year, especially, you know,
(14:02):
because it's two days as well. So on Saturday, we have Karma Cat,
Beat Up, Tattoo Logic, who they played with us last year and they've been super supportive.
They also played for a promo event that we had in October.
Nick's The Scientist, The Wild, Florence Cardigan. I just saw their show the
other day. They're amazing. And House Guest.
(14:23):
And then on Sunday, we have The Young Frankensteins, appropriate,
Jacket, Hyper Sleep, Swear Jar, Parking Garage, Second Nature, and Roommate.
So seven bands a day and they're all
yeah we had a lot of a lot of
signups this year it was super exciting to go through and listen to everybody
there's just so much music in athens did you have to turn people away we did
(14:47):
we did it was kind of heartbreaking there were a lot of a lot of good musicians
out there and i'm i'm sorry to anyone that that didn't make the cut because
you they're They're all awesome.
Yeah. If it's too personal, feel free to tell me. But what made the difference
for you on deciding whether or not to ask a band to play?
We really had to look at a lot of different angles. If anyone had a Spotify,
(15:10):
we'd listen to the Spotify.
If anyone had videos on their Instagram, we'd listen to that.
Of course, they submit their own videos and they're all live performances.
So you can kind of hear both recorded and live. And then a lot of it,
because we're still so such a young festival business, we have to look at popularity,
you know, because we we have to be like, you know, even if a band is like slightly
(15:33):
better than another band, if one of them has an incredible amount of followers,
it's like you're the one who's going to bring the people to the festival. Right.
And it's it's not that anyone is more or less talented necessarily.
It's just the marketing aspect. And so it's tough when you have to think about
those kinds of things when you're picking people because it, you know.
(15:53):
But it all kind of went into a system and then everyone was like on a list and
we're having to mark people off.
And it's really hard to when you're like, we're friends with a lot of musicians in Athens.
And so it's really hard to turn people away, especially if you know them.
And you're like, it's not personal.
I swear, like I will go to your shows all all day long.
(16:15):
But it's a business decision. and so
it's hard but they are all
awesome and we're super thankful for everyone who
signed up we gave anyone who was turned away got like a
50 off discount to come to the fest that
ain't bad and a good way to bring in more people yeah and
to bring people back is just be like hey yeah absolutely yeah
(16:39):
we're gonna we're gonna do it this way what else involved in
the pumpkin can painting because i see googly eyes and that
always makes me giggle well of
course they can't be real pumpkins because it's in april but
i did get a bunch of little like plastic pumpkins
and about all sorts of painting supplies i have
an excess of craft supplies
(17:01):
because i have a really bad habit of finding
them and i'm like i'm gonna do something with that one day and then
i never do so i just have boxes and boxes of things i
can bring yeah things with them just not all of them and not all at once and
you know they store so nicely it's just they just can't know right yeah kindred
spirits but so i've got googly eyes i've got feathers and all sorts of crazy
(17:24):
stuff markers you know i'll bring anything that seems like it would be fitting.
But that'll be a fun little table, though, something people can sit down and do.
And we also have larger pumpkins that you can buy and paint because they're
like, you know, they're a little more expensive.
And also like these ceramic sugar skulls and they're like cat sugar skulls and
(17:45):
dog sugar skulls. Oh, nice.
So if the parents or anyone artsy comes that's older, they can like just sit down and paint.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that'll be a good thing to have, you know,
especially for just kind of the whole the whole group of, hey,
I mean, do something fun.
And what does this say about trivia? Yeah, so that's that's a new thing, too.
(18:08):
I I don't know if it was the brewery or what it was that sparked that idea.
But one of one of my buddies, Eric, who's been working with us this year,
he's really good at making games.
And so I was like hey Eric could you like
write up a trivia like a horror themed trivia
that we can do and then maybe we'll give away like a
(18:30):
basket of goodies from the vendors or something to whoever wins
and Southern Brewing also is giving away discounts on beers and things as prizes
throughout the trivia night but Eric like as soon as I said that he he got it
done it was amazing I like checked the google doc right after I sent the text
and he was typing I was like wow This is amazing.
(18:52):
He's excited about it. Oh, yeah. But I'm sure he's going to make way too many
and then we'll have to cut him down. But I'm excited to see.
Always better have too many. If I want to prepare myself to exceed your expectations
of the trivia, what should I study?
Wow, it's really broad. There's all sorts of categories.
It can be anywhere from like spooky lore from the olden days or it can be movies
(19:20):
or it can be related to haunts or any sort of,
spooky related things.
If it gives you chills then chances are it may show up.
Murder birds. If you got any murder...
Yeah, see?
(19:40):
She's in with the murderer.
That's me.
They're fun in the sense of they're absolutely horrifying but i'm reading about
them yeah i understand okay i i can't handle it anymore we have to talk about this,
(20:00):
what do you call it suspension suspension yes so,
So I'm just going to start from the beginning because I'm just,
I was so excited about this when I came up.
I have the same form that you fill out if you're a musician or an entertainer.
And last year, we didn't really get many entertainers. We had the UGA Juggling
(20:21):
Club, and that was awesome.
But it was really obvious. It says UGA Juggling Club.
But this time, I was going through the bands, and it said Cyanide Suspension.
And I was like, that's a band.
And then I click on it. That sounds like a band, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I'm seeing like all of these like like bloody pictures of like people
with hooks in their backs, like hanging and doing human blockhead with a nail
(20:45):
on their nose and all this.
And I was like, that is not a band. Oh, I see.
And they were willing to come. And they're from South Carolina.
Super awesome freak show. They
do fire stuff like fire breathing and fire dances and things like that.
At glass walking and the flesh hook suspension
is their specialty and i had never seen
(21:07):
that before apparently it's all over tiktok i've had friends tell
me about it but i i found out about
it when i was in high school yeah it's crazy stuff it's it's impressive yeah
it's supposed to be really thrilling and they are offering for anyone who wants
to do it they can make an appointment or just show up on site and they will
(21:27):
pierce you on site and hang you by hooks and you get to wait They will dangle me?
Yeah, they will dangle you. They will. Okay, I'll send you some.
Yeah, I did click on the link. And I just have to read this out loud so that
our listeners can hear. But definitely go check out Hauntfest's website.
You can find it through the Haunting You website under the events page.
But this is what it says about Cyanide Suspension.
(21:49):
Cyanide Suspension specializes in flesh hook suspension and freak show acts,
focusing mainly on the art of body horror.
They will be performing throughout the evening on both nights in the 18 plus
section. Shows are free, but if you'd like to attempt a Fleshwood suspension,
please schedule an appointment. Walk-ins are also accepted.
I just sent you a link to an image. I'm afraid. Man, do I know what's coming
(22:12):
to our room? Hey, welcome back!
The one I picked is much more artsy than horror, but again, there's a lot of
different ways that it's done.
Have you ever seen The Cell? Did you ever see The Cell?
The movie to sell when it came out, Jennifer Lopez, Michael D'Onofrio. No.
(22:33):
Roseanne, have you done this? I have not done it, no. Are you going to?
I probably will not have a real opportunity.
I'm going to be running around, all right? I can't be hanging around.
That's fair. That's fair. You've got to have both on the ground.
Holy crap. That's terrifying.
That's why it's in the 18 plus section. Exactly.
(22:56):
Totally fair. it also has a relationship to body lacing.
Yes which i recently found out
about that after the suspension thing i didn't know that was a
thing and that's beautiful like yeah i i
wonder if they ever do any of that because uh they they really
do like the piercing stuff so i'll have to ask but yeah that's one crazy new
(23:21):
addition and when i saw what it was i about passed out i thought it was so cool
they're all also like professional professionally trained scare actors and everything
and they've got the makeup going, they got the shows.
And I was like, this is incredible. And they're coming from South Carolina and
they're doing it for free.
And this is just like a dream come true. So just for all of our families who
(23:48):
are wondering, you know, we do have kids, how do we make sure they don't accidentally
end up in the 18 and 18 and over?
How do you guys have it set up to keep that age restriction in place?
So the plan right now, because it's just just
a big field we're gonna have caution
tape roping off that section and there'll be a big sign
(24:08):
that says 18 plus or r-rated or
something you know and underneath it'll be like just be
careful with your kids basically i'm hoping you know if there's any four-year-olds
running around they're probably not gonna run you know off because it's it's
such a big place i'm not too worried anyone's gonna sneak under the rope but
we will have like security out there so if if there is a problem though,
(24:32):
they can go snag the kid and bring them back.
But yeah, we'll have any sort of, you know, NSFW stuff in there.
Cause last year we, we just had stuff out in the open and I got a few comments after that.
They were like, my kids saw boobies and I was like, Oh no, no,
we're going to fix that this time. Sorry.
Oh, I mean, it happens.
(24:56):
You mentioned the scare actors. Are you guys still accepting some or are you full up?
Oh, no, we are accepting anyone who wants to come help, whether it's scare actors or general volunteers.
We always need more help. And, you know, especially with parking, how that went last year.
We'll accept people up until like the day before the event, because I do make
(25:16):
schedules ahead of time.
So please do sign up ahead of time if you are doing it.
But, you know, we could use as much help as we can get. So I'm not going to
turn someone away if they show up last minute.
How would they go about that? How would they go about getting them signed up? Sorry.
On the homepage of our website, there's a button that says Scare Actors,
(25:39):
and then there's another one that says General Volunteers.
And those take you directly to the form that you fill out to be a volunteer.
And then we'll contact you after the form's filled out.
Perfect. That's not bad. yeah i was assuming like
yeah you can never have too much help on something like that oh yeah
yeah and especially with the trail
being so long this year like last year it was
(26:01):
just like a little hut and this year it's it's a pretty good trail i mean it's
one that you can get lost in it so how long do you do need some sorry how long
do you think i think to walk it i guess it depends how scared you are i i really
i couldn't tell you right now to be honest because we're still,
working on having little booths in between that are themed, and so there may be some stops.
(26:27):
So it's really hard to know. Let's see.
In the end, you'll be running. Yeah.
Running out of the trip.
It seems like you're trying to capitalize on a number of people's different
fears. I want to talk a little more about the reptiles here for a second because I adore them.
Where are they coming from? Who's bringing them? How do we get to interact? All of that.
(26:50):
So last year we had them as well. The Georgia Reptile Society is coming and
bringing them and they have all sorts of people just in the club that have the snakes.
And so they'll just come with their snakes and be like teaching you about the
snakes and you can like pet them, whatever.
And then I think it's a ten dollar donation. You can hold a big old snake, take pictures with it.
(27:12):
So that's how they can help, you know, support animals and stuff.
Leslie's on her way with a fistful of cash.
Yeah, they were really great. We got some really awesome pictures last year from them.
All sorts of people holding snakes and they were right by the door.
So there was really no escaping them. If you were a great snake, you had to scoot by them.
(27:35):
But they've been super supportive. And they told me after that last festival,
they were like, if you ever do anything again, I'm gonna be mad if you don't reach out to us. Yeah.
I do appreciate how they are the top of the page on the activities page on their website.
Oh, yeah. I love that photo, too. Yeah, it's a really good photo.
(27:55):
That was from the Renaissance Festival. I can't take credit for that one,
but it's fitting. It's super fitting. It is.
And then just the next one with the Circle of Friends Animal Society's Appens Cat Foster Program.
Is this like an adoption program?
Yes. Yes, they bring the cats and they dress them up.
(28:17):
This was a photo from last year, actually. It's on the website.
I love the little voodoo.
Oh, yeah. They had bunnies and all sorts of different or bees.
I don't know why I said bunnies.
All sorts of fun costumes for them.
But they will come and they let you hang out with the cats, kittens, all sorts of fun stuff.
(28:38):
They were in a room last year. But again, this year it's going to be outside.
So I'm guessing it'll be like a little fenced in place
and you can go in there and you know wallow around
on the ground with some kittens so our
whole thing last year was like don't be afraidy cat you know if
you get spooked just go hang out with the kittens yeah we
(29:01):
we love them and and they actually they got a a lot
of donations last year they were super responsive about
it with me because i like to go back and ask you know how did you guys do because
i don't really get to see anything because i'm running around the whole time
right they said they i can't remember how many cats it was that they could cover
with the amount of money that they got but it was it was enough to be really
(29:23):
significant i definitely want to come back again
yeah you mentioned earlier your dad did all the food last year what do you have
planned for this this year.
So hopefully he doesn't have to be doing that. Yes.
We definitely got food trucks this year because last year was crazy.
And we were really just more worried last year about making sure everyone was fed.
(29:46):
It wasn't really like a moneymaker or anything. It was like a dollar for a hot dog or something.
But yeah, no, we reached out to as many food trucks as we could trying to see
who might be interested in coming.
And Cafe Racer was the first one to come in and
be like oh like hell yeah we'll do that and they they
are at like every athens event it
is great no matter what happens here they have a
(30:08):
truck there what kind of food they have burgers and fries but they do have like
vegetarian i want to say vegan but i'm going to be careful at least vegetarian
options um and we've got a couple more lined up or i say a couple more we have one lined up,
but I don't know if I should say their name yet because they're not completely paid. That's correct.
(30:31):
There should be one other food type, maybe tacos, that will be there.
All hail tacos! Yes!
Gotta love a taco truck. Gotta love a taco truck.
So, a couple of food trucks, and then, of course, the brewery to provide all
of your libations as needed.
And they are doing spooky cocktails for us that weekend as well.
(30:55):
On just the beer. Can you give any hints?
Hints on what the cocktails are? Yeah, have they told you anything?
Honestly, I have no idea at all. They just, they were like, we got some colored
stuff, we could do some little potions for you.
No idea what's in them. But maybe I'll find out next time I head over there.
Fair, fair. And I think, in my mind at least, what really sets your events apart,
(31:21):
the Harpold Manor s'mores.
Making you come back again. Yeah, it's the biggest event of them all.
So my dad, he has his little booth.
He likes to sell all his spooky things as well. So we're Harpold Manor.
That's what we call the haunt that we did at my house growing up was Harpold Manor.
So anyway, he's going to be selling little baggies of s'more stuff.
(31:47):
So there'll be, I think, two fire pits.
I think my business partner is bringing an extra one. So we've got fire pits
all around and you can s'more it up. Love it.
Fresh s'mores all night long. And you said that this is Saturday and Sunday, right? Yes.
Okay. So it's an hour from my corporate headquarters. I just need to plan a
business trip and then extend it a couple days and go play with Stacey and kids.
(32:13):
Yes. Are you planning to write this off? Well, not this part.
Except the before part. I have my standards. You're putting down business expense s'mores.
Okay, before we go any further, I think we need to take a moment to hear from our sponsors.
And then we'll jump right back into it with Will Harpold from Hauntfest April Ghoul. Bye.
(32:36):
Music.
From our sponsors, who, without them, we would have a much shorter show.
(32:59):
It's accurate.
Filed under technically correct.
Thank you for that, Les. You're welcome. I try.
You left me speechless. Excellent. I get points for that, right?
(33:21):
So we've talked quite a bit about everything that you have going on with this,
but I think there's still a few things that we have not really touched on.
So the one that I'm really excited about on top of everything else is the ghost stories.
Yes. So my business partner, Abigail, she just joined me this past year and she is an avid reader.
And so she brought up the idea of having horror authors come do book signings.
(33:46):
And I was like, Like, oh, that's genius.
And so she started reaching out to all the horror authors that she knew.
And then she was like, what if we did a thing where we had the horror authors
read an excerpt from one of their books or some sort of ghost story around the
fire pit so that people get to hear what they're writing and they get to,
(34:06):
you know, have a fun ghost story night because it's also fitting.
So we're super excited about that. There's some time slots and they're all filling
out different slots. Lots.
But I'll name off a few of the authors that are coming. Yeah, please.
I love this idea. Yeah. So William Sterling is one of them.
And he was with us last year. He helped out a lot. He was a sponsor.
(34:28):
And so he's actually vending this year. Super excited to have him back.
We've got Frightful Fables and Tales from the Gas Station, which Abigail is
absolutely obsessed with Jack Townsend.
And she she about passed out
that was her exciting moment like like my cyanide
(34:50):
suspension she had jack townsend and she called
me immediately when she found out that he'd signed up and she was like hyperventilating
and i was like what what is wrong with you and she's like you have to be joking
with me he didn't actually and i was like what what's happening i i didn't understand
and And then she's like crying of joy.
(35:12):
And then she's like, oh, sorry, I have to go. I'm in lab. I was like, there's no way.
This girl just slipped out in lab crying. Oh, that's outstanding.
Anyway, super excited that he's coming. He's also been a, he's a sponsor.
And he made this amazing blog post about the event that really pulled some more
(35:32):
people to the page. So nice.
Really cool. Any chance you can send me that so I can add a link to it in our
show notes? Absolutely, yes.
Lots of authors, and there's a couple more pending right now,
so there will be more probably, but those are the ones that I can say.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. I absolutely love that other thing.
That's something that we started doing for our Halloween show.
(35:55):
Every year we read spooky stories that we've loved.
So to see that go live, like, that's really cool. I think it's cool.
Yeah. to highlight authors and just again,
have give people a chance to to bring their
own creativity oh yeah and if anyone out
there is a writer i mean you don't have to have written a book
(36:15):
to do this so if you want to come read a story we can add
you to the list and also the point of having the two fire pits was one is like
if you just want to hang out you know and then the other one is like activity
fire pit come listen to stories and do all the and have your s'mores and so
that's why abigail is bringing hers because Because she's like,
(36:35):
I want them to have their special little spot.
So it's not too loud, not too close to the bands.
It's s'mores and ghost stories. I mean, what more could you need?
Right? A round of fire? Come on.
With haunted cocktails. With haunted cocktails. Holy crap. It's going to be
a great night. Right? Oh, yeah.
(36:55):
And beyond all of that. Go ahead, John. I was just going to say.
So the other thing you mentioned that I haven't really, I think it's so unique.
Because you said there's a car show going on for this one. Yes. Not just any cars.
So last year, one of our vendors, Bettina Wasserman, she is really awesome.
(37:17):
She does Wicked World, Incredible Booth,
But she brought her hearse last year, and it was a hit. I mean,
everyone was taking photos with it.
And I even got a comment. I did a survey last year on everyone,
and someone was like, I wish I had more time with that car.
I was like, you know, maybe I can do something with that.
(37:37):
And I know there's, like, a few people in Athens that are good friends that have hearses.
So I was like, maybe, you know, I can ask them. Or maybe there has to be more
people with hearses if these three all know each other.
Yeah, I totally think of others because that's kind of a tight-knit community.
Yeah, and so now I've been joining all these hearse Facebook groups and everything.
(37:58):
I'm like, anyone want to bring their hearse? I'd love to see what your algorithm
looks like right now. Right.
We've gotten some interest, so we'll see how many we can rack up.
But yeah, I want to stick as many spooky cars out there as we can.
And it's also open to people who want to show their car that's not a spooky
car as long as you make it spooky.
Spooky so you've got to decorate your car
(38:21):
if you're gonna bring it and there's like a on the
website there's a place i think it's called haunted car showcase
where you can submit photos of your car just make
sure if it's a normal car it is decorated in the photos because we need to know
that you're you're serious about this we need to see dedication here right no
slackers i need to clarify is the excessive rust on my bumper scary because
(38:44):
it terrifies me i mean does it if you're.
But bettina with the hearse she she is like a magical person because the other day she,
messaged me and she was like you should have this guy at haunt fest and she
sent me this youtube video of this guy with a ghostbusters car it was like just
(39:07):
like the car from the movie yeah i saw that and i'm just like oh this is he
must live in like minnesota or somewhere like Like that is not here.
And I look up and Athens, Georgia. I was like, what? No way.
We've got at least two here in Denver. Still? That's amazing.
(39:28):
Wow, I didn't know that was a normal thing to do. Wow. I love it.
I thought it was normal. Yeah.
The Ghostbusters car club. I was going to say, is this the guy who just did it because he loves it?
Because I know in Southern California there is a Ghostbusters club that will
actually go around and do parties and things.
(39:50):
They're all dressed up. They have the The Ecto-1, it's a whole thing.
I met him at Midsummer Scream last year.
Is it similar here in Athens, or is this just an enthusiast who made the Ecto-1?
If I'm being completely honest, I don't really know now that you've said that.
I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't either until I ran into the mic.
(40:11):
But, I mean, he is a film teacher, so I was like, maybe it is an enthusiast thing.
But he does have all the costumes. so and we're filming
a promo video coming up and he was like yeah i can
like insert all of the like streams so you
can be tackling a ghost in the video and what's really
amazing about that whole thing is you
(40:33):
know i saw his youtube that's all the information i had on
this guy i could not find him anywhere like he
hid it and i had to put
a 15 year old on it i was like i know
you can find him and like the next
day she sends me this link that's got
like information i was like i don't know how you found this i had
to write this man a letter this is a dark web stuff
(40:56):
right here it was amazing so when i saw that i got a text from some random number
i was like who is this he's like oh i'm the ghostbusters guy and i was like
no way there's no way that works see john i thought We need a kid to run our social media.
I'm sorry. I missed that. I was talking to John. See, John, I told you we need
(41:19):
to get a kid to run our social media.
Oh, yes. Well, mine's too young.
Yeah, his son is like three. Oh, well, he still may be better than all of us.
I don't know. He's definitely better than me.
You got the older kids. That's true. My 10-year-old. I don't know, though.
(41:40):
I know my son. I don't think I wanted his thoughts out in the world. Oh, goodness.
Walkers. Yeah.
Walkers are dangerous. Well, the younger one is scarier.
We're talking about getting grounded the other day. And my eight year old comes
(42:00):
out with. I know a way to get grounded.
Like when you take a picture and throw it at your sibling and it has glass and
it cracks and cuts them and they bleed.
Yes. Yes. That will be grounded, son.
And my wife and i just look at each other like where the hell did that come from,
oddly specific it's very specific hasn't
(42:24):
happened yet but we're i keep my eyes open now exactly okay
we have not yet talked about my personal favorite thing
uh shopping if i want to do some shopping what are
you going to have available all sorts of things
we already mentioned and the authors and they're doing book signings and
selling their books but we also have like a.
(42:46):
Myriad of things we've got
jellies from the cryptid cannery that
is like that's i always love finding
businesses that are automatically like they're not normally scary
businesses but they make them scary all the time
and i just so when i see something like the cryptid cannery and
like last year we had ghoul next door that does
(43:08):
creepy cookies i'm like this is just like there's
other people out there that like call me around it's just
great tell me more about the cryptid cannery what do they do so
they do jams and jellies and they have all
yeah i know and they've got all these like spooky
stickers for everything and their logo
i'm pretty sure they design all of the monsters and
(43:29):
stuff for their cans yeah well they're jars i
think but it looks delicious so there's like
foodie things like that we've got wicked tuft coming
that does tufted rugs and they're actually nice
like they're all spooky tufted rugs
evil twin clay company is another one that's halloween in your face and it's
(43:51):
like halloween earrings and all these like handcrafted things like that we've
got just name it a few random ones here but holy fire for just coming i was
gonna ask about that one nightmaker i assume um.
He makes like knives and swords and all sorts of things, but he brings his forge with him.
So he's like blacksmith there and you can see it's really great at night because he'll be hitting it.
(44:17):
And there's like sparks flying in and all my gosh, that's a showing of itself.
Oh yeah. And he's also a weightlifter. I, on his, his Instagram is world's world strong as blacksmith.
And so he, he's always lifting weights. Yeah. So I reached out and I was like,
hey, weird question, but would you want to like do that at the festival?
(44:40):
Like, would you want to like every hour or something like lift something really
heavy and make a show out of it?
He's like, yeah, let's do it.
You got to get him in the cyanide suspension.
Yeah, you got to get him in cyanide suspension together and have him like dangling people.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's hanging. Well, exactly.
(45:04):
It's genius to talk to
them about that yeah you can also
get a leather stuff crocheted stuff trying to
just look through the list what is namaste tchotchkes they
do all sorts of different things i'm pretty
sure i don't want to say wrong but i'm
pretty sure they do like like crystal things and all
(45:25):
sorts of like witchy things like i think they've got cards and
things like that and the young crone also is with
them young crone I like that yes under the
slab does like I don't know what
material it is it's some sort of mineral rock that they carve things into and
it's all spooky stuff spooky little carvings I'm pretty sure they have some
(45:49):
other things too but there's a lot it's like anything that you can imagine what about oh.
Forgive me if i butcher this empyrean laser yeah
i i'm gonna be honest i've never said it out loud so
i'm gonna say that you're right but i don't i don't know you know
what do they do they do like laser work so
(46:12):
i'm not sure how it works but i
know they somehow do something in a
laser and then it shoots the thing on the on the
wood and then oh so like laser etching yes yeah
but yeah i think they they do all sorts of different
etching things so yeah yeah and
we do like vendor highlights every week so on
(46:35):
our instagram which is at hotfix.athens you can go check out individual vendors
and including the food trucks and all that well we try to highlight everybody
so soon we're gonna have to start doing bi-weekly highlights because we're getting
so many vendors then be able to hit everyone each week but yeah so if you want
to see photos of any of the artwork work,
or if you want to see their tags and go to their pages, that's where you can find that information.
(47:01):
Perfect. I think the important thing with this one is we make sure that we watch,
Kay's, you know, business card during this.
Watch his paper cards. You're implying.
Did you know what I'm implying? You're less...
You're more a hazard than I am.
Leslie, you are our financial person and that's why I don't consult with you
(47:24):
when I go to the bathroom. You tell me no.
No. I tell you to check with your wife. I'm picturing you with a great-sized
sack and just throwing things in left and right.
That's about right. You're not wrong.
Oh, one thing. One big thing. I always mention this and I just forgot.
(47:46):
Taxidermy is a huge thing. It's sort of like oddity.
Jewelry with bones or you can, I'm pretty sure Wicked World has like some,
What are they called? The ones in liquid. Help me. You know what I'm talking
about? Oh, it's like in jars. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So lots of like cool, spooky, like witchy animal art or like bone art,
(48:09):
which is, that's, I love that kind of stuff.
Like, I don't know if you guys have been to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo
before, but they're like a huge inspiration to me.
They have all sorts of taxidermy and stuff like that. Sure, sure. Nice.
But. Awesome. awesome uh do
you want to get take a moment and talk about some of your sponsors give them a shout out
(48:30):
absolutely well first of all you guys
haunting you as a sponsor and sponsored last year so y'all are amazing i love
you guys appreciate that i gotta be honest like we had a solid boost the weekend
that your show went like we could visually see a a spike in people who checked
(48:51):
checked out the website, checked out and downloaded episodes.
So we really appreciate the partnership with you because we got something out
of it as well. Yeah, I'm super glad.
So just to mention some of the venues, because like Southern Brewing,
obviously a big shout out to them because they're letting us use their venue.
B&B Theaters, we did an event with them back in October.
(49:11):
And Sauce House the same. We had a Halloween party there that was helping to promote the festival.
And they also just today like donated a gift
certificate for the raffle basket so they like just
keep coming for more coming back for more i'm like wow you're already
a sponsor but now you're like up here you know
awesome william sterling who's
(49:31):
one of the authors is he's also the host of killer
mediums podcast he donated some books and things of his for the raffle basket
whimsy loops donated this cute i want to have to show you this because it's
so cute sorry listeners you're not going to get to see it oh my gosh that is adorable crochet ghost.
(49:55):
I love it that's great
we have Dark Knight
Audities is donating the raffle basket Tales from the Gas Station Jack Townsend
again super great Holly V Hutch Designs Clay Henson Sound and Lighting is giving
us a great deal on the music stuff so So they're coming and being the sound
(50:16):
techs and all that. So you'd shout out to them.
Oh, gosh, I'm going to butcher the name again. What'd you say it was? I went with Empyrean.
Empyrean? E-M-P-Y-R-E-A-N. Listeners, pronounce it yourself.
Put it in the chat for me because I can't find it for some reason.
It's right next to the Sponting You podcast.
(50:38):
That's because I'm looking at the wrong page. It's in the chat.
This is probably terribly butchering it but every time I read it I want to say
Empyrean like no that can't be it yeah they have a pretty cool logo though I dig it yeah they do.
Let's see. I mentioned Killer Mediums. And then Little Decisions Podcast.
(51:00):
This is actually run by this woman named Victoria who came to the festival last year.
And at the end of the survey she filled out, she was like, I actually have this,
podcast about kindness.
Would you do that with me? I was like, that's really sweet. And so we just did that the other day.
She's awesome. And I think she wants to learn more about you guys because I
(51:22):
mentioned you. Feel free to pass along our podcast. Oh, yeah.
But yeah, huge shout out to everyone that has donated anything,
money, space, anything for the raffle basket.
And, you know, any prizes that we can get are great because that means we can do more games.
Yeah. But, you know, without the prizes, it's hard. So I think I want a hockey you T-shirt.
(51:44):
Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Let's see. We don't give away my shirt. Yeah, we do.
Yeah. Drop us your address and we'll send you a T-shirt. You can use as a giveaway.
Oh, thank you so much. That's awesome. Yeah. We've got a bunch.
That's great. Yeah, no, people love that stuff.
We had some last year from, what was it? The Halloween T-shirt company.
(52:09):
Oh my god, I love them. They're great.
They've taken a lot of my money. The shirts are really awesome. I love those shirts.
Also, I have to mention Summit Historic Properties. They don't have a logo.
That's my dad's company but he does so much for us it's not even funny like
(52:29):
this haunt is going to be a lot of him going out there with a hammer and nails
figuring stuff out so you know i know he's my dad but also,
he's amazing just as a person so yeah it's awesome having someone supportive
like that in your corner right yeah and to anyone listening if you go to the
sponsor page you can click on any of the logos and it'll take you to their page
(52:50):
their instagram or their website or whatever if it's a a podcast.
You can listen to their podcast just clicking on the link.
Please do so because we love them
love it love
it well what have we missed what have we forgotten to
talk about i don't know you may have hit everything i say that but i'll okay
(53:11):
while you're thinking go through your social media website everywhere that people
can find out more information about contest april rules all right so instagram
i mentioned earlier but it's It's at hauntfest.athens.
And we currently have a lot of giveaways going on.
So just like check up on it every now and then, because we've usually got some sort of deal going on.
(53:34):
And our Facebook is the page itself is Hauntfest LLC, because that's like the business page.
But then the group for the event is Hauntfest April Ghouls. And there's also
an event within that that's Hauntfest April Ghouls 2024.
All sorts of different events within that for promotional stuff.
So just peek at the website or sorry, at Hauntfest LLC, and you'll see all of that there.
(53:58):
And then other contact info is on the website. You can contact us through the contact page.
What am I missing? Oh, the website, I guess, is again, www.hauntfest.us.
I always say us, and then I hear other people say US.
That's what it's supposed to be.
(54:18):
It works. It works. Yeah, fair enough. The listeners can find links to all of
those right in the show notes for this very episode to make it nice and easy
to connect with Haunt Fest in any way that works best for you.
Oh, and the one thing I just saw that I forgot to mention.
Always. Our price is $20. So please get your tickets ahead of time.
(54:38):
It's $5 less or like it's only $5 more to get both days if you get them ahead of time.
That's right. That's right. just go ahead and do that. And it helps us out.
You know, it's like an RSVP kind of deal. Did you get an idea of how many people are coming?
Honestly, no clue. But I'm guessing a lot more than last year because we have
(54:59):
already a lot more tickets sold now than we did last year. But luckily, it's a bigger venue.
Yeah, we're still two months out right now. Yeah.
But last year, the door sales were insane. It was like three times the amount
of pre-sale tickets. Wow.
If you don't want to wait in a line, please, dear God, buy tickets now.
(55:25):
Do this early. Yes. That's Hauntfest Mayhem happening Saturday,
April 6th and Sunday, April 7th in Athens, Georgia.
$15 per day or $25 for both days. You can find all of those tickets on their
website. Buy them now. Yay.
Okay. Okay. Anything else before we wrap it up with Roseanne?
(55:50):
Just me remembering the one thing that I forgot. What was it?
Hey, there you go. The hayride. We're talking about the car show.
The hayride. Oh, hayride. Ooh.
I'm getting the pulse of my behavior. Are we still rolling? All right. Yeah.
So the hayride. Because parking was crazy last year, we're really trying to
work it out this year as best as we can.
(56:12):
Southern Brewing parking is also a pain.
They already have people lined up on the street on a normal Saturday.
Of days so i went around to the businesses surrounding southern
brewing and asked can we use your parking lot on these days and they're
like you know so we got a lot of businesses that said yes to
that and there's street parking and all that but we don't
want people to have to walk super far so we were like what
if we made it fun so we've got a hayride that's gonna be you have a hayride
(56:36):
the big people up and take them in and i do want to mention this just because
i think it's It's a really amazing story. And this guy is incredible.
On my mom's birthday, we went to a hibachi place.
And we sat next to these guys that they're like country boys.
(56:58):
You know, it was like one of those weird situations where you want there to
be a chair in between the family. It's just weird, you know,
when you don't know these people.
So we were all having our own separate conversations for a while.
And then one of them spoke up and they were like, hey, like,
how are you guys doing tonight?
And so we started chatting and they started learning more about us.
We start learning more about them they're like yeah we we own this
(57:19):
and this farm and all this and my dad brings
up the festival and of course i'm like a little nervous about it
i'm like do they really want to know about this and but then i was like you
know what we're actually looking for a hayride you guys have any connections
that could help us with that and the guy's just like oh i'll do it more stuff
for the community i love that and then they bought all of our dinners,
(57:44):
Oh, that's awesome. So just strangers that you meet at a hibachi place.
And now you never know what's going to happen if you just strike up a conversation.
So shout out to Alan, because that's awesome. That's freaking awesome.
We'll have that up on the website soon. And we'll have like a parking plan.
So you'll know like where you can and can't park and all that. Yeah.
(58:07):
People want to know where the hayride is running so they can park.
We'll have a little trail drawn out or something, but closer to time.
Yeah, of course. That is absolutely fantastic. And I...
Watching how Hot Fests has evolved just from the first event to this event,
you are making just the freaking leaps and bounds.
It is so freaking cool. Thank you.
(58:31):
I'm excited.
I just want to find a way to get out there.
Please. I said, I'm going to try and plan a business trip, honestly.
Yeah that is april 6th and 7th in athens georgia definitely
go check out their website at hauntfest.us or hauntfest.us
you know however you feel rosanne thank you so much for taking the time out
(58:53):
to come chat with us tell us all about hauntfest it looks like it's gonna be
a ton of fun and i hope you have just all kinds of people come out and have
a good time yeah thank you guys so much for having me it's always a blast hey
everyone kiyomi here just cutting in in real quick.
So between the time that we recorded the podcast and when we're releasing it.
Hauntfest had a couple more announcements that they wanted to get out.
(59:15):
So correction to what we talked about during the podcast, Cyanide Suspension
will not do flesh hook hanging for the guests who are coming.
However, they are doing Gravity Boot Suspensions and Saran Wrap Suspensions.
So if you are interested in doing either of those, go check out the Hauntfest
website and you can can sign up for appointments for that.
(59:36):
And even more exciting is there is going to be a celebrity appearance at Hauntfest.
Ari Lehman, the actor who played the first Jason Voorhees on Friday the 13th,
is not only making a celebrity appearance on both days of Hauntfest,
April 6th and 7th, but he is also playing with his band,
(59:58):
First Jason, on Saturday night starting at 11 30 p.m.
You can pop by his booth on either day for a picture, autograph,
and merch, and then rock with First Jason to end the night with a bang on Saturday.
So, two super exciting announcements that happened after the podcast was recorded,
and wanted to make sure we got that out to all of you. Back to the original.
(01:00:18):
Holy shit, Hot Fest sounds like it's going to be just an absolute freaking blast.
Yeah, I definitely need to plan a road trip sometime around there.
You totally need to see if you can make a business trip. You totally need to
see if you can make a a business rep.
Well, I think you should.
That's a good use of company money. I love it. The best use of company money. I thought you would.
(01:00:45):
Oh, freaking love it. Well, it is, of course, the first of the month.
And so we have to take a moment to hear what is happening in the world of the Chamber of Haunters.
So let's take a moment and have a... Chamber's Corner.
The Haunting Podcast is the official podcast of the Chamber of Haunters.
(01:01:06):
And we like to take a moment every month to give them an opportunity to tell
us everything that is happening within the world of the Chamber.
So let's see what the president, Mr. Robert Knowlton, has for us this month.
The Chamber of Haunters will be offering a 50% discount for anyone joining during
Transworld's HAA show from March 7th to the 10th, 2024.
The Chamber of Haunters will have a booth at the inaugural East Coast Haunters
(01:01:28):
Convention in April 2024.
Please plan on stopping by to visit us and see what we can do for you.
We have also had some new additions to our Chamber Board of Directors and are
excited for all that we have in store for our members in this industry with
new ideas and ways in which to move forward.
Please know that we are here for you and hope to be able to serve you.
If interested in joining the Chamber of Haunters, please go to our website at
(01:01:50):
chamberofhaunters.com.
Watch our Facebook page for the 50% off discount code, which can be used during Transworld's HAA show.
The Chamber of Haunters hopes to see you there and get to know you better.
Alrighty, thank you for that update on the Chamber's Corner For what's going
on at the Chamber of Haunters What do we have up next?
Well, we are still deep into convention season And so we'll be talking conventions
(01:02:14):
for a while However, it's time to start planning for our next haunt Can we get
like a fancy table with actual blueprints?
I have news It's official,
The Coast Guard is sending me back to Maryland. That may add to it.
Thank you, Precinct State, is going to pick up right where we left off. As best as we can.
(01:02:39):
As best as we can. Once we find the doors.
I'm a little bit worried about the doors because I loaded them all up into my
box trailer and then I left them with my buddy Ty.
He's got a property down in Southern Virginia and he was going to store it there for me.
But they had just been sitting there in the trailer for, by the time I get there,
(01:03:01):
the better part of two years.
And I'm a little bit afraid of what has infested it.
I'm going to go with mold and fuzzy things. That's a ton of what I'm expecting.
Potentially live fuzzy things. Fingers are crossed. We'll see what happens.
If it's fuzzy things, just add it to the haunt. All of that to say,
(01:03:22):
I don't know that we're going to be able to pull off off a full Sanguine Creek
Estates experience this year.
But those are the things that we're going to be talking about in the upcoming
episodes of the Haunting You podcast.
So if you want to follow along, please go check us out on our website at hauntingyou.com,
just the letter U, and find us on social media at facebook.com slash hauntingyou
(01:03:43):
and Instagram at Haunting University.
And definitely go check out all the really cool content we have on our YouTube
page. That's youtube.com slash at hauntingyou, just the letter U.
Okay. Do we have anything else we need to talk about tonight,
guys? I don't think so. I think it's got pretty well covered.
And if you are in the Georgia area of Athens, Atlanta, etc.,
(01:04:05):
definitely go check out Hauntfest.
They've got a really, really great lineup this year. Get some s'mores,
listen to music, listen to ghost stories.
It sounds like it's going to be an absolute freaking blast.
But in the meantime, we will call it a night.
So from all of us here at Haunting You, stay spooky, my friends,
and happy We'll be right back.
(01:04:26):
Bye, everyone. We are incredibly thankful to all the sponsors who make this
show possible, particularly our premium sponsors, the Chamber of Haunters and Fear Expo.
You can learn more at chamberofhaunters.com and fearexpolive.com.
Check out the Haunted U podcast at hauntedu.com for more information on everything that we do.
Music.
(01:05:14):
Haunting You is a production of the Rocky Mountain Home Haunters,
LLC. LLC all audio clips and sound effects are used under a creative commons
attribution or public domain license from purple planet music at purple dash
planet.com or the sound Bible at soundbible.com.
Please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode.
(01:05:35):
Her constant professionals.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com