Haunted Huntingburg brings frightening family fun
Hold your loved ones close, the ghosts and ghouls will be rampant in Huntingburg this weekend.
Haunted Huntingburg kicks off Friday evening with a 9 p.m. showing of Wes Craven’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” at The Gaslight, 328 E. 4th Street.
It’s the first of two Craven movies over the two-day event — the second, “Scream”, will be shown on 4th Street at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. “We are paying homage to Wes Craven,” Jayme Rasche, vice president of Destination Huntingburg, the group responsible for the fest, said about the horror mogul who passed away in August.
But, on Saturday before “Scream” is shown, a family-friendly movie, “The Book of Life”, will be on the big screen on the street.
Everyone is invited and advised to bring chairs and blankets for the Saturday films. Refreshments will be available.
Besides three great movies, this year’s Haunted festival will round out the area’s music fest offerings with the Haunted Huntingburg Blues Fest. Featuring the Boscoe France Band, who just recently blew the doors of the Astra Theatre in Jasper, the fest includes great food and refreshments with the live musical acts.
Boscoe France, the 2012 winner of Guitar Center’s Battle of the Blues competition, will cap the blues performances with the band taking the stage at 5:30 and closing it down at 7 p.m. Before they take the stage though, Sparrow & Crandall will play from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Bad Mojo will take the stage at 2:45 p.m. and play till 3:45 p.m.; and then Stillwell-Rodenberg & Co. will take over at 4:00 p.m.
The Haunted Huntingburg Blues Festival, which features two of the region’s best guitarists, Bosco and Tommy Stillwell, rounds out the county’s musical fest offerings. Huntingburg has hosted the highly popular Garden Gate Jazz Fest for three years and the Ferdinand Folk Festival has become a major annual event attracting thousands to the town.
“The Blues Fest seems to be another way of carving out a music niche in the county–Ferdinand has the Folk Fest, there’s a Jazz Fest already in Huntingburg, and Jasper has flirted with a country festival before,” Marc Steczyk, who coordinated the bands for the blues fest, said.
Steczyk organizes the Ferdinand Folk Fest and is now in charge of the Lincoln Amphitheatre’s entertainment.
“These are offerings that are readily available in bigger cities and markets, so I think it’s impressive that all of our communities are stepping up to create these unique opportunities in all of Dubois County,” he said. “Even if it’s only a handful of weekends a year, they definitely add a quality of life attraction to our current and potential residents.”
Besides the blues performances, the future site of Market Street Park will have plenty of children’s activities including inflatable bounce houses, train rides, carnival games and face painting. It all starts at noon Saturday.
Before then though, zombies will be found milling around the Old Town Hall at about 10 a.m. as they prepare to go on a Zombie 5K Fun Run through a haunted Niehaus Park. Participants are invited to come in their best zombie get-ups but some zombie makeovers will be available at the town hall before the run. For those who haven’t preregistered, the fee for the run is $25.
The Teen Outback will also be hosting its own Halloween fun during the fest. Residents are invited to the family costume party which will feature hayrides, apple bobbing and a costume contest Saturday from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Rasche, a horror film buff, is excite to see the growth of the annual fest. “It has gotten bigger each year,” he said of the three-year-old festival. “We have big ideas but we want to do it right.”
Haunted Huntingburg is organized by Destination Huntingburg, a group of volunteers dedicated to encourage, enrich and develop an inviting atmosphere in Huntingburg.
