Episode 92-Hauntfest April Ghouls Preview with Roseann Harpold

Music. Hutton. Welcome everyone back to the Haunting You Podcast and happy March.

Holy crap, it's March already. I cannot believe how fast this year is going already. Holy. Yeah, I'm still in December. You and me both. Oh my gosh. It has been absolutely wild for the last couple of weeks. Really for the last like, well, the entire year has been absolutely freaking and wild. Good news. I just promoted, which was very exciting. Yes. Excellent. Excellent. Did you get the picks, Les? I can't remember if I sent them to you or not. I got the paperwork pick.

Oh, I didn't even send you the picks. I'll have to do that. You are not allowed to my desk. You will break my internet. I just got new internets. It was exciting because my parents were out completely unrelated because they came out to see my niece play hockey in a tournament, which they won four games to zero, took the tournament.

My niece is the goalie. she's insane she's eight yeah she's eight playing goalie and like the way this tournament worked was absolutely freaking wild if you went up four goals against the other team then they swapped out the smaller net than you were using and you had to use the giant net that the 10 people use so like there was one goal that she just had no chance of saving it they put it just up into the air and it went right over her head and into

the net and like with all the pads that she has on she can't lift her arms more than like shoulder height she has no hope of catching anything flying over her head but at one point like they dump a the puck all the way from the opposite side of the ice and this was a very small ring so i promise it's not as impressive as it sounds but they dump the puck all the way it is when you're eight it is when you're eight dump it from the other side and she stops it it bounces off of

her pad though right to another player on the other team who shoots it on the other side and she like with off of one foot slides across the crease catches it on her toe. It was like Patrick Waugh butterfly style just absolutely freaking beautiful. Absolutely. I was so impressed. I was amazed. Absolutely fantastic. But anyway, my parents were out to enjoy all that. So we're like, hey, let's do the promotion now while they're here. And so it worked out very beautifully.

No, you did not send me those pictures and you owe me those pictures. I will send it to you when we're done recording here tonight. But you don't want to distract me on top of having the puppies distract me? You are thoroughly distracted. You don't need more distraction. No, I don't need help.

But for good reason, because we have a very special guest here today with us on the Haunting You podcast. It is convention season. And so, in fact, convention season is kicking off this very weekend with the Transworld Halloween and Attraction Show in St. Louis, Missouri, happening this weekend. Go check out Facebook, Hunters Hangout, the Hunting You pages, of course. We are not at Transworld, but I promise you I will be retweeting.

No, I will not be retweeting. I will be re-gramming. What is the verb for Instagram?

Don't look at me. I'm too old to know these things. like we need sharing i don't know caring thank you we will be resharing everything that we see uh coming out of trans world because it's trans world and i'm just super excited to see what we can't be there and we can't be there exactly so we will try to live vicariously through all the people who are there and if you are there please tag us in your post and we will happily send

it out to all of our followers so they can enjoy what you are seeing as well but that is not what we are here to talk about today we are here to talk about our favorite event i was gonna say convention it's not exactly convention it is so much more than a convention it is a music festival it is a bunch of vendors it is a haunted house they have so much going on they are in their third year we have roseanne harpold from haunt fest back with us here tonight

roseanne how are you doing welcome doing great how are you guys doing i am so excited to be talking with you today. Haunt Fest has just done so well. You're coming into your third year and watching your growth from year one to year two and hopefully into year three.

Tell us about what's happening. You guys have some fantastic new things that you've got going on with year three, which I'm really, really excited to hear about. Let's start first by talking about year two. How did your last Haunt Fest go down in Athens, Georgia compared to year one? So year one, it was just a single day, you know, and it was kind of a crazy fluke that it even happened, that there even was the first event, you know, and, you know, we had about 500 people come to that.

And then the second year, more than true build-in-wise. That's solid for year one. That's really good. Holy crap. And so everyone, I guess, told their friends that they had a great time, even though it was just, you know, some kid, me, who didn't know what the hell they were doing, you know, throwing something together. And so it went so well that we ended up, you know, doing it again. And that growth was insane. And we're already seeing growth for this third year that's extensive.

I know we had over 70 vendors. We had like 72 vendors, I want to say, for last year's event. And we're still, you know, weeks in advance. And we are already, you know, up to that number again. So I think between the event, we're going to be having anywhere, I don't know, we could hit 100 vendors this year. So I'm interested to see what happens.

But we've had even entertainer applications. We already have more than 70 that I've got to go through and listen to all the bands and see all the performers and figure out the lineup for this year. But we are very excited to be returning and have so many returning people and more. You know they're all bringing people now yeah that's beautiful i remember you tried out a few new things last year and like what comes to mind immediately was uh the fire pits s'mores.

Authors doing like spooky storytelling what was.

The highlight for you of the new stuff that you tried for your second haunt fest that's tough i will say the author thing was awesome so i have a friend in town with me who helps a lot with some of the events and she's super into books and reading and you know to to the point that you know she never sets one down and so she brought you know that idea to the table which i never would have thought of on my own is to do those ghost stories and for people who do that you know for a living or

for like a really extensive hobby you know of writing um so i really thought that was an awesome addition and plan to continue doing that you know for as long as we do this and i also wasn't sure you know that that year last year um if it was gonna if people were gonna want to be popular like i didn't know and then i mean they had huge crowds coming to listen and you know some are even catering to kids and so sundays now we're doing like family friendly days instead of doing when

you hit a certain time of the night which is what we did last year so that's a little different but so for days like that you know it's especially perfect for you know spooky authors who cater to children to read their children's books like it just works so well yeah that's awesome something else i have definitely one of my favorite editions yeah absolutely something else i have to ask about we had a i'm going to say lengthy discussion about.

Dangling people by their skin. I forget what it was called. Oh, yeah. One of your performing groups. They're called cyanide suspension. Cyanide suspension. Cyanide suspension. Did they end up coming? So they did for... So between the last Athens event and now, we've had two out-of-state events. And so they came to the North Carolina event, which was in Arden, which was... It's close to Asheville. Okay.

And they they hung there it was crazy it's the first time i've ever seen anything like that and it was so interesting like the venue was a lutheran church camp and there's this huge cross on in the background and they're just hanging and bleeding it was crazy god that's amazing that's but uh shout out to them because that venue was awesome they were of everything we were doing and i was like i was gonna ask did they know what was gonna happen ahead of time i mean genetically,

hanging people was a thing kind of their thing i mean yeah it's.

I love that and then but for georgia it's not allowed in georgia so unfortunately they will not be hanging for this event particularly but i was excited to see that it was legal and in some of these states and so i'm excited as far as like if haunt fest continues expanding out of state like what kind of stuff we can do in each place yeah i love it you coming to maryland anytime soon even virginia i don't know i just recently did a bit of

a study a quick study to see kind of who was interested in different states. And right now, I think Las Vegas is at the top of the interest. Of course. That would be a hell of a jump. We'll see what happens there. Yeah. Oh, that'd be cool. May need to move there for a few months in front of build something.

Yeah. Your last Haunt Fest was also your first multi-day event? Accurate? Or had you done... Like haunt fest to haunt all right haunt fest one was one day haunt fest two just in athens was two days yep and then this is our first three-day wait is that right yeah this is our first three-day athens event but the two out-of-state events were both three days we're both three days so we've done the three-day thing before but not in athens.

Yeah how's the multi-day events been working out are you seeing like consistent attendance across the across the event i'd say i mean saturday is definitely the biggest day as far as you know attendance goes and fridays it's it's slower earlier in the day because people are just getting off work you know it opens at three and then it picks up but it's crazy like the different kinds of people that come each day and like i mean friday and saturday is about the

same but sunday like people will come you know bring their families and like spend the whole day out there whereas friday and saturday i see a lot a coming and going okay so yeah definitely an interesting aspect to that but we you know every day is different for us too you know depending the shows and the activities offered and there's vendors that come in and out like they don't have to stay all three days so you'll see different vendors as well okay so definitely

uh if you want to see all the vendors get get the three-day pass get the three-day pass that's what i'm hearing yeah are you seeing a lot of like you don't have to be specific what percentage of the people who are buying tickets are getting that three-day pass versus just doing a day pass are you seeing a lot of repeat customers or is it mostly one day.

It's honestly kind of all across the board right now like pre-sale tickets typically people buying those want to get like our RIP passes, which we're offering those again this year. And quick note, we have an exciting one this time because Terrapin, which is our venue, they're a brewery, they're offering like brewery walkthrough and beer tasting as part of an RIP pass you can get through us. So there's like, it's called the booze package.

And then there's a merch package. And then there's the sinister package that includes everything. So people buying in advance right now are mostly focused on getting those RIP passes. I guess they're really excited about the event to be buying this early, which means they're going to get all the good stuff, you know? But yeah, I mean, I guess right now it's pretty across the board.

It's hard to know, you know, students typically will just want to come for a day, but then there's people who are the real horror fanatics that are like, I'm going to be there all three days and party with them all three days, which we fully support. Well, you're alluding to it a little bit, talking about how early people are buying tickets and such, but I don't think we've actually said it. When is Hauntfest this year? Hot Fest is April 4th through 6th, a Terrapin beer company in Athens,

Georgia. Terrapin. I love that it's Terrapin. I love Terrapin. Yeah, and it's called April Wolves. I didn't even think about that with Terrapin. What the? That's good. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, Terrapin.

But what was I saying? It's all three days to Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it's going to be a blast. Definitely. But it's sneaking up. It's April ghouls. It's on, you know, that first weekend in April. So it's a play on April fools. So don't be a fool. And you're, you've been, you've been kind of throwing out bits and pieces of it already, but I just want to talk about the ticket information real quick.

So the RIP passage you're, you're talking about, I'm seeing a range of pricing here from 70 to 190. What's the, what's the range for? So it, it depends on how many days you go. So if you just get one for one day, it's going to be more expensive per day versus getting all three. So we try to encourage people to come all three days by doing that.

And I think there's like details when you click into the tickets of like what percent off you're getting by going all three days by getting a certain pass. Because we really want to make sure people understand like you are really getting a deal by getting this in advance. And you also get all these extra perks, you know, if you get the RIP passes, which is much cheaper than if you were to buy them all separately.

You know, for instance, like the merch package, if you go to the event and buy a T-shirt, it's gonna be more expensive than if you just, you know, get the package that includes everything already. And all I can tell our listeners is to click on the link in the show notes to take you to the HauntFest website because... If I'm going to tell you what is in each of these packages, there's no way you're going to remember because there is so much. So go read it for yourselves.

Choose which package makes any sense for you. But there are three different RIP passes. There's the boost package, the merch package, and the sinister package. The boost package, you get all of the perks for the festival. You get the haunted attraction tickets. You get the Terrapin tasters with tour. Terrapin does good beer, especially if you like juicy IPAs.

Good to know good to know an exclusive souvenir cup the terrapin koozie and sticker as well as a haunt fest poster if you do the merch package you get all those festival perks the haunted attraction ticket the haunt fest poster haunt fest t-shirt a raffle ticket each day five dollar values each double scavenger hunt raffle chances and don't forget to wear close to shoes for the haunt always and then the sinister package all the festival perks all booze

and merch package perks exclusive signed poster signed by whom? By the entertainers. All the band names. Oh, nice. That's awesome. 30 minute early entry priority parking and you get to skip the line. So huge perks with these RIP passes. Oh, yeah. And you can also get just the festival as a ticket or you can get the festival and the haunted attraction which we definitely suggest getting the haunted attraction.

All of the RIP passes include that but you know just in case there's someone who you know may not be able to go through the the trail or whatever we do like to offer this festival only but definitely would suggest going through that we have lake joy trails of terror from kathleen georgia is coming in they're a non-profit they donate to children in need and they have the sickest haunt in kathleen and i know that they're going

to bring their all to this event so they're like packing up huge they're packing up their haunts and bringing it or at least a part of it. They're, I think, building sets there. I think they're building like walls and stuff or something. And then they're going to bring all of that to Athens. I think they're like more than two hours away. So it's a lot of like pre-planning and then bringing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But they're awesome. They helped with us last year.

They're just angels from heaven. I don't know what happened. This guy just called me last year and was like, hey, are you doing this event?

But we'd love to just come bring like 20 actors and build your haunt with you and i was like okay what no just three yeah i was like that's that's crazy and so yeah they've been super supportive love them to death and it's going to be in a huge brewery warehouse indoors this time, they'll have some more time in advance to build it and you know last year was all in the woods so it's like kind of awkward to hang stuff from trees but this

is like going to be the real deal So we're very excited to have you back. You are nine and a half hours from me. I don't know if I can justify that yet. Yes, you can. Because I can't. Get on down here. Yeah, so that's the ticket information. Definitely check out the link in the show notes, and it will take you right to all of that information.

I want to talk about the fact that you don't want to wait until April for this because you guys have something coming up. that is, well, for all of you listeners who are catching it on day one, it's today. So tell us about the zombie pub crawl because I was looking at that and I wish I could go because it looks like you guys are all thinking some makeup stuff with it. So not even just come as your own zombie, but we'll turn you into one.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So we were doing... Go ahead. Leslie said something and it piques my interest. Yeah.

So we've been doing a couple promo events to get people kind of pumped up for the festival and our first one was it was a valentine's day event and it kind of cracks me up the the name of it that we came up with because we couldn't come up with a good enough name for valentine's day but one of the workers at terrapin and i were talking about planning the event or whatever and i talked about i kept saying haunted trail and i was like i need to stop calling it that

because it's a haunted attraction and she goes that's it, haunted attraction that's what we need to call the valentine's day event and so we ended up doing that oh my god, i never would have thought of it a moment like i'm too used to just hearing that in one context i never have that's exactly where i got stuck yeah haunted attraction yeah so we did that it was like a little trivia night. It was a fun way to introduce people to the venue because it was there.

And now we're on to our second promo event, which is the Zombie Pub Crawl. So for those who are not familiar with Athens, it's got a heavy bar scene. This is a college town. People go out at night and there's tons of bars. And so I don't know if someone suggested this to me like a year ago, but I thought it was such a great idea. Just to get a group of people, like-minded people interested in Halloween who want to go on a crazy, random, not-in-October pub crawl as a zombie.

So one of our vendors, they're called Masked Up's Face Paint, is coming and doing SFX makeup for the zombies. So when you get a ticket, they're, I think, $25 a ticket. It includes five drinks, so it's five different stops and two snacks.

So two of the stops have snacks included that's five bucks a drink that's what i'm saying yeah i mean it's this is all like all these bars are considered sponsors for us because this is mainly just for us to get people excited get people asking questions like why are there zombies downtown you know to help spread the college town yeah 50 50 so yeah we're excited to just kind of offer a fun little activity that's not you know some crazy expensive bar night it's just Here's a deal,

five drinks, two snacks, and you get the SFX makeup included in that. So that alone is worth it. Yeah, seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to come a little bit earlier if you want to get the full makeup done. You have to arrive in some sort of ripped up clothes because, I mean, we have some we can bring, but like it's easy to cut up a shirt that you don't care about. Right. And if you show up in your nice clothes, they're going to cut it up for you. Yeah. I have extra scissors on hand.

Yeah definitely if you're interested in that event it is tickets technically i guess would be are closed today but if you really want to go like just email us, i mean we have what time is it kicking off it so if you want the makeup done we suggest that you show up to the first bar which is bar south i think i said four or five p.m somewhere between Between 4 and 5 p.m. That's when they open. Yeah. So that the artists have time to get everybody. Because I know that they're going intense.

So if you don't want to do the makeup, there is an option to opt out. It explains on the website, but essentially there's code you can type in. It takes off $5. And if you want to do your own makeup before you come, that's an option too. And then you can show up later, like right before the crawl rather than that early. So depends on what you want to do. You know, if you're into doing your own makeup, that's cool too.

You can still come and it'll be a little bit cheaper for you if you do your makeup in advance and it sounds like it's late enough in the day that if people are listening to this podcast on, march 1st you still have a chance to get down there and get to the zombie club crawl yeah just make sure to let us know asap because there's not a guarantee that i can get you in there you know but i we'd love to have you the code if you want to do your own makeup it's very very complicated it's no makeup,

I don't know if I'll remember that. Yeah. I was trying to remember it, but, uh, yeah, no, that is actually super simple. I like it. I like it. Okay. So we got the zombie pub crawl happening now.

And then a month from now, we're actually kicking off haunt fest itself, April ghouls. Oh yeah. The real deal on April 4th.

So let's, let's start with the music lineup. what do you have planned for the music festival so far so applications are currently still open until you're a month out they're still open i know i know listen all right in the past i have come to the understanding that there's a lot of entertainers that don't like to do anything until last minute and so i like to at least in athens because it is a college town they're all students You know,

I try to give them as much opportunity as possible to apply because we do like to highlight bands like local bands and new bands, you know, that are fun and interesting to help, you know, advertise them to the world. And so that's why it goes so late. But at this point, you know, we have over 70 applications for this event. So in the future, we'll probably be shutting that off a lot sooner. But I've been advertising for this year. So if you would like to apply, we have until March 8th.

And then very soon after that, we'll be shooting off all the emails of, you know, we're accepted or not. And then we'll move on from there. But yeah, so I don't have any specifics for you right now, unfortunately. How many bands are you accepting? We typically do around six per day. So it also depends on, you know, the length of the sets you go to apply. You can say, you know, your minimum or maximum length that you would like to play.

So we'll take that into consideration. But I would say about six bands per day. So it sounds like there's going to be some fierce competition. Yes. If you've got 70 bands already signed up. And you're only filling 18. Yep. A lot of reviewing. There's a lot that goes into this. And, you know, I want any entertainer out there to know that, you know, you're all great. And if you're not accepted, it's not because you're not great. It's just there's so many.

You're filling 18 slots with 70 applicants. I mean, the math just doesn't work out that, you know, so everyone gets to play. How do you choose? Like, what is important to you when you're making these selections? I'd say, well, there's a few things. One is just, you know, overall talent.

There's overall like a rating uh depending on you know i guess how experienced you are as a musician and you know if you're you obviously and then one is i love creativity there's a question in the application that asks what kind of costume they would wear to the event because we like to have our bands be themed in some way and usually that you know is accompanied by costumes so i do kind of i do look at that and i'm like are these people really into this event

or are they just here to play you know yeah and then another thing is or it has been in the past i don't know if it will be as much this time but like if you have a good following in an area and it may not just be athens like we do consider you know if someone has a big following and they're from atlanta then maybe that'll get people from atlanta to come to the event sure so that's something that that we consider but it's

not like at this point we have the people coming to this event so like that doesn't matter as much, like I said, but look at all that and. But yeah, and there's descriptions as well of the bands and like to support the up and coming a lot. So that's another consideration. Yeah. A lot of different angles to go at. No kidding. No kidding. That's awesome because again, you've got 70 bands and you're not just basing it on one criteria.

So you've got a lot of options to choose from and it really gives each of those 70 bands a good shot at that evaluation to be able to play. And if not this year, then next year.

Yeah yeah and i will say too the bands who volunteered with us before we do you know tend to look at that you know if they haven't been paid through haunt fest before but they helped support us before that is something that we consider as well because we we love our volunteers you know we couldn't have done it without them to start this event in the first place so we really appreciate them for that and would love to support them further yeah give back to the ones who have helped you

in the past oh yeah love it love it so festival much to come on the festival as you go through all that application process over the next well starting about a week from now bands you got another week to get your uh applications in but beyond than any other entertainers so that's exactly where i wanted to go yeah sorry but before we get into it let's take a moment hear from our sponsors and then we'll be right back with roseanne harphold hearing more about Hauntfest. Music.

What other types of entertainers are you seeing so far? Not saying that will be there, but like that you're seeing applications for. We've been getting like a lot of circusy acts. There's magicians.

There's actually Puppeteer that is really fun and interesting. He's got some quite like vintage looking so very creepy looking puppets are we talking like creepy ass ventriloquist doll type things or i pinocchio style it's i'd say pinocchio style yeah like uh puppets okay and so that may be something you know good for like a sunday family friendly event day but there's a lot to consider with all those too there's a there's quite a variety of

people coming in but fire performers that's another thing yeah the circus groups that line up they have all sorts of offerings like they do juggling they do fire like i don't think i've seen sword swallowing yet but that's something that you know if you do that i'm always looking for that because i i love the freak show aspect for like this kind of event yeah are you guys still taking applications then as well for your entertainer for all of your other acts yeah,

Yeah, so the date for entertainer applications includes both musicians and non-musicians. And they're on the same page. It's the entertainment page of the website. And there's a button, whether it's a non-musical performer or musical performer. But yeah, those are both. And I think it's 11.59 p.m. on March 8th. Okay. So again, entertainers, you've got a little bit more time in to send in an application to do this.

And again, it's a three-day event. And it sounds like you've got some flexibility in terms of, you know, don't have to go for all three days, which is also kind of nice as a performer, especially if you're an amateur just trying to get started to know that you've got some flexibility there and you don't have to necessarily block off a full weekend. Okay, so while he's looking at sword swallowers and jokes just abound, tell me about some of the vendors you have.

All right so we have a lot of returning vendors which we love to see and some of my favorites are like the activity ones such as the georgia reptile society's coming back back and okay thanks i love them and athens cat foster program is bringing all their kittens and halloween costumes again so love them let's see the just so you know if you're listening to this and would like to see the extensive list of every vendor and links to their websites.

If you go to the Georgia page at hauntfest.net and scroll down, they're all linked right there with all their names and you can check out all their stuff individually. But yeah, lots of, let's see, Wicked World, which has been there since day one. She's incredible. Bettina is her name. She does all sorts of taxidermy, wet specimens, very spooky, awesome booth. And she does like the oddities and curiosities expo every year gonzorific they make b movies they're like horror movies i love it well.

Yeah, Tastic Magical Emporium. Oh, yes. I'm just reading through some of these names. And these names alone are great. There's one in here for sure. There was one that was Liquid Octopus. It was another one that caught my eye. They do like prosthetic teeth, too. They just started making those. Oh, cool. I was talking to them at our last event. And they have experience. I think they were working for Universal Studios at some point.

Doing like, I don't know what you call it. not sfx but the effects like like with the teeth and stuff and they prosthetic effects yeah they do all sorts of cool rc things like even for for movies.

And stuff so they're a really cool cool booth to visit and yeah this is the first time we have like sfx artists coming we've had face painting before but this is a new exciting thing if you want to go get spookified at the event like that masked up face paint that i mentioned before that's stuff we've got burgers with Cafe Racer again and we've got tacos from let's see it's a Texas name trying to find it I don't want to get it wrong they're new you see

it on there I'm looking for tacos Texas something star tacos I got Joe's oh yes okay yeah lone star tacos yes so they'll be coming yeah there's quite an extensive list and they're all quite a bit different so like I. Said if you're interested in learning more about them we also post highlights almost every day for a new vendor each day so if you go to our social media at hauntfest.athens is our instagram and then facebook is just hauntfest llc but we post like i said almost daily all of

our vendors so you can see just pictures and descriptions of the stuff they'll be bringing oh some of these flower in the attic they've got some really really cool stuff oh yeah i'm just looking at these instagrams so on the georgia page where you can scroll down and it lists everything a lot of these are linking to instagram pages and things like that and you know what i'm seeing i absolutely love and on top of all of that almost all these instagram pages also

have pet pictures so we know they're good people yeah yeah i know there's one in particular i can't remember exactly which booth they have a dog that they bring that is just the most gorgeous dog and there's a picture of ari lehman from last year the first jason from the friday the 13th franchise with the dog and i think it's on our website somewhere but nice love love the animals for sure.

Yeah and then tales from the gas station is also another big one big shot author comment and every time he comes to one of our events we get all sorts of messages from his fans like his fan base comes from all over to come see him and get book signed so if you haven't read tales from the gas station it's an incredible series you should definitely check it out i have not but i'm intrigued now yeah i don't know i keep looking

things up because i have to because i can't go I can't go. So I have to go see. I have to rely on the interwebs. Oh, yes. So again, go, don't miss out. Yes. But yeah, we also have some student artists that come and they do spooky stuff.

And I will say if you're a student or I mean, you don't have to be a student for this, but if you'd rather have like a smaller booth, like just a table versus a 10 by 10 section, there is an option in the application for vendors where you can split a booth with someone. And it'll like split the payment online already. You just have to say who you're going to be splitting with. And they also submit an application, say the same thing.

So if you, you know, if it's too expensive for you or, you know, if you just want to have a bunch of friends get together that all do spooky art and you can share 10 by 10 space, that is an option as well. And those applications don't close until like really close to the event unless we hit a vendor cap, which we might.

So get your applications in soon if you're interested. You mentioned you're doing this at Terrapin Brewery. Is the vendor floor all inside the brewery, or do they have other space around it? So the vendor space is actually outdoors. It's all this, there's this huge outdoor field outside of Terrapin that's super flat. So it's perfect for booth setup.

And that will be where our vendors are set up, except for, I believe the kittens will be inside away from the music and such just for safety purposes. But yeah, the tap room is going to be open to just kind of chill, hang out.

We'll have, we may have some solo artists or something in there. and that's where we'll do like costume contests and trivia and then outside will be all the live bands all the vendors and activities and shows like that the occasional fire breathing probably of course yeah and then the the haunted trail is actually it's on site but it's like kind of behind the brewery building so we'll have signs and stuff to direct you because it is a separate warehouse it's not attached yeah okay but yeah

owned by terrapin or yes it is it is a terrapin in space i think they've just been using it for storage for a while and now we're really putting some real use to it for this event yeah oh my gosh this sounds freaking perfect yeah i did find the one i was looking for hell's a poppin is a circus sideshow review that i got to see perform at, at fear expo last year they had shorty dangerously who is literally half a person

like he has no leg he was born without legs and the stuff that he does is absolutely phenomenal like the arm strength of this man is unbelievable. I remember you sent us, yeah, I remember pictures that you sent us. But they had a sword swallow and fire breathers and guys who, a guy who like stuck nails and things through himself and made a corn... What do you call a little piece of corn before it pops? Colonel? Colonel. That's the word I'm looking for.

Oh, it's late. Yeah, he stuck a corn kernel up his nose and pulled it out his eye. Like, it was absolutely fucking wild. That's crazy. But anyway, maybe something to look into. I dropped a link for you in the chat if you are so interested. Okay, cool. Thank you. I'll definitely look into them. That sounds interesting. They were solid. It was a really fun show. Oh, yeah. I'm trying to click it, but it's doing some weird thing on my side.

Yeah. All right. Yeah. Hell's a poppin'. That's a fun name. Hell's a poppin'. I'll put it in the show notes as well. So all of our listeners can check them out as well. Sweet. Hey, they're in Ripley's Believe It or Not. They are in Ripley's Believe It or Not. Exactly. So we've talked entertainers. We've talked vendors. We've talked some of the other entertainment attractions that are going to be there, like the haunted attraction.

What are what are we forgetting let's see let's see if well just a few things to remember i know i mentioned that that one vendor has a dog that is the only exception as far as bringing animals okay please do not bring your animals your pets it's just not going to be a good place for them unless you know if there's a medical reason that's that's a different situation but animals are always acceptable yes but it's just it's going to be loud and we have spooks that walk around just

to remind everyone we do have roaming scary people that will scare you while you're there so if you have like your dog haunted yeah yeah we don't want any accidents there in that realm has it been a problem in the past it has not but also we we always have this message for people um so we haven't we have not had that issue yet but yeah also consider like we we do have other animals that are part of the event that, you know,

could be reptiles and your cats and all of your snakes don't want to see your, your pets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So just all in all, please leave your pets at home if, if you can and wear closed toed shoes. You know, for the haunt and everything, because you never know what might come out and try to bite your toes. You will not be allowed to go back in and find your lost flip-flop. Yeah, or toes. Or toes. Yeah. No toes for you.

No toes for you. I'm trying to see. There's always that thing. Yeah. Can we talk logistics for a sec? Yeah. Like, how do you get there? Parking? Those kind of things. So, Terrapin is at, I think it's 265 Newton Bridge Road. And I will double check that real quick. I'm going to be super impressed. Well done. I've been typing it a lot. Yeah. And if you want to check out their website on the Georgia page, there's their logo next to the address and you can click that. It'll take you there.

But there is some parking on site. We are going to have to do a little bit of maneuvering. There may be a few separate lots that we'll be directing people in. But we should have you covered. So when you show up, there'll be a parking attendant that can help direct you to which lot you go into. And there is, you know, of course, if you're a handicap, please let us know and we'll direct you to the front. And if you get that sinister package, it also comes with priority parking.

So that will be much closer to the entrance if you're worried about needing to walk too far because of the parking situation. But like I said, it's all on site. There's no trolleys or anything this time, which will be nice. It is in like the industrial part of town. So it may seem strange when you're driving there, but it is the right place, I swear.

That's hysterical. I did want to ask about that. Like, I remember you ran into this group of people who like owned a ranch or something at a hibachi place that offered wagon rides for you. Did it work out? Like, was it helpful? Or was it complex? We, that, for whatever reason, that fell through, unfortunately. Oh, no. I'm very excited about that. But they were busy or something happened. I don't remember exactly what happened. But did end up seeing a hayride going.

It was a last minute scramble, but we made it happen. There was, I think it was a trailer. And we went and picked up some hay from some random farm on the way. They were like, yeah, we'll sell it to you for $5 a bale. We're like, okay, thank you. Done. Done, exactly. But that ended up being a sweet little thing to get people to and from their cars. So I'm really glad that we... Cause it looked like a fun little ride just in general. Yeah.

Great. It's just too bad that that fell through. Cause I absolutely adored that story. That was wonderful. It is a good story, but unfortunately maybe one day, one day they'll show back up at another Hibachi restaurant and we'll have this whole experience again. How about volunteers? You still looking for volunteers or people to assist with actually operating the event?

Yes. I'm, I need to like really get down and figure out exactly how many people we need, because this is one of our larger events. So we've got to figure out, you know, parking attendance, ticket attendance are like a big one because we want to get people through that line as quick as possible. And there's always a line. Yeah. So if you're an organized person, that's a great job for you. Parking, you know, it's pretty simple. You're just going to be pointing to empty spots, you know.

But yeah, if you volunteer with us, we've got a great crew.

Of people they're all fantastic and it's a it's a fun time you can stay hang out party with us you know and it's it's it's a great time that's all i have to say i i actually had someone volunteer at our last event who i don't i don't get this the same way that he gets it because i've been just building this thing and like this is a whole different experience for me but he came to me after and was like this experience changed my life like working with you guys and meeting

these people and realizing that there's people out there like you all and that there's you know fun things like this that you can get together and and build these relationships and he spent all weekend with us and he wrote like a very sweet letter and everything and he even went on linkedin and wrote a whole story about like his experience with us and i'm not i'm not trying to toot my horn here, but I do want to say for some of our volunteers, it does mean a lot and we love to have you.

We're a very supportive group of people so please do come. I love that. In that. So if you would like to volunteer on the job applications page at HauntFest.net, you can select whether you'd like to volunteer as a scare actor or be event staff. We're doing some paid, some volunteer. There's an option in the application. You can say volunteer only if you just are there to have a good time and help out, or you can do paid only or paid or volunteer if paid is unavailable.

So totally up to you the way you decide to apply. But like I said, it's more of just a fun time for everybody to come enjoy and there are some perks of being a volunteer you get a free weekend event pass there's plenty of community building as you have just mentioned and a refresh refreshment station to make sure that you are fully charged for the event exactly.

Definitely come come hang and lake joy trails of terror that's doing the haunted attraction They're kind of handling the scare actors that are wanting to get involved in that. You still apply through us. So just go through, select scare actor, and they have access to that application. So just know it may not be me that you're talking to if you're a scare actor immediately because they're going through and have their own plans for insight. But you can also free roam in the festival.

So whichever, that's another choice you can make is if you want to get involved in the actual haunted attraction or if you just want to stay in the fest the whole time, do a little bit of both.

But that's always a blast if you're into scaring people this is the best time how many other places are going to get you to scare people in april at two like this is a perfect time to refine some new skills learn some new skills put it to practice before we get to hot season absolutely i see also i clicked on your the link the volunteer perks link in your on your website and i also see a thing about sponsorship on here are you still looking for sponsors.

We are always looking for sponsors. So if you, it doesn't matter what kind of business you are, there is always a way to contribute. So whether it's just, you know, straight up money, which is typically not the way we go about things, but we love money. That helps buy like volunteer food. You just have a gift card for your business that you want to donate to a sponsor basket.

We do a scavenger hunt for our vendors. so any vendor who donates to the scavenger hunt will be part or to the prize will be part of the scavenger hunt and along with that there will be other sponsor prizes in this basket so it's like a raffle basket but we have plenty of prizes that we do for costume contests for trivia you know we need lots of like little stuff for teams of six or more or six or less for that so anything like that that you'd like to donate or cases of

water food for volunteers and like i said for the zombie pub crawl they're all considered sponsors because they're giving us a deal on the drinks for this pub crawl so there's always a fun way to get involved and it doesn't just have to be straight up you know a cash donation yeah and i know i'm not gonna turn that down either but always always cash is king and i know we promised this last year and completely dropped the ball but i do want to put together a

like haunting you march package for you and actually send it this year so if you would give me an address to send that to i have it now instead of leslie so i guarantee it will not fall through yes i am terrible i'm giving less a look i deserve it but yeah send me your address and i'll send you like t-shirts and stickers and whatever else i have from our last conference awesome well i really appreciate you guys you've been so supportive this whole.

Time and oh yeah that's another way too is is doing a podcast any way to get our our name out there is another way to sponsor just in case any of you listening work for a radio station or anything like that that is a great way to sponsor because the more you know we can talk about this and and get it known the bigger this event will grow actually on that note the big scary show. Largest haunted attraction podcast in the country does like free event announcements in every episode.

Let me get you their contact information because if you just email your event info they will put it on their next episode for free. Sweet. And they put out episodes a lot more frequently than we do. A lot more frequently. We love the big scary show. They're amazing. Drew Badger is my hero. And Drew, if you ever listen to this, I want you to know that. You are my hero. 100%. That's awesome. But yeah, I do want to let you guys know how much I appreciate your continued support.

And this is awesome that you've stayed along with me through this journey. And you guys are great. It's been a fun journey to watch. And I just wish we were closer so that we could participate more. But even the little bit that we're able to do, I'm having so much fun watching you succeed. It's so cool.

It's beautiful well maybe we'll crawl our way up there please crawl your way up here, I also run jelly I have a jelly ball business I would love to come do jelly ball at Haunt Fest yeah Lake Joy brings or did for one of our previous events bring a little shooting range for that we that stuff is so fun it's so much fun absolutely so much fun so yeah if you get like up to the Virginia even, northern North Carolina I could probably make it work all right yeah I'll keep

Keep that noted. Make sure you guys are aware. Yeah. Keep it in mind as you're, you're planning out your next, speaking of which, are you looking at other events this year outside of Georgia? So, um, maybe this has not been like officially announced, but I'll talk about it because it's all very new.

So, so I just graduated December 13th. It was a Friday the 13th. Congratulations. Thank you. It was actually during our Christmas event. So I, I missed graduation. I was at Hauntfest, but you know, where it's appropriate. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. So anyway, since then, I've discovered some opportunities through UGA to get funding or pitch for funding, at least, and do these competitions.

And so I've been doing a lot of pitch competitions lately to see what kind of funding I can build up to expand farther and go out of state. Because there's a lot of just, you know, startup costs that are associated with travel. And so I did manage to secure some funding. So i am looking into one or possibly two new target states for 2025.

But like i i briefly mentioned this earlier but i i did a quick like one day test of 10 states i think two days ago or when you say test what does that mean so i base i post to gauge interest like i i basically bought ads okay um And posted them in the different states. It was like I had a target city in each of the states and went like 50 miles out of that city. Yeah. And then determined how many people would be interested in us coming. But just based on engagement with your ad.

Yes. Right. And so from that, right now, the most engagement was from Las Vegas. And then, let's see, I actually have this pulled up here. The second most was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What? Yeah. and then weirdos I thought that was so random but I don't know enough about do you know who happens to be in Denver Colorado.

Hey it's coming up yeah less than john are in denver and i will happily like that's home i will happily go back to denver for stuff yeah so i'll be looked at these new areas and see how much we can do how quickly because you know it does take a lot to build these up so it may be that this year i can only hit las vegas or one you know one of them but you know the goal is to we'll see what happens because if denver hits your list yeah don and i are out here k will come out here there's

lots of weirdos out here hit us up because we want to help that'd be great hey if you guys have a bunch of connections in denver that already kind of bumps it up you know more than the other states because i have no other information i mean i have connections in maryland but like yeah yeah so uh we'll definitely you know be in touch because i would really like to go to denver and i keep wanting there to be more reasons for me to go there.

Yeah yeah legit although if you're doing one in vegas like you may want to spread it out a little bit more than nevada and colorado like almost next to each other one side of the rock He's the other side of the Rocky. Yeah, all of the Californians, and then you'll get your everybody else's. All of the states that I was testing, they're all about eight hours drive from each other, like each city. So hopefully that'll be okay. I don't, I'm not entirely sure,

but I know when I did. That's a day's drive, like no problem. Yeah. When I did North and South Carolina, I do think they were too close, those two events. Yeah. Yeah, I, yeah, I'm definitely trying to spread out a bit, but it's going to be a learning experience. It's going to be crazy. I'm just going to be thrown in random places. But yeah, so that's, that's the update for anyone who is curious. Right. Well, our fingers are crossed and I cannot wait to hear the official

announcements when, when you get to it. Can I pick your brain for a moment though? We talk about the pitch a lot because every time we try to go do a haunted house, we need funding, we need location, we need to convince my captain to let me turn our warship into a haunted house. And so we have dedicated whole episodes to talking about the pitch. And I would love to hear your perspective on what makes a good pitch when you were trying to secure this funding.

I think it really depends who you're pitching to. so as far as like like who do you pitch to for these because these are all different quite different things they are they are indeed quite different things and it's often like that's of a venue or sponsors that i want to help support the hauntime building yeah those are my two big ones but that what you said right there that's actually something that we've talked about a lot when we talk about pitches it's who

is your audience who is know your audience and pitch to your audience and Taylor because you know pitching to your captain if you're yeah pitching to the captain of my ship is very different than pitching to the owner of the golf course that I want to build a haunt at yeah yeah I mean I just from like a bit a business mindset of course you probably already know this but just finding out like how does this benefit them you know and really leaning into that and you're kind of the afterthought

of like also this benefits us but really this is what you know will be good for you and this is why it's important that we're here and this this is a collaborative thing or you know depending on what you're talking about like for my pitches because it was for funding they're not technically investors because they're not taking a percent of the company it's more of like a it's through the school it's just a fund.

But you know when pitching to investors you have to prove that your business is viable and that it will grow. And so I had to focus a lot on the growth, like in Athens from year one to year two and our projections for this year and, you know, the future of expansion and all that. And, you know, how much this will grow, because if I were pitching to investors taking a percent, you know, they, they want to see that grow.

It all is just totally tailored to who you're talking to, you know, because I would pitch completely differently if it was for, you know, a venue or, you know sponsor because you know sometimes like for sponsors you know it's it's almost counterintuitive to talk about growth when you're talking to a sponsor because it's like we need your help.

But, you know, if you say, oh, we're doing so well that, you know, we're making all this money and racking in all these funds, then they're going to be like, oh, you don't need us. You don't really need our help. Yeah. It really just depends. But really just finding that need, you know, what they want to hear. And because you always will have something to say that's going to be positive. It's just how you say it and like, you know, how you build your argument.

Yeah. And focusing on the benefit to the person you're pitching to, because what makes it worth their while? That's what hooks them. Yeah. Which, yeah, like I said, I'm sure you know this. I'm not sure if I can really bring... I want our listeners to hear someone else say it, because we can say it all we want. But if someone else is saying the exact same thing we're saying, that's credence.

Especially because you're... We kind of know what we're talking about. and you've pitched to get funds we've pitched for hi can we take the five dollars in a shoestring that we have in the closet and build a haunted house on your boat very very different is a very different and hi i'm requesting funds to do x and here's why so you know again you know to our listeners we're not crazy i mean we are but in a completely different fashion than in this particular sense

because it is it is all about you know who's your audience what is your goals and making sure that what you're pitching tailors to you know who your audience is and what their goals are going to be yeah yeah exactly so you heard it here from roseanne harpold herself, oh yeah work on your pitches.

Okay, so ZombiePubCrawls tonight. You are kicking off HauntFest April 4th to the 6th in Athens, Georgia. We have talked about all of the exciting things that are happening at HauntFest April 4th to the 6th in Athens, Georgia. And we've even talked about what may be coming after April as the rest of 2025 continues to unravel. Hopefully we'll hear more. And of course, definitely go check out the HauntingU webpage, our events page. we have links to Hauntfest.

And as we hear more about other events that Hauntfest is putting on this year, they will all end up on that page as well. So check out our website and you can definitely keep up with everything Hauntfest has going on. If you want to see Hauntfest directly though, go check out Hauntfest.net. And you want to give a shout out for your social medias? Yeah, so again, Instagram is at Hauntfest.Athens and Facebook is Hauntfest LLC, but there's also a group called Hauntfest Georgia.

And depending on if we go out of state again, they're all going to be HauntFest and then whatever the state is. So if you want to join your state's group when that happens outside of Georgia, that is how you would find that. And the easiest way to get links to all those, HauntFest.net. Oh, yeah. Which you will find in our show notes. Exactly. Exactly. Because we're organized and helpful. Yeah. That might be giving us too much credit. Okay. My apologies. That doesn't give us too much credit.

When we're 20 days late of when we actually intended to record this episode. Organized might be too much of a stretch right now. We're not organized? It just sounds like you have a lot stacked against you so maybe you are. We have a lot stacked against us, yes. I'm hoping it will calm down at some point but it's not. It's just not. No.

Roseanne, thank you so much for taking the time out to come out talk with us. It is always a pleasure to have you here, and we are so excited to see how Hauntfest 3 ends up working out in just over a month. Yeah. Well, thank you again for having me. It's always fun chatting with you guys. That was a blast. I love that Hauntfest is taking off the way it is. I do too. I love it. It's beautiful. It's such a unique type of event compared to everything else that we do.

It's not a conference. It's not a trade show. it's a music festival and a conference and a haunted house and like, uh, it's, it, there's so much to it. Uh, I love it. I cannot wait to go. One of these needs to be close enough to us. And I was looking at my schedule trying to see, like, you know, it's only nine and a half hours. I could make that work. Except that I've already got a jellyball event booked for that Saturday. And it's a big event. So I'm like, dang it.

Yeah, that won't work so much there. Not so much. Not so much. But that's okay. We already mentioned it. Go check out HauntFest at HauntFest.net. You'll get all the details. And if you are in the area, even in the vicinity, go check it out because it looks like it's going to be an absolute blast. Again, for year number three. Exactly. I think that about wraps it up for this episode of the Haunting You podcast.

If you want to find any of our other episodes, please go check out our website at hauntingyou.com. And top of just finding our entire, what do we call it, library of episodes. Yeah. You can also find the Haunting You Method, the method that we use to build all of our haunts. We have the Haunter's Goal Box, which is links to really helpful tools to help you build your own haunts.

Check out our Partners page, which offers discounts from really awesome vendors that we love to work with, and they are willing to offer discounts to all of our listeners.

Check out that Partners page. check out the events page which has every single convention trade show haunt festival that we know of is up on that event page help you plan your 2025 by going to hunting you.com and the events page and of course if you want to get your word out to the haunted attraction industry we are a great way to do that and i can pretty much guarantee we are the most inexpensive way to do that so if you want to so check out our sponsor page and it

will tell you a whole bunch of different ways that we can help you get your message out to the industry in a variety of different ways and of course check out our socials on instagram at haunting university facebook.com slash haunting you and youtube at haunting you just the letter u you can find all of the things that we are doing as we prepare for the 2025 haunt season we actually started our planning process for the 25

haunt season about a week and a half ago and that was when leslie's wi-fi just randomly decided to die in the middle of the call. So, we put it on hold. We put a pin in it and we're coming back to it shortly, I hope. Yes. My internet's working. Your internet is working. It lasted the entirety of this episode, so I am encouraged. Hi, Kaylee. Yes. Leslie has puppies that need attention and I have a freckly nose. Indeed. You have puppies that need attention and I have uniforms that need ironing.

So I think we call it a night. I win that game. You definitely win that game. I win that game by a lot. By a lot. Yeah. Let's check us out. Well, for all of us here at Haunting You and John, we missed you. And I hope everybody's feeling better. I'm sorry your son's not feeling good. Yeah, hopefully he's a... He is the second one of my friends that ended up with a sick child today. Crackers ended up leaving work early because her son threw up at daycare. Oh. Like, ooh.

Yeah, that's... That's a bad day every time. Yeah, that's a bad day every day. Yeah, so stay healthy out there. We hope you wash your hands thoroughly. And turn your kids away from you when they start coughing. You know, we teach them to do what I've been doing the entire episode because I sound like death, which is appropriate. Yes, we sound like death on the death podcast. It works. But tell them to put their face in their elbow for their coughs and their sneezes.

I have actually been very impressed like all of the coughing that you're doing because I can visually see it, but I have heard nothing. So I don't know if you are like deliberately muting yourself. I'm muting myself.

I'm impressed that you how thoroughly you have been muting yourself well I am I it's it's not as bad as it's been in the past past colds where I have absolutely no control over it I have enough control over like when it's like okay I know I'm going to need to cough so I go hit the mute button and then I cough and then I hit it would not have been a full episode of you unless you failed on that at least once of course but let's call yeah we're gonna walk away now so that you can uh go

cough in peace thank you i'll go die now okay from all of us here at haunting you uh go check out a local convention and in the meantime happy haunting bye everybody 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 You podcast at hauntedyou.com for more information on. Music.

Everything that we do. We'll be right back. Thank you. Haunting You is a production of the Rocky Mountain Home Haunters, LLC. All audio clips and sound effects are used under a Creative Commons attribution or public domain license from Purple Planet Music at purple-planet.com or the Soundbible at soundbible.com. Please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode.