Classic City Vibes

HauntFest with Roseann Harpold

• Athens Regional Library System • Episode 96

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We talk with the founder of one of Athen's most popular new festivals Hauntfest.  Learn from Roseann Harpold  how it all got started and what you can expect at this year's event!

For more information about Hauntfest please go to www.hauntfest.net.  

Welcome And Meet HauntFest

SPEAKER_00

All right, welcome to Classic City Vibes. My name is James. We have today with us Roseanne from HauntFest. Thanks for coming in.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm excited about this one. I've heard a lot of great things about Hauntfest. Um this is with the third year? Fourth year.

SPEAKER_02

Uh fourth Athens event, I think. Is that right? Wait. We started in 2023, so actually is it third? Wait, three, four, five, six. It is fourth. Oh my gosh. I can't believe it's 26 already. Time flies.

SPEAKER_00

So we're you you can't see this, but we're both on using our fingers. A little embarrassing. Math's not, you know, you know, most people don't go into libraries to do math. How do you exp describe Haunt Fest to the people who have never heard of it?

SPEAKER_02

So we're kind of an off-season Halloween or horror festival. Um so instead of your typical convention where you go and and it's all indoors and you're you know a haunter or something, this is more geared toward anyone who likes the spooky festivities. Um and so it's kind of like a rent fair, like you can come dressed up and there's food and drink, and there's vendors, and there's activities. Um, but you know, it's just over one week weekend typically. And we may grow to be more than that, but uh right now.

SPEAKER_00

Well one weekend's a lot. Yeah, it is.

A Childhood Haunted House Origin

SPEAKER_02

It is. Um right now our events are two-day weekends, and uh the venues are all totally different. It depends where you are. Um but the one in Athens, Georgia, is a Terrapin Weird Company, so it's a brewery vibe, but uh lots of spooky stuff to see and do.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell Has it always been there?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Um No, we actually started at Rabbit Hole Studios, realized that we needed more space, and then moved to Southern Brewing Company, and of course they shut down recently, unfortunately. So then we moved to Terrapin uh since then. Southern was a great venue, terrapin's great too.

SPEAKER_00

So Awesome. When did you first kind of get fall in love with a kind of spooky Halloween horror? I don't know what's your kind of origin story with your love of this kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02

Um so it all really came from my dad. He has been throwing Halloween parties and doing Halloween stuff for our community, like since before I was born. Um and then growing up, every year we had a free haunted house in our home every year for the community. And so uh I grew up always getting spooked up for that event and fell in love with it that way.

SPEAKER_00

Um you were helping create the haunted house as well, even as a kid?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, yeah. I mean from a very young age we were acting as the creepy little children singing in the hallways, and um we me and my sister were both in gymnastics, and so we did a lot of bending around and creeping people out as they walk through the house.

SPEAKER_00

So really you've been doing Haunt Fest your whole life.

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Kind of, yeah. Yeah. Our uh home haunt was called Harpold Manor. And so I try to sneak that into Hauntfest things as much as I can too, because that's kind of the origin story, as you say.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell What does your dad think about you doing Hauntfest? Carrying that tradition.

Building Scares Indoors Or Woods

SPEAKER_02

He loves it. Um I mean he helps as much as he can. He's helped me build temporary haunts uh for the event because while it's a festival, we are also, you know, because we're haunt focused, we'll try to do a trail in the woods or like an indoor warehouse haunted house or a hayride, whatever we can. Um so he definitely helps a lot with that. And a lot of the props and things we use are from Harpould Manor. So yeah, since I moved to college, the Harpold Manor kind of transitioned into Haunt Fest because um I wasn't bringing all my friends to help volunteer there anymore because we had all gone off to school. Um so we kind of ended the Harpold Manor thing and he's been taking this on with me as we move forward.

SPEAKER_00

What's for you easier to create kind of like a spooky, scary experience? Is it the trails and the rides or is it inside like a house? Because you said sometimes you do one or both. Which ones do you have a preference or is one in your opinion like easier to do than the other?

SPEAKER_02

It's it's tough because it totally depends on the space. Um indoor spaces I love because you don't have to worry about weather. Um and you can really set up scenes with props that are, you know, it's okay to have inside versus outside. Um however, if it's a big open warehouse, you have to build the entire thing. You know, the ceilings are too high to hang anything from. So you're pretty much building a pallet maze and walls, you know, inside this big open space. Whereas if it's in a house, like at home, it was great because we already have hallways and we have furniture and we have all the stuff to move around and you don't have to build walls. But then, you know, in the woods, the atmosphere is already there. You're in the woods at night, it's already creepy, you throw up a few things, you know, that are weatherproof and some cool lighting, and it's a lot easier. I just I don't know. I feel like I enjoy the more intimate spaces, but it is a lot easier to do woods if there are woods available.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it sounds warehouses sound like a lot of work. It is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we've we partnered with a haunt last year at Terrapin when they had their big warehouse uh because they just weren't using it, and so we got to use that for a haunted house, but they since have sold the warehouse.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02

So now I'm about to meet with them today and see if there's any other uh opportunities for a haunt this year. But we'd love to have one.

SPEAKER_00

Is it when you go to a haunted house, not your own, is it hard to scare you because you've done so many of them and it's just it that also depends.

SPEAKER_02

I can definitely still get spooked. Um it's more of the distraction and jump scares that get me nowadays. Um because I've been around it so much now that I'm just like, wow, that's really cool. I love how they did that, and I've been appreciating the art of it more than the spook factor. However, I've definitely been gotten quite a few times, so I can't say I'm not still scared.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I would think, I mean, no one's impervious to jump scare, right?

SPEAKER_02

Because that's just kind of built into our human systems.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so um how has your love of spooky evolved from that first time? Did you did you grow up watching horror movies, for instance?

SPEAKER_02

Funny thing, I'm actually not a big fan of horror movies. Really? Yeah, it's it's kind of crazy. People are surprised by that. But um, I'm more into the interactive, like haunted house stuff um and then the art of it, so and the music. So all of that is kind of what geared me towards doing Haunt Fest things, and of course, in the process, um I've had to come to face the fact that I'm a little it's kind of embarrassing to talk to people in the industry because I'm uh because they come from like a horror background. Yeah, like they all love horror movies. Um, and I I can enjoy them. You know, uh it's just I'd rather be able to run and not be stuck sitting in a chair watching something and being afraid. Um but as far as, you know, how my feelings of horror have evolved, I didn't realize how many people were A in this industry and who were just really amazing, awesome people. Um I think that I was under the impression, because I come from a small town, not a lot of people are into Halloween, um, that it was a much smaller group. And then as I've been traveling and and doing more of this haunt fest stuff, I'm realizing how many people this event is pulling and how many people are, you know, are appreciative that there's something that they can all attend and uh like enjoy their similar interests together and everything. Um but everyone we've worked with has been super nice and accommodating and um very interesting.

SPEAKER_00

So I guess Halloween was your favorite holiday growing up. Absolutely. It kind of makes sense though that you're uh you are definitely Haunt Fest is much more inspired by Halloween than horror. Is that accurate?

SPEAKER_02

Even though they kind of overlap so much, but they are I'd say it depends what kind of Halloween you celebrate. Uh this is a little less of the happy fall, y'all, Halloween and a little more gore.

SPEAKER_00

So I gotcha.

Naming HauntFest And Trademark Stress

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um I'm into more of the gore part, but it's again, it's more theme design that I'm like particularly interested in. But I I wouldn't say it's geared more Halloween just because there's different vibes of Halloween depending on where you are. Gotcha. But we do use that word still just because it's easier for people to comprehend what kind of event this is versus saying horror, because then a lot of the time it goes straight to a convention or people are afraid to come if they're easily scared. But we also have things like pumpkin painting and and cute little things you can do, and it's family-friendly. So there's a wide variety, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So how did you come up with the name? How did you decide on you know the name to try and convey that that it's well uh funny story.

SPEAKER_02

So this event I had never really intended on doing this business in the beginning. Uh this was kind of an accident that happened. And during the testing phase of everything, it was literally the first thing that came to my mind.

SPEAKER_01

Hot test.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And so I just wrote it down because I didn't think it was gonna be a real thing. And I didn't really have to put the thought into it because it was just like a test. And then when it went well, I was like, well, I guess I should keep using that name. But it's actually been causing me a few issues lately because I just got it trademarked. And so there's a lot of people who are like, well, you know, I'm also a haunted convention, and now, you know, this could cause issues. So we'll see. We'll see if anything has to be done about that later. But we are registered as Hauntfest, finally.

The Accidental First Event

SPEAKER_00

It's probably stressful dealing with that legal part of things and all that. Where so you talked about at the very beginning. What what gave you the idea to do it? The first one. What was the first one to explain? Yeah. Let's hear all about that.

SPEAKER_02

All right. Uh so going back to starting school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Um I knew I loved art and music and all these things. And um but I went into a biodegree because I wasn't like fully convinced about that. Um and then over time, you know, I knew that I loved Halloween and horror. I just didn't think about doing anything with that. And one day I woke up and I was like, I have to build a haunted theme park. That's what I'm gonna do with my life. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, wow, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02

I decided, yeah, I was like, that's that's my purpose in life. And so um I just joined the entrepreneurship program because I was like, I've never I don't know anything about business. I don't really want to change to a business degree, but let's see what it's all about. Um so when I joined the program early on, one of my professors said that there was an after school like idea accelerator that you could join. And she said, if you have any uh just inkling of an idea of a business idea, like you should uh go there and they'll basically tell you if it'll work or not. I'm like, oh, that's great, because I didn't know if my idea would work, and I thought that'd be a great way to test it. It was not that, it was not easy, it was crazy hard. Um you show up and they're basically like, you know, you need to be able to test your idea very rapidly. Um and we had like a week to, or I had like a week, to sell a hundred tickets to a fake event, like sell, quote unquote. Right um to prove that this would work. Um but I started feeling guilty because all the people interested in the event, when I told them, I'm so sorry it's not actually a real thing, they were heartbroken.

SPEAKER_00

That made you know you had a good idea because people were excited about it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but because of the guilt, I actually created because I also I don't like to give up on things, and I was like, I'm not gonna quit the program, but I need to find a way around this guilt that I'm feeling. So I created a real event uh and so that way I could still test it and then not have to worry about the guilt of it.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell So Hotfest is here because of guilt. Aaron Powell Basically, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Um it was yeah, meant to be a test. I think I was the only one um in my cohort who really built something from the testing. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Uh for some people it's a little easier because if you're a lemonade stand, you can just sell lemonade, and that's pretty easy. But I'd never built an event, never built a website, never done marketing, you know, had to learn a lot really, really, really fast in the beginning.

SPEAKER_00

So eventually one day do you still want to have a theme park? Or are you more you know kind of looked at a different direction?

SPEAKER_02

I've been heading this direction. Um my initial thought was continuing this, like I can build a reputation, maybe I can pitch to some investors in the future, you know, with the haunted theme park. But you know, I've there's also Universal Studios, I don't know if you've heard, open their new horror theme like section of their theme park. Um so I haven't been to that yet, but depending on how they stole your idea.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean basically.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I was talking to a lady at Universal about this, so I think I might have screwed myself.

SPEAKER_00

You should get wrong with these at least. Come on.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, we'll we'll see what happens. But um right now I'm enjoying this and we'll see.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell How has Haunt Fist kind of changed? What what all was at the first one?

SPEAKER_02

So the first one we had, I want to say around at 30 vendors. Um it was a dry venue, and so we didn't have um alcohol. I don't think we had food. Oh wait. We had c a concession stand that my dad was making burgers for everyone. So that was crazy. Um Let's see. Man, it's hard to remember who always was there at the first one. I think we actually got Georgia Reptile Society to come out for the first one, and they've been with us every year. Um and so if you come to Haunt Fest in Athens, they're always coming to bring in their snakes you can hold and uh take pictures with. We had entertainment all day um on the stage. And it was from five to midnight the first year, I think, and just on a Saturday. But we had about 500 attendees, and I was like, whoa.

SPEAKER_00

So you knew you were onto something.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I had uh several people come up to me afterward and they were like, Are you planning on doing this again? Like you better do this again. And I wasn't intending on it initially, but after hearing from people and seeing how well it went, um, and our biggest issue was was parking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's such a great turnout for our first event. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and we you know, Athens was a great place, I think, to start, especially with it being a student community and us knowing the area better and everything too.

Growth From 500 To 1,000

SPEAKER_00

So music was a big part of it from the very beginning, right? Yeah. So how does how do you go about kind of picking the music for what fits for HauntFest? What's kind of the role of music in Huntfest?

SPEAKER_02

So I I have always been a huge music lover, and being in Athens, uh I know that we're surrounded by live music all the time, uh, and I wanted to highlight that. Um plus any festival, like if you call it a festival that you go to, typically has live music. Um and we're since we're more of a festival than a convention, I wanted to make sure that that aspect was included. Um but throughout the event, you'll there will be entertainment, whether it's music or a puppet show or you know, magician. Um the first year I think it was all music. But we have an application process. So if you go onto our website, there's an entertainment page or entertainer info page where you can apply for any of our upcoming events. And then we have a jury that'll go through and listen to all the clips and see what kind of vibe your music is. Um, because you have to be themed in some way, whether it's your genre is already grungy and dark, or you do more Halloween covers. Um we have kind of a mixture of different genres of bands, but uh lots of them will dress up in costume and uh it's still fun and themed to the event.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell Do you cosplay at the event yourself?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell If I had the time, I would love to be a few.

SPEAKER_00

When you're not at Hotfest, do you do is that is that something you you do much?

SPEAKER_02

I for Halloween stuff I will get spooky. But as far as r you know cosplay and going to uh other cons, I haven't really done much of that. Um I've been to one horror convention fear expo, and that was really awesome. Um but I didn't cosplay for that either. Uh for Halloween, for uh if I come to the parade out here or anything, I'm going all out. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um What all do you have lined up? Well when is this year? So it's good. Let's talk about when what's the date for this year? How can people get tickets? What's what's all is going on for this year's hot fest?

Music Booking And Themed Entertainment

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Powell So this year it is April 11th and 12th at Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, Georgia. Um it's from 2 p.m. to wait, let me think about this. Yeah, 2 p.m. to midnight on Saturday and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Um and then this year we've got a ton of vendors as usual, but we've got lots of uh food and drinks and snacks. Um we actually have a uh a group coming called the Grim Reader Bookshop, and they act they sell their books out of a hearse. Nice. That's perfect. That is perfect. Um but yeah, we'll we'll have authors there and uh we'll see who all wants to sign up for ghost story readings and things like that. Um I've got this guy called the Joker from New Orleans is coming all the way from New Orleans and he does uh like street magic, but he's also gonna have some shows on stage. Uh we've got a full lineup of bands as well, um, which you can see all of the lineups and the full vendor list and everything on our website, hauntfest.net. If you go to events and click Georgia or click AprilGhouls, whichever, um, it'll pull up the vendor map, the list, the entertainment and everything, and links to all their websites and music. And so if you're interested before the event to see what's coming up, uh that's a great way to do it. But we've got a blacksmith coming. Um the kittens and Halloween costumes are coming back with the Circle of Friends Animal Society. We've got Georgia Reptile Society as well, uh, with the snakes. And oh gosh, there's always so much going on. I there's also the an activity page that you can check out that's got all the activities.

SPEAKER_00

And much more. Go to the website. Yes, yes, that's always the catch-all. Um how do you find you talked about the bands, there's a page, but what about all the other kind of elements of it? Do you find them people are like coming to you, or are you kind of scouting where what's going on in other places and asking people and networking? How's that kind of evolved into like, you know, you get the bookhurst, the guy from New Orleans, and kind of all these diverse talent come into the event?

SPEAKER_02

So for the applications and things. So we have a musical application and a non-musical application. So there will be people who apply through that. Um, but we do our own sourcing as well to say, hey, this application's open, you should apply. Um and it's a lot of just, you know, online research and um word of mouth, and people saying, hey, my friend's in a band, they might be interested. And um so it's a lot of hands-on work, you know, as well as people coming on their own. But I've noticed, you know, after the first couple years, we've caught on to the point where as soon as I open an application, I've got people applying. And so I there's less of that hands-on work now because the word of mouth has spread so much.

SPEAKER_00

Um now the difficulty is probably whittling it down, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think we had about a hundred or so entertainer applications last year. And so it's a lot to go through at this point. But you know, we're so glad to have the opportunity to listen to all these bands and to um, you know, have have them on our list for future opportunities as well. Um But yeah, we've got our full lineup set up uh now, so if anyone's interested, we'll be po making a lot of posts um after I get home in the next few days, so you'll see that on our socials as well.

SPEAKER_00

That's April the 11th and 12th.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's a Saturday and a Sunday.

April Ghouls Dates Tickets Highlights

SPEAKER_00

Now, at what point did you decide to take Haunt Fest on the Road? Because I would think doing a festival on the road, logistically has got to be very difficult. I could be wrong, but it seems like a much harder task than to do it like where you live. What made you decide to do that? Was it really harder, or what's it like to do them in these other locations?

SPEAKER_02

There's definitely a difficulty level. Um, lots of learning that needs to happen from a lot of different angles. Um, and things that you don't always think about, like um the laws and regulations in every area you go are going to be totally different. Um for instance in Birmingham, I had to learn how to do I I had to do the sales tax for all of the vendors that came to the event. Like they had to turn it into me in little envelopes and I had to go take it to all of the different government complexes. So like depending on where you go, if you don't know what to ask, you don't know what you're doing either. It's like that's one part. And then uh bringing everything, you know, bringing props. If you're doing a haunt, that's like a big, big thing. If you're renting a U-Haul, if you need to, you know, trailer everything up and uh but my biggest not issue, but um challenge, has been figuring out how to do advertising as well as we do in Athens in other places. Because in Athens there's a lot of on-the-ground work, I'm putting up flyers, I'm putting up yard signs, I'm talking to people. Um but when it's in some place like Alabama or North Carolina, I can't be there all the time. You know, I can be there a few weekends and I can do what I can when I'm out there, but um it I have to rely a lot on online advertising or whatever else we can do. I just tried a mail marketing effort for the first time for the Alabama event. Um, how'd that go?

SPEAKER_00

How how can you tell if that if you know something like that is successful?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell So we have when you buy a ticket or you apply or anything, uh won't there's a question that's required that says, how'd you hear about us? Oh gosh, okay. And so that there's a list, drop down list of what you can choose. And uh yeah, so that's how we figure that out. We're gonna try to get in Athens and see uh because we actually have um a better list. To go off of in Athens. It was a little tougher in Alabama because I have I don't know where to target. I don't know, you know, and I have limited funds to be able to choose the housing, whereas I have a lot more information about Athens.

SPEAKER_00

So But if you do it again in Alabama, the same location, I assume each year it gets a little better.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and now I have a little more information about Alabama for next time.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell And maybe you don't want to go to Alabama because you can do all the sales stack. That had been tedious. Oh, oh it was quite tedious.

SPEAKER_02

But we got it figured out, luckily. Yeah. Just took a while.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell So where all do you do them now? You do them here, you do them in Alabama. What's the other locations?

SPEAKER_02

So in 2024 we had South Carolina and North Carolina. Um this year we're doing yeah, Athens, Birmingham, um North not North Carolina. Uh South Carolina, and then Elberton, Georgia as well. So there's two in Georgia, and then we got South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00

How do you pick the locations? We should decide, kinda.

SPEAKER_02

Um well it depends on several factors. For this year, I was mostly concerned about is it drivable for a weekend trip? Like is it within you know four or five hours from here? Um and then do I have a place to stay? You know, I have to do this cheaply because I don't have you know a ton of funds to just go out and do whatever I want, wherever I want. Um and so I knew some some folks in Birmingham and I thought this, you know, there's an artsy scene here, this could be a good place, um, which is why I went there. I toured some places in Nashville, so that may be like a future endeavor. Um it's just having to be careful because you don't know the outcome of a new event in a new place. Right. Um while I wanted to fill the entire year with with new events, it's like, well, if this one does really badly for some reason, then I'm gonna need the funding still to do the rest.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so you're just kind of building it, building it slowly and making sure that it's working in each location.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, having to see if it sticks somewhere and whether it's worth it to ke continue coming back. And you know, we may be back in North Carolina. I just we haven't been yet. We have to make very uh specific decisions each year about it.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell So long term would you it's your goal, or would you would you want your love just be to do them across the country and just you're just doing them year-round is kind of is that your goal or that would be fantastic.

Taking HauntFest On The Road

SPEAKER_02

However, I'm still in the learning phase of determining if that's gonna work as well as it does in my head. So In your head it's great. Yeah, yeah. In my head, like that's the ideal situation. However, um it would it could be better to build up an event to be really, really big in just a couple of places. So I'm just trying to figure out still Which route to go. Am I gonna be capped at a certain level in each place? Like is it gonna hit a certain size and then I can't expand more because of you know limitations or you know, can I can I travel everywhere?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I would think that the traveling all over would be exhausting, though. That would be a to do a lot of big events like that. Like be quick to burn out if you're not careful, right?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah. Uh that is true. Um and it is tough, even just doing, you know, the four events this year, um it's been a lot. But I can also you know there's also the option of teaching someone else to be the event planner in these different states and and hiring on people in these different states. So I'm just you know managing them versus the entire event. Right. Yeah. But there's still a lot, a lot to learn there about the future. And we're doing it one step at a time.

SPEAKER_00

What w it size-wise, what is it how's it grown in Athens from that first one? You said there was about five hundred people in that first one. Has it gotten bigger each year?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the second year almost tripled.

SPEAKER_00

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02

So that was insane. Um yeah. And then last year with the economy and everything, things were a little bit there were a little less people, a lot more vendors. Um it totally depends on a lot of factors. But we'll Yeah, we're about a thousand plus um people in Athens. I don't know this year, you know, we'll see what what happens maybe in the fourth year. But um certainly the word is spread. Um and that's great.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Ross Powell And you always want to keep at least one in Athens, right? Hot fest will have to be.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think this one, this one's probably gonna stick for a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's um do you have a lot of people on your team helping you, or is are you are you doing most of the work or as far as the pre-event planning, um it's mostly me.

SPEAKER_02

But you know, at the event itself, we have a ton of people that come in, you know, lots of volunteers, lots of actors, lots of event staff and and entertainment. And so it's all just kind of as soon as the weekend starts, I'm managing like over 200 people at once. And then uh prior to that it's just me doing a lot of research and you know, driving around.

SPEAKER_00

Why do you think it is about the Athens area that makes things like confess and I think of um things like um fluke, um and then the the Halloween event that Timmy does.

SPEAKER_02

Um where the wild things are. Wild rumpus.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, things like that. Those are all like events that started with like like you, with one person who kind of like had an idea and then grew and grew. I don't think you see that. Even other college towns, you don't see as much of that or as successful of that. What do you think it is about this area that's kind of like unique?

SPEAKER_02

That's a good question. I So Athens was always the cool place for me to go growing up because I'm from a very small town, about 40 minutes from here. Anytime we wanted to have fun, we went to Athens. And it was all it always has felt magical, like to me, at least from a young age. Everything was always funky, like people were very open-minded, very cool. Um and I think I feel like from that baseline, I don't know where it initially came from, but from that baseline of just the funkiness and and being an Athens person. Like I feel like you can walk around and be like, that person is a towny. You know, like because they look really cool and they they have the Athens swag. I don't know. Um But I feel like people in this town now are inspiring each other. Um if you you know go to college at UGA, you're gonna see all this live music and you're gonna see all of this funkiness and kind of meld into that and be like, well, maybe I should join a band, maybe I should do this, you know, because you're surrounded by it already. Um But there's a constant flow of people also in and out of Athens and lots of new new minds, um, which is super exciting. Every year, like even with Hauntfest, I mean, we have, of course, people who return every year, but there's also new people every year that are constantly flowing in. And um I don't know. I mean, but whatever it is, it's really awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Now um you did are you guys doing the zombie run again this year?

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Uh So I don't think we're gonna be able to do the zombie pub crawl because it was like a pre-April Ghouls event, and at this point, Oh, gotcha. It's a little close to time. Yeah. Um but you know, perhaps maybe wind day, yeah. Yeah, it could be a um promo event for one of our upcoming events, like the Elberton one, because it is also in Georgia. But we'll have to think about that. It was a lot of fun though. We had a lot of zombies walking around downtown last March.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a really cool idea, too. And the the makeup can you know get your makeup done. Oh yeah. Um let's go let's talk about the authors, because you you have a ghost stories. So I'm interested in how kind of writing and ghost stories kind of came about as because it wasn't in it wasn't the first year, right? It came later.

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, it did come later. Um so it actually came when my friend Abigail had the idea. Um she is a huge reader, as I'm sure you know.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I didn't know I didn't realize it was Abigail's idea.

SPEAKER_02

It was her idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Very cool.

SPEAKER_02

So um I the thought had never really crossed my mind. You know, we've had authors uh come and she was like, well, you know, maybe they'd be interested in in doing some readings. And I was like, you know what? You're so right. That's actually awesome. Um because like we'll have a fire pit to row s'mores over and everything. And so we started doing ghost story readings for anyone who wanted to sign up um and read their original work or read um like we've had people just read Edgar Allan Poe poems and um so whatever they want to do, and it's you know for you to do, you just sign up for a little slot and then we'll give you a microphone.

SPEAKER_01

That's very cool.

SPEAKER_02

But uh yeah, the first year that we did that, we had a crowd of people just sitting in a circle around the fire in the grass listening.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02

But I think that was a really cool addition. And we we've even had people sign up for them that aren't authors who just want to do it, you know, and read some of their favorites. So um it's open to anyone who applies uh in the vendor application. You can s select whether you're interested in that or not. But um I think that's a great opportunity for for authors to get some of their stuff out and get people interested in in coming to their booth, talking to them more and getting some of their work.

SPEAKER_00

I remember. Now. Yeah. Go ahead. So the there's like a lot of variants each year, like cool things that are going on. But at the core of Hauntfest, like what's the things that like every year there will be music? Is is is the core like the haunted house part of it? Or how do you see the core of Hauntfest? Like it's not Hauntfest without building.

Why Athens Breeds Big Ideas

SPEAKER_02

I would definitely say music and vendors, 100%. Um I think that's the overarching idea, you know, is to be a festival, a haunted festival. And those two things are are very important to run a festival. Um Hauntfest always does like arts and crafts at our merch booth, so you can always come uh paint little uh plastic pumpkins for free to bring home if you just want a cheap little, you know, take-home gift. Um but we also have there's a lot of things that Hauntfest will always be hosting, like the trivia. Um every night we do trivia, uh costume contests because we want to encourage people to come in costume. Um I would hesitate to say that the haunted house is what we center everything around because some venues, there's not a place to do it. So far, we've been lucky and we've had one every year. Um, but it gets more difficult the more we're venue searching to find places that'll work for that. Fingers crossed that we will always have a haunt. But we will always have actors roaming the festival grounds while you're looking at vendors. So that's kind of, you know, it's haunted in itself.

SPEAKER_00

Very cool. So we always ask everyone who comes on the show to to share a book or or a movie if you want, um, that they loved, read recently, had it you know impact on life, any of the above.

Ghost Story Readings Around The Fire

SPEAKER_02

So in relation to Hauntfest, I'm actually just now finishing the uh series Tales from the Gas Station, which Abigail will also speak very highly of. Um but it's written by Jack Townsend, and he's actually vendor at Hauntfest. Um and he has been for the last few years, and he's really an awesome guy in person as well. So you should definitely come meet him. Um but that is a fantastic series. It's fun, um, it's just a very enjoyable, wacky read. Um so if you're into just, you know, uh letting your mind whirl around reading a book, that is uh a fantastic series. Um and then as far as like a book I read in college that really impacted me, I feel like, uh An Immense World. Um let me see who it's by Ed Young. But I had to read it for a psychology class. And it's basically about this it's like the about the psychology of animals, um, but their umwelt, which is like their the ways they experience the world. Um and I feel like that should be a required read for anyone ever in school, because it really opened my eyes to how um how much we don't understand about nature just walking around nature. Like we always think, oh well, there's a dog and they're experiencing the world just like I am. You know, a lot of people know that dogs um, you know, have a better sense of smell, but you don't really think about that being their eyes. You know. So it really helps you step into a new world of of animal senses.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell It's also impossible to like really understand what that means. Yeah. You know, it's not just a small nuance. They smell a little better. They probably experience it in a way that we can't even understand because we don't have that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's like uh catfish can taste with their skin.

SPEAKER_00

You can't imagine what it's not like.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it gives me the same feeling as when uh someone asks, you know, someone who's blind, well, do you just see black? And they're like, try to see out of your elbow. That's what I see. And it's it's like you don't you can't. You don't see anything.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

How would you even describe a sense that you don't have? Create a sense and then explain it to the world. You could only you could. That's crazy. Yeah, that's a very popular book, too. So that's definitely a good one for people to try. Um before we wrap up, I'm gonna let you tell everything again. But did you so you mentioned earlier you weren't big in horror movies. Did you like horror as fiction?

SPEAKER_02

Um yes. But I read okay. So as far as horror stories go, I read a lot more like short story horror. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Which is a great It's a great um format for horror, as short stories, I feel like.

The Core HauntFest Must Keep

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Um but I I love that aspect. And you know, of course there's murder mysteries and things like that, but um I definitely I prefer the short story because at least then if I want to set it down for a while, I can. You know, if I start freaking myself out in my dark bedroom at night. Um, you know, I can take a break and then I can read an another one, you know. Um but yeah, uh Stephen King short stories are typically my my go-to for horror. Um and my mom reads a ton of Stephen King. Our whole library at home is Stephen King.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So you really did grow up kind of immersed in it. If your dad was creating these haunted houses, your mom's reading Stephen King. It's the It's in your DNA.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Aside from the movie part, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So all right, let's sum up again. Where can people find information about Hauntfest? Uh, when is it? Everything.

Book Picks And Final Details

SPEAKER_02

Aaron Ross Powell All right. Hauntfest, April Ghouls, is April 11th and 12th, um, from 2 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Um, and I will say on Saturday we're having a dead man's party from 10 to midnight. So the market will be from 2 to 10, and then from 10 to midnight you can come for a dance party, and you can also get tickets just for that if you don't want to come to the market, the market part. But we would highly encourage you to come see everything. Come the whole thing. Come see it all. Yeah, if you get regular tickets to the event, you're that part's included. So uh definitely encourage that. Um so it's a Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, Georgia. Uh, and you can get tickets at hauntfest.net. We have uh socials as well if you want to see vendor highlights and entertainment highlights, other photos and uh things like that. Uh our Instagram is at hauntfest.athens. We have a Facebook hauntfest, comma, LLC, and then uh Facebook group just for Georgia called Hauntfest, Georgia. So if you just want to join the Hauntfest Georgia group, then you'll see only the Hauntfest Georgia stuff. Um but yeah, if you're a traveler, you should check out all of them. Follow you around. Yeah, we also have a TikTok at Hauntfest if you're interested in that. Um and then one thing I forgot to mention that's super important when I was going through all of the activities is Leonard Pickle, who is a he's huge in the haunt industry. I mean, he is the haunted house guy, and I mean that with my whole heart, um, is coming to do classes as well. So those will be posted very soon on our website for you to be able to sign up and and get tickets for those because they are at least the ones on Saturday are build classes. So you can actually build props with the haunted house man, Leonard Pickle. Very good. Um so you should definitely check that out in the next couple weeks, we'll have that all solidified.

SPEAKER_00

So Awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you so much for for coming in. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.