[BCMA] Does your museum do a Halloween Event

Tue Nov 19 11:18:35 PST 2013

Hello Lee, apologies for how long this is, but we are serious about our
Halloween event!

1)       At Huble Homestead Historic Site in Prince George we have hosted a
Halloween event each year for the past seven years. The event is
staff-driven, but we rely heavily on volunteers for the actual event
execution. We do not partner with a school but we do know a lot of people in
a local community theatre group, so we get a many of them as actors for the
haunted house. We rely on other volunteers to sell tickets, make drinks,
help with crafts, etc - we need about 40 volunteers to execute the event. We
do the set up with mainly staff and a few volunteers; the event is very
labour intensive and requires long hours by all of our staff. The set up
takes a week or so and involves a lot of different kinds of work, from
haunted house props and set up to lighting to cooking and baking to crafts.
We really like to have help cleaning up but people aren't always too keen on
cleaning up in the cold!

2)       The main attraction at Huble Homestead is the Huble house, built in
1912. Each year we turn it into a house of horrors for the event. This is
the part of the event that we want to be actually scary (there are many
family events around Prince George, but not much for people who like a
little scare), so we don't want it to be hokey. Each year the house has a
theme - we've done cannibals, urban legends, fairy tales gone wrong, Sweeney
Todd, haunted museum, etc - and we are sticklers for logic so we always
create a general narrative to explain why you might be getting a tour
through this house (showing you a room for rent, you are applying for a
live-in nanny position). We have two guides that give guided tours because
the house often has effects that we don't want visitors to just stand and
watch forever, plus the house is not very spacious, so we try to keep groups
to 10 or so. The house is extremely popular at the event but it does require
a lot of planning and set up, depending on the theme and effects we are
planning. 

3)       Our site is admission by donation, but we advertise family
admission as $10 because that's the suggested family donation. The admission
covers all the activities except for the house of horrors, which is an
additional $3 per person. We also sell food items in the General Store.

4)       We target families. The event has lots to do for everyone, and then
we also advertise that "the brave at heart can tour the House of Horrors".
Part of the reason for targeting families is that families are already our
main visitor group, and we are located 40km north of the city so we are
actually targeting drivers! For this event we do also get youth groups,
families with older children, and even just some groups of adults. When it
comes to the house we suggest ages 12+ but we don't stop anyone from taking
younger kids in. When parents ask me I do tell them if there's a lot of gore
or especially scary things that year, but they know their children best. If
they decide they don't want to go in while they are waiting in line we give
them a refund, but we have found that most parents push their kids into
going through because the parents want to see it. We have not had any
complaints, but there are always a few kids crying on the way out of the
house!

5)       We keep the site family friendly (no gore or too much scary stuff)
except for the house. The gore factor depends on the theme - cannibals was
obviously pretty gory, but others are less so. Usually the way it works is
you tour through the house to the upstairs meeting people in various rooms,
and when you reach the last room things start getting a bit hairy and as you
are leaving the house you see the scary/gory stuff. We don't want tons of
really unnecessary gore because fake blood is a pain to clean up! We do try
to have other scary things happening, like things moving on their own or you
just hear screaming in the distance.

6)       Attendance depends on weather; our site is mainly outdoors and the
event takes place in the evening so it's usually pretty cold. This year we
had a great turn out even though it rained a bit (575), but last year it was
snowing pretty heavily so the visitors were either hardcore Huble fans or
hardcore Halloween lovers (250). Last year was our lowest, but we've had as
high as 650. Generally we expect around 400 people, which is a good event
for our attraction, and great considering it's usually dark and cold. The
haunted house sees fewer people, but at least half go through.

7)       We host an average of 9 special events throughout our season; at
our historic site there is not a lot of freedom to substantially change
exhibits each year, so we host events to make sure there is always something
new to do. Some of our events are directly related to the history of the
site (Sheep & Wool Fair, Homestead Days, Dominion Day), but others are not
(Dog Expo, Kids' Carnival, Halloween Spooktacular). Our mission is to
preserve and share the history of the Huble Homestead and the surrounding
region and part of how we do that is getting people to the site. The thing
about events that aren't very historical is that they are the ones people
actually come to; we try to make sure we balance events between historical
information and things that are attractive to the modern visitor. Each event
does incorporate a pioneer aspect or site tours except for Halloween, and
our board understands that part of keeping our history alive is getting
people involved and interested in the site. I am always shocked at how many
people visit our site for the first time on Halloween (in the dark and
cold!). These people are the ones that say, "I really want to come back in
the summer now!" Besides that, the Halloween event is extremely popular
around town even in those years that attendance is low - people talk about
the event, call and ask about it, and just generally really like that we
have it. Last year when it snowed all day and night I though for sure no one
would come, and while attendance was low I was really surprised and please
at how many people still braved the drive and the positive comments from
those people truly made the whole thing worth it. Until it becomes too
onerous for staff or too expensive to justify it, I would argue that the
community goodwill is worth the work and expense.

8)       Usually our event runs from 5:00-9:00pm. This year we changed it to
run from 3:00-8:00, partly to target younger families and partly so we could
leave there before 11:30. This year it worked out great - most of the other
family Halloween activities end at 3:00, so we are the later event and it
was over the supper hour so people were buying a lot more food. The only
extra trouble was that we had to black out the house windows to make it dark
enough for tours in the afternoon, but it actually allowed us to test the
house lighting during the day instead of having to stay late Thursday or
Friday. We have crafts and pumpkin carving in our entrance barn (carving by
donation and one per family - this is expensive but we try to get the
pumpkins donated by a local business). We also started a costume contest
last year (5 & Under, 6-10, 11& Up). In the other barn we have hourly magic
shows by a local magician, which is extremely popular. One of the cabins has
a fortune teller for the kids, we make the garden into a grave yard, and we
have a long shed in which we use 2x2s and lumber wrap to make a maze with
all the hokey Halloween props and noisy things. The General Store sells hot
dogs and one other warm dish (usually chili), along with caramel apples,
puffed wheat and rice krispie squares, some candy, and lots of hot drinks.
We also have the fire pit going so visitors can buy and roast s'mores or
marshmallows, trick or treating in all the different locations, plus a few
volunteers that just run around and scare people (sensitive to the young
kids though!).

A few other points about our event: we always try to host it the Saturday
before Halloween (but not on Halloween itself or on the 30th). 9-10 days
before Halloween works but longer is too soon for people. Our site is large,
outdoors, and does not have electricity so a lot of our set up and work
revolves around power and lighting, which I assume will not be as big of an
issue at your museum (but appropriate lighting in the haunted house is very
important - not too dark but selectively lit effects and enough lighting for
safety on the stairs). The lighting issue is also part of what makes this
quite an expensive event; we have to rent or borrow extra generators and no
matter how many lights we have we never have enough, plus they always need
batteries and sometimes need to be replaced totally. The most expensive
parts for us are the magic shows, the pumpkins, and advertising. Usually for
the house we do a lot of crafting and creating (depending on the theme), and
the internet is really great for teaching you how to do cool things for
cheap. Usually the event about breaks even (not including staff time), but
since we don't consider it a fundraiser we will continue to host it as part
of our event programming until the costs rise enough to make it not
feasible.

I imagine your museum is more of a typical indoor space than ours is, so
maybe what we do is not really suited to your organization, but I will say
that though the event is a ton of work and I am actually not even a
Halloween person, it is really fun and the community really does enjoy it.
If you have any questions I am happy to answer them, and if you decide to go
ahead I hope you have a lot of fun with it!

Krystal Leason

Operations Manager

Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society

#202-1685 3rd Avenue

Prince George, BC  V2L 3G5

Phone: (250) 564-7033

Fax: (250) 564-7040

Huble Homestead will re-open on May 17, 2014. Visit all winter for your
favourite non-motorized winter activities, such as snowshoeing,
cross-country skiing, and photography.
<http://www.hublehomestead.ca/centennial.html> www.hublehomestead.ca

  _____  

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On
Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 1:45 PM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Does your museum do a Halloween Event

Hello

Please find below my responses to the Halloween questionnaire from Spoke
Region Museum & Visitor Centre. Let me know if you would like more
information.

1.       Do you do special Halloween programming?

We do offer Halloween programming here at the Canmore Museum & Geoscience
Centre.  We have events for most holidays at the NWMP Barracks, Main Street.
We decorate the Barracks, play a spooky soundtrack, have a witch telling
stories and offer Halloween crafts.

2.       Does it involve turning any of your space into a haunted house?

We do not transform the Barracks in to a haunted house per say.  A Haunted
House is often put elsewhere in town. We decorate the Barracks for Halloween
with cobwebs, banners, pumpkins etc.

3.       Do you charge for the event?

The event is free, however, we do welcome donations.

4.       What age group do you target?

We target the under 12 age group.

5.       How do you balance the gore factor?

There isn't much 'gore' involved. We aim for the event to be family friendly
and advertise it as such.  The witch telling stories is a friendly witch who
aims to entertain rather than scare.

6.       How many people do you put through the event?

This year we had 51 visitors.  We try to run the event following the annual
Halloween parade in Canmore.  That way people are already dressed up and do
not need to come out twice in one weekend.

7.       How do you justify it as part of your mission?

We aim to be part of the community and we are a community Museum.  This
event is a community event.  It is also beneficial as it encourages people
to come along to the NWMP Barracks who would not typically visit expanding
our visitor pool.

8.       What types of activities do you have?

We run two Halloween crafts (this year ghost windsocks and clip on bats), a
witch reading stories and making witches brew, tours of the house and trick
or treating is encouraged!

9.       Did you used to do an event, but not anymore? Why?

In past years the event attracted less visitors as it was held the day after
the Halloween parade.  My advice would be to check what else is going on in
your area- and perhaps try a partnership!

If you need any information, or examples of the crafts we run, please let me
know.

Best wishes

Victoria Ryves

Community Enrichment and Volunteer Coordinator

Canmore Museum & Geoscience Centre

902B 7th Avenue

Canmore, Alberta    

T1W 3K1

p.  <tel:403.678.2462> 403.678.2462

f.  <tel:403.678.2216> 403.678.2216

Twitter: @CanmoreMuseum

Facebook: /CanmoreMuseum

www.cmags.org <http://www.cmags.org/> 

From: Debbie Carrico [mailto:curator at cmags.org] 
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 6:32 PM
To: Debbie Carrico
Subject: Fwd: [BCMA] Does your museum do a Halloween Event

Debbie Carrico
Museum Director
Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre
902B 7th Avenue
Canmore, Alberta
T1W 3K1
(403) 678-2462

-------- Original Message -------- 

Subject: 

[BCMA] Does your museum do a Halloween Event

Date: 

Thu, 7 Nov 2013 15:19:40 -0800

From: 

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To: 

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Hi,

We are considering taking on the local safe Halloween activity at our museum
next year. I am interested in learning about what other museums do around
Halloween.