April 30, 2025

NEWS: East Coast Haunters Convention Draws MASSIVE Crowds

Show Notes
Transcript

East Coast Haunters Convention delighted attendees with haunt tours, programming, vendors, and more; Comcast's Stock Dips Despite EPIC Universe Opening; Wicked New England comes to Salem this Saturday; Creep It Real OC Tickets; The VHS Society presents "Mother of Evil" on May 16th; Street Food Cinema's "Boo-ze, Bites & Frights: Half-O-Ween;" Read the stories here.

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Coming up your weekly roundup of news from around the

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haunt industry. Welcome to the show. I'm Philip on the

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HN Show. We bring you the haunt news, information, and

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education you need to prepare for Halloween. On Tuesdays, we

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bring you a roundup of news from haunts worldwide. Read

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more about these stories and so much more in our

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free weekly newsletter. Subscribe at the link in the show notes,

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and as always for the news roundup, I'm passing it

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off to Darryl.

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The second annual East Coast Haunters Convention took place this

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past weekend at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

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This year's event saw an expanded footprint, filling up the

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entire halay and adding a second haul for the Christmas

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Show co located event. Attendance also increased this year, with

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Saturday morning attendees arriving over an hour early to secure

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their spot in line, which wrapped all the way around

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the building. The Haunt tours were outstanding and all featured

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haunts with full actors and effects, an enormous feat for

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off season events. Attendees enjoyed freight Factory and Field of Screams.

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Hershey Park announced a brand new Haunt coming to this

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year's event and gave all the tour attendees a souvenir

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that ties to the new Haunt theme. Eastern State Penitentiary

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offered a full Haunt of lights on tour of the

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machine shop and then allowed attendees to tour backstage areas

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and ask questions of the team. Brighton Asylum showcased all

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three of its award winning haunts. All of the links

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in our show notes to see our full walkthroughs. The

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exhibitor floor featured select vendors from trans World's Halloween and

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Attraction Show, with many of them shifting to more cash

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and carry options for this regional event. Little Spider Creations

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won the Best Booth award for their Evil Dead themed

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cabins surrounded with pumpkins and tombstones for sale. Iluma Bought

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won the Best New Product award for their AI projection mapping.

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The pit area saw haunts from all over represented, many

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of which brought actors to engage with attendees. Lake Hickory Haunts,

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which is a six and a half hour drive away,

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and Woods of Terror also had a strong presence at

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the show. The slate was full of programming for the

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entire weekend, from Costume Contest to Haunt Olympics. The top

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three winners of the Haunt Olympics were Halloween Nights at

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Eastern State Penitentiary, Frightmare Farms, Haunted Screen Park, and Lincoln

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Mail Haunted House. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend full

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of haunts, networking, education, and spooky fun. Stay tuned to

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the Haunted Attraction Network for more videos of the frightful festivities.

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Wicked New England's inaugural Halfway to Halloween Festival is coming

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to Salem's historic Old Town Hall in Salem, Massachusetts, Saturday,

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May third, from eleven am to seven pm. The Hall

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will be failed with a curated vendor market featuring spooky, scary,

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macobb and Halloween themed merchandise for all to enjoy. From

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apparel to candles, jewelry decorations, artwork, pet accessories, bath goods,

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apothecary items and more. Every Halloween loving guest is sure

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to find something to take home. Photo ops will be

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presented by Barrett's Haunted Mansion in Abington, Massachusetts and Spooky

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World from Lichfield, New Hampshire, with monsters ready to pose

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and perhaps spook guests. Panel presentations will take place throughout

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the day on the Old Town Hall stage, sharing insight

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and a peak behind the curtain of New England, Haunts

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and other Helloween offering scheduled to take part, or which

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city walking Tours, Halloween New England and the Horror Squad

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podcast and more. Tickets are on sale now for fifteen

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dollars each. Creepit reel Oc tickets are now on sale

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for their sixth annual Creepit reel Oc, taking place September

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twelfth through fourteenth at the Heritage Museum of Orange County

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in Santa Ana, California. This year's Creepit real Oc is

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blending haunted beach vibes with sunset chills and skeleton thrills.

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The three days of spooky fun will feature over one

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hundred and thirty Halloween vendors, photo ops, live music, food

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and drinks, roaming monsters, and more. Whether you're a Halloween fanatic,

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a costume connoisseur, or just here for the booze, this

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is your end of summer flight Fest. Tickets start at

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fifteen dollars for single day admission, forty five dollars for

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a creep In Weekend pass and seventy five dollars for

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an all festival weekend past admission to both creep It

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reel Oc and creep It Real Festive. Children under ten

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are free. This May, the VHS Society is honoring all mothers,

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including Possessed one join them on Friday, May sixteenth for

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Mother of Evil, a VHS Evil Dead Movie Night. The

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event will take over the Attic at Sassafras Saloon, where

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there will be a screening of Evil Dead Rise. There

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will be blood Guts of photo op vendors, short horror films,

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and of course motherly love. Costumes are encouraged, especially those

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that reference any of the Evil Dead movies, Dead Heights

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or just a plane possessed by unspeakable evil look. Tickets

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are on sale now for seventeen eighty five each. Guests

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must be twenty one or over to attend. There is

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a two drink minimum for both alcoholic or non alcoholic beverages.

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Booze Bites and Frights Street Food Cinema is celebrating halfway

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to Halloween with a two day horror screening event Booze

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Bites and Frights Half Oween, taking place at the Heritage

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Square Museum in Los Angeles, California. The Craft will screen

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on Friday, May second, and Final Destination will screen on

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Saturday May third. Relive fan favorite horror films, satisfy your

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hunger at LA's Best food trucks, sip on themed cocktails,

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and play to win with creepy carnival games. Costumes are encouraged,

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so be ready to strike a spooky pose at creepy

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photo ops and be prepared to encounter some roaming gules.

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Guided tours will take you through the dimly lit corridors,

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creaking staircases, and fascinating history of the ethereally captivating Victoria Mansions.

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Tickets are on sale now starting at thirty dollars plus

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fees for advanced tickets at the door, tickets will be

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forty two. Arizona Haunters will present a corpsing rotted up

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make and Take class and heat Sink's Labs and Mesa

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Arizona on Saturday, May seventeenth. Join the AZ Haunters Awards

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winners Sonia Johnson of Smuggler's Cove and Dustin Burgon of

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Burgin's Burial Ground, along with Just Jim Az to see

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how to make your Bones a gruesome corpse. Three different

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methods will be demonstrated during the workshop. This is a

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byob event. Bring your own bones, bring your own skeleton,

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prop and corpse it together with the class. Extra skeletons

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will be available for purchase cash only register today. Tickets

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are fifteen dollars per person. Some outcoming events from April

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through June twenty twenty five include Wicked New England and Salem,

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Massachusetts on May third, halfway to Halloween Expo in ann Arbor,

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Michigan on May tenth, Shutter Con in east Ridge, Tennessee

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from May tenth and eleventh, scare Con in Birmingham, England,

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May twentieth and twenty first, Monster Palooza and Pasadena, California,

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May thirty first and June first, and the Midwest Haunters

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Convention in Rosemont, Illinois, June sixth through eight.

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And that's all for the news this week. Today's episode

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was produced by me Philip Hernandez, with reporting by Darryl Plunky,

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post production by David Swope. This Haunt News Update is

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a production of the Haunted Attraction Network, and you can

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sign up to our weekly newsletter at Hantattrationnetwork dot com

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Support for this episode comes from Gantum lighting and controls.

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Until next time, Haunters stay scary. This is a Haunted

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Attraction Network production

NEWS: East Coast Haunters Convention Draws MASSIVE Crowds

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