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September 26, 2005

No hauntings around here

In case you missed it in Saturday's paper -- sorry, I wasn't in to update on the weekend -- the owner of Castle McCulloch has decided not to have the big Halloween production that was announced earlier this summer. Justin had mentioned it on the blog a few months back.

My story about it apparently didn't make the web. So I'll put it down below.

JAMESTOWN — Castle McCulloch won’t be ghastly this fall.
Plans to turn the popular wedding venue into a haunted attraction during the last two weeks of October have been scaled back.
Owner Richard Harris said time constraints and marketing problems will prevent him from converting the castle into a full-fledged fright scene.
Instead, the last weekend in October, the castle will host a scary trail with acts by the Community Theatre of Greensboro during daylight hours. The program will be appropriate for children under 12, Harris said Friday.
“We’re not going to have the major haunted attraction,” Harris said. “I hate to disappoint my fans.”
Harris was working with Spookywoods in High Point and Woods of Terror in Greensboro to offer package deals that would have let people buy passes for two or three of the haunted attractions.
“He just didn’t give himself enough time to plan,” Spookywoods founder Tony Wohlgemuth said.
Woods of Terror and Spookywoods are still offering $34 “Haunted Hopper” passes that allow people to get into both haunted attractions. But he’s disappointed Castle McCulloch won’t be part of the deal, Wohlgemuth said.
Harris said he thought they could have pulled the show off but was worried about it not being the high-quality event he has envisioned for more than a decade.
“For about 10 years I had designed in my mind some unusual attractions, some things I don’t think you’d find anywhere else,” Harris said.
“It just wasn’t coming together.”
To put on the haunted castle, Harris had to clear out two of his busiest weekends for weddings.
With the cancellation of the Halloween event, he has been able to get one of those wedding weekends back, he said.
Harris hasn’t decided whether to try again next year. It makes financial sense to stick with weddings. But he’s always wanted to try a little haunting for Halloween.

Posted by Jonathan Jones at September 26, 2005 1:05 PM