HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL IN WALPOLE

There’s always something new happening in Walpole, and this fall it’s the Haunted Walpole Weekend.  Scheduled for the weekend just prior to Halloween, the series of events is being orchestrated by a collaboration of The Walpole Players and The Walpole Village School.

For the past two years, the Players have presented a Haunted Corn Maze with assistance from the Great Falls Co-Op and various student organizations.  This year, the maze will open in its new location in the cornfield behind the Walpole Scoop Shop.  The change in venue is expected to make attendees even happier with its close proximity to the best pizza and most delicious ice cream in the area.  (After all, there’s nothing like a good gut-wrenchingly terrifying scare to give you an appetite.)  The maze will return to a 3-week schedule, but the first weekend will feature only 2 shows: the Saturday night horror-fest and the Sunday afternoon children’s maze.  The final two weekends will encompass all 4 shows each (Friday & Saturday nights, and Saturday & Sunday afternoons).

Last year, WalpoleVillageSchool hosted its first-ever Spooktacula, featuring a plethora of children’s activities in the afternoon, and a haunted house and adult-themed events in the evening.  It was so successful that event organizers Erinn Richardson and Heidi Gascoyne planned to reprise their efforts again this year. In conversation with Sarah Manning and Barbara Kasper, Haunted Corn Maze organizers, all parties realized the two separate events could be reorganized into a major happening over the entire weekend (loosely modeling the triennial Old Home Days weekend).  The maze will have been up and running for the previous 2 weekends, but the last weekend is traditionally the most crowded and the large influx of visitors will have many more scary (and not-so-scary) activities from which to choose.

As currently planned, activities for the weekend will begin on Friday, October 25, with the third and final Friday night Haunted Corn Maze.  Over the following 2 days, the schedule includes a cemetery tour, more corn maze activities, Great Falls Co-op harvest festival, and a hayride along a route featuring dozens of scarecrows decorated for competition.  There will also be face-painting, cookie-decorating and crafting, a haunted house, dance and pumpkin auction at the WVS, and continuously-running horror films at a venue yet to be determined.  Tickets purchased to one event will offer discounts for other events, and many activities will be offered free of charge.  This promises to be an excitement-packed weekend for the Halloween-minded, so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for further information as October draws nearer.

Barbara Kasper