Haunted houses are the staple, go-to event for Halloween and they come in all styles, including actual houses, trails, corn mazes, and hayrides. Dedicated workers and volunteers seem to do their best to put a fright into their guests. Halloween is also a busy night for the service industry, pouring drinks and taking food orders one of the most popular holidays for going out. So when do those same people get to experience other haunted attractions? Jennifer with RJ Events, putting on Haunted Woods: Deadly Games this year, has a solution: a Halloween industry week.
Jennifer said, “Being in the industry and working my favorite holiday, I don’t get to see what others are doing…In college, I waitressed so I know what it’s like not being able to go.”
While attractions operating during the week would still be open to the public at large, Jennifer said the idea would be to target servers, bartenders, haunted event staff, as well as “kids who play sports, coaches, teachers, anyone unable to attend for normal business hours,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer picked Tuesday, October 27, to invite those aforementioned to experience Haunted Woods: Deadly Games. She said she’s hoping other attractions will take the Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the week.
Jennifer’s own background in Halloween attractions began when she was “a new account executive for a conglomerate of radio stations.” She ended up having to cover a Halloween event because the crew had “too much witch’s brew and could no longer talk. The station manager told me to get on the air…I didn’t know how to use the equipment.” She said she had to call in to the radio station with her cell phone to report.
A man acting as a chainsaw-wielding man at the event, Jennifer said, surprised her, and while running in high heels she twisted her ankle and ended up on crutches for six weeks. While being interviewed on air about her experience Monday morning, an employee named Kevin from Comedy Central said, “It will be all right, pumpkin,” and the nickname stuck. Kevin said, ‘You got your big break.’” He said, “That was my start in the haunted world.
So far, operator of Creepy Hollow Woods in Pace, William Chestnut, said a scaled down version of their event may be possible to be a part of industry night.. He said his crew of volunteers had to relocate and completely rebuild after a fire already. Still, he said, “I wouldn’t see an issue but it depends on volunteers.”
Contact Jennifer at 333-8993 or email rjeventsllc@gmail.com. For any Halloween attractions interested in holding an industry night, contact the Santa Rosa Press Gazette at 623-2120, email alittle@srpressgazette.com, or leave a message on the Gazette’s Facebook page.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Halloween event invites others to partner for industry night