Witch hunt: Where to find Americas eeriest and most unusal Halloween fests
Screw Salem and skip Sleepy Hollow.If you want to scare up something spooky this month, slash the clichés.Start in the Keys.
Campy, quirky and regularly NC-17, the 10-day Fantasy Fest in Key West was invented in the 1970s to goose visitors to the gay-friendly town during its low season.Think of it like a sequin-spangled, adults-only mash-up of Halloween and prom, electing a king and queen with an annual costume theme.
This year, it’s “Musical Icons and Iconic Musicals.” There are now 60 different events around town, from a zombie bike ride to a headdress ball with a prize of five thousand bucks for the most impressive.Then again, you could head to St Louis.It’s the legacy of not one but five members of the Lemp clan, who all died by suicide.
It makes their mansion a major draw in October.Come audition for a revival of “Ghost Hunters” every Thursday this month, complete with ghost-tracking gadgets and a paranormalist — all for just $44 per person.If you’re keener to raise the spirits rather than hunt them down, head to Cassadaga, the tiny town just outside Orlando that’s like a psychic Disney World.
Its residents lay claim to extrasensory gifts, from healing to speaking to the spirits.Book a reading with one of them after you brave the Nightmare Hotel, which turns the local lodging house into a scare factory.
Come on Oct.17 and you can compete to be Scream King or Queen.
And do you dare sit on the Devil’s Chair in the cemetery here at midnight? It might earn you a chat with Old Nick himself, or you may vanish — as one man supposedly did.Otherwise, follow the flames of the Fifolet to Baton Rouge, La., which celebrates Halloween via the Cajun cryptid.Folklore holds that the eerie blue flame seduces those who see it into seeking out an elusive fortune buried in the bayou — only to lead them to a watery grave.
Join one of three events over the weekend, including: a $45-per-person pub crawl, a costumed krewe parade and the Fifolet Costum...