Charlotte Street Arts Centre’s Haunted Tour
A thick fog emerged from the basement of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre. Amidst the darkness lurks clowns, witches, and vengeful pigs. Those brave enough to enter the tour emerged screaming.
The Charlotte Street Arts Centre partnered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (APEGNB) for their annual Haunted Tour from October 25th to 28th.
“The Fredericton branch [of APEGNB] is the social portion of the engineering society,” said Bill Lamey, Chair of the event.
Planning begins in June with meetings and starts to pick up closer to October. Lamey says volunteers are there almost every night the few weeks leading up to the event to assemble the tour.
The tour is made up of 17 unique sections, each designed and built by an engineering group. Some sections feature strobe lights and moving Halloween decorations while others are splattered with blood and fake limbs.
Many of the materials are reused and re-purposed over the years. Lamey says it can be considered a “green” event because so many of the materials, such as waveform generators, are intercepted on their way to the junkyard.
“Sometimes even if they don’t work we’ll take them,” said Lamey, but he makes sure they don’t cut corners on certain things like light bulbs.
One memorable piece has been used in the Haunted Tour since it was made in 2008. A large clown face was painted by an engineer’s mother. After she died, they continued to use the prop in the tour both because of the quality of the work and memories it preserved.
“That employee every once in a while will see that clown face and it makes them happy that we’re re-purposing it,” he said.
Proceeds from the event go directly to the Charlotte Street Arts Centre. Some money goes to Theatre UNB and Engineers Without Borders for their help with the tour. The rest goes towards funding the Centre’s ArtReach programs where they make art programs available to under-served and marginalized communities.
Courtney Steeves, the Executive Director of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre says the Haunted Tour is their longest running event. She says some of the creators of the Arts Centre like Charlotte Glencross, who the main gallery is named after, participated in developing the original Haunted Tour.
“It’s nice to be able to keep the tradition going,” said Steeves.
People waiting in line for the tour were able to participate in a silent disco in the Centre’s atrium. The room was decked out with Halloween decorations and had a projector screen on one end featuring black and white horror films. Headphones playing music were available for people to pass the time.
As these two opposing worlds of the technical and the artistic come together, a spectacular event emerges. With the engineering expertise of the APEGNB volunteers and the acting skills of Theatre UNB, the Charlotte Street Arts Centre had one frightfully fun event.
