Spookfest Brings Scares and Smiles to Local Community

Saturday, October 22nd the Hanwell community held a Spookfest and over 300 people attended. The main attraction of the event was the Spookwalk.  

The Spookwalk ran nearly a kilometer along the accessibility trail and went from five pm to nine pm while progressively getting spookier over the course of the night. The walk featured characters like Davey Jones and Samara from The Ring as well as other Halloween icons like the wicked witches and rabid werewolves. 

Taylor Carr went through the walk at its spookiest and was quite impressed with the scares. 

“For me, the scariest part was definitely the part with the doctor, that part like gave me chills. I was like totally freaked out,” said Carr.   

There were other activities held at the event. Starting at five Halloween-themed games were held inside the community center. At the same time outside the Upper Kingsclear Fire Department served hotdogs and water. 

At six 45 the contests began, first with the judging of pumpkin carvings. They were split into age groups of two to four, five to eight, nine to 14, and 15 and up. Following that was the costume contest which was judged using the same age groups. 

The Hanwell Witch began reading The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt around a fire at seven o’clock. The person under the costume was award-winning writer Jennifer Houle. Her work The Back Channels won The Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick’s Alfred G. Bailey Prize for best poetry manuscript. She grew up in Shediac New Brunswick but now lives in the Hanwell community. 

To close out the night DJ Sugar played a set inside the community center. The local DJ played Thriller and Monster Mash among other Halloween classics that had many dancing along. 

The event was able to be so successful in large part to the many volunteers and after nearly two years of dealing with the pandemic, it’s exactly what the community needed. Many are looking to experience the same scares and smiles next year.