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HAuNTcon 2009
Join Haunters from across the country for the Sixth Annual Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention, at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center, April 30-May 4, 2009 with a pre-show tour April 29-30. Open to the general public, HAuNTcon is a convention and expo that packs in everything a Haunter could possibly want or need to make the next Halloween season the best it can be!
Designed by Haunters, for Haunters of every age and level of experience, HAuNTcon brings people together who love Haunted Houses and Halloween for a fun filled three days and nights of Haunter Education, Tours of Local Haunted Houses, jam packed Tradeshow Floor, Hearse Show and an incredible Costume Ball!
The HAuNTcon Haunt Tours starts on Wednesday April 29 with a pre-show tour. The over-night bus trip includes lights on and lights off tours of the Hartford Jaycees Haunted House, Terror on Rural Street Crypt of Terror, Bad Boy's Scenic Design's Terror on the Fox, Shawano Manor and Dominion of Terror.
The Thursday Night Kick-off Tour and Social on April 30 includes dinner and a tour of the Realm of Terror owned by Tom Kristof. The Friday Night Haunt Tour, May 1 is the three haunt multi-element event Wisconsin Fear Grounds, owned by Tim and Ann Marie Gavinski, and features Morgan Manor, Freaky's Fun House and the brand new Unstable.
A key component of HAuNTcon is education! Over 50 hours of seminars, workshops and Demonstrations are included in the price of admission. Education id the key to help attendees learn tips and tricks on how-to build props and sets; how to make their lives easier and their attractions more successful.
The huge Tradeshow floor, Friday May 1 through May 3, is filled with the latest in fright services and equipment for the professional Haunted House owner and Halloween enthusiast alike. From horror makeup and highly detailed masks to static props and large animatronic creatures, everything a Haunter needs will be for sale and many at wholesale prices.
A Hearse and Parade Car Rally is planned for Sunday May 3, as the hotel parking lot fills with a collection of creepy tricked out vehicles and funeral cars.
Saturday night May 2, is the massive Haunted Attraction Magazine Costume Ball, where Haunters from across the country show-off their most creative costumes at a rocking party that celebrates the joy of getting into character for fun rather than for work. It is Halloween in May!
NEW for HAuNTcon 2009 is the Sunday Night Haunt Tour and social on May 3 of Monster Mayhem owned by Jeff Lister. The price for this tour includes a light dinner and networking social.
"HAuNTcon is an opportunity for Haunters to network, share tips and stories, get fresh ideas, learn new ways of doing things and check out the latest in Haunting props," explains Leonard Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine and HAuNTcon event coordinator. "It is the best money you can spend on your Haunted Event."
Attendee and Exhibitor Registrations are available at www.hauntcon.com, as is a schedule of events for the weekend. Discount hotel rates for the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center are also available on the convention website.
If you own a Haunted House or would like to find out how to get started in the Haunt business, then HAuNTcon is a "not to be missed" convention! Even if you just like Haunted Houses and Halloween, then you are in for a rare inside look at how major Haunted Attractions across the country scare millions of people each October.
Join Haunters from across the country for the Sixth Annual Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention, at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center, April 30-May 4, 2009 with a pre-show tour April 29-30. Open to the general public, HAuNTcon is a convention and expo that packs in everything a Haunter could possibly want or need to make the next Halloween season the best it can be!
Designed by Haunters, for Haunters of every age and level of experience, HAuNTcon brings people together who love Haunted Houses and Halloween for a fun filled three days and nights of Haunter Education, Tours of Local Haunted Houses, jam packed Tradeshow Floor, Hearse Show and an incredible Costume Ball!
The HAuNTcon Haunt Tours starts on Wednesday April 29 with a pre-show tour. The over-night bus trip includes lights on and lights off tours of the Hartford Jaycees Haunted House, Terror on Rural Street Crypt of Terror, Bad Boy's Scenic Design's Terror on the Fox, Shawano Manor and Dominion of Terror.
The Thursday Night Kick-off Tour and Social on April 30 includes dinner and a tour of the Realm of Terror owned by Tom Kristof. The Friday Night Haunt Tour, May 1 is the three haunt multi-element event Wisconsin Fear Grounds, owned by Tim and Ann Marie Gavinski, and features Morgan Manor, Freaky's Fun House and the brand new Unstable.
A key component of HAuNTcon is education! Over 50 hours of seminars, workshops and Demonstrations are included in the price of admission. Education id the key to help attendees learn tips and tricks on how-to build props and sets; how to make their lives easier and their attractions more successful.
The huge Tradeshow floor, Friday May 1 through May 3, is filled with the latest in fright services and equipment for the professional Haunted House owner and Halloween enthusiast alike. From horror makeup and highly detailed masks to static props and large animatronic creatures, everything a Haunter needs will be for sale and many at wholesale prices.
A Hearse and Parade Car Rally is planned for Sunday May 3, as the hotel parking lot fills with a collection of creepy tricked out vehicles and funeral cars.
Saturday night May 2, is the massive Haunted Attraction Magazine Costume Ball, where Haunters from across the country show-off their most creative costumes at a rocking party that celebrates the joy of getting into character for fun rather than for work. It is Halloween in May!
NEW for HAuNTcon 2009 is the Sunday Night Haunt Tour and social on May 3 of Monster Mayhem owned by Jeff Lister. The price for this tour includes a light dinner and networking social.
"HAuNTcon is an opportunity for Haunters to network, share tips and stories, get fresh ideas, learn new ways of doing things and check out the latest in Haunting props," explains Leonard Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine and HAuNTcon event coordinator. "It is the best money you can spend on your Haunted Event."
Attendee and Exhibitor Registrations are available at www.hauntcon.com, as is a schedule of events for the weekend. Discount hotel rates for the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel and Convention Center are also available on the convention website.
If you own a Haunted House or would like to find out how to get started in the Haunt business, then HAuNTcon is a "not to be missed" convention! Even if you just like Haunted Houses and Halloween, then you are in for a rare inside look at how major Haunted Attractions across the country scare millions of people each October.
And why should you join? Watch the video below. We are members!
This story comes from Leona. Remember, if you like it - vote in the comments! We'll total the votes at the end of the contest and whoever has the most votes wins a DVD Package!
This is the real deal. About 14 years ago I lived in Nashville and worked in Gallatin, TN. My company moved into an old brick building that had at one time been a head trauma rehab hospital. It was a pleasant old building, and when my company leased it we were all excited. I got the third floor for my department, and didn't mind because it was roomy with a private bathroom.
My boss liked to go all out for special days and decorate for any reason at all. When October rolled around, we had an evening open house planned. It was the last week in October, I worked late, everyone else was gone home for dinner before the open house. I used the restroom, and while I was in there heard a knock on the bathroom door. I said, "Just a minute." Didn't think a thing about it. Went to the sink to wash up, and noticed a light flickering in the shower, showing through the shower's frosted glass walls/door. I thought the boss had put a pumpkin in there with a candle for the open house. Whatever.
Came out of the restroom, no one in the building. Who knocked? Went back and opened the shower stall door, no candle, no jackolantern.
Yet I had def seen a yellow light flickering in there.
I mentioned this the next week to a gal who worked on the third floor with me. She had an office across the hall. Her face went funny, and she told me that one night she had been working late, alone in the building, and was balancing her checkbook register. She went to the restroom, came back to her desk, and across her register someone has written a big line of zeroes. She assured me it was 9:00 p.m. and no one but her was still at work.
We were kind of nervously laughing about this stuff to the receptionist, who told us that the fire alarm in our building tended to go off at 2:00 a.m., bringing our boss out to Gallatin from Nashville. About a 40 minute drive each way. The firemen could never find anything wrong in the house, but they told her the place had a local reputation as haunted.
I resigned shortly after that (for other reasons), but would never work in that building again!
This is the real deal. About 14 years ago I lived in Nashville and worked in Gallatin, TN. My company moved into an old brick building that had at one time been a head trauma rehab hospital. It was a pleasant old building, and when my company leased it we were all excited. I got the third floor for my department, and didn't mind because it was roomy with a private bathroom.
My boss liked to go all out for special days and decorate for any reason at all. When October rolled around, we had an evening open house planned. It was the last week in October, I worked late, everyone else was gone home for dinner before the open house. I used the restroom, and while I was in there heard a knock on the bathroom door. I said, "Just a minute." Didn't think a thing about it. Went to the sink to wash up, and noticed a light flickering in the shower, showing through the shower's frosted glass walls/door. I thought the boss had put a pumpkin in there with a candle for the open house. Whatever.
Came out of the restroom, no one in the building. Who knocked? Went back and opened the shower stall door, no candle, no jackolantern.
Yet I had def seen a yellow light flickering in there.
I mentioned this the next week to a gal who worked on the third floor with me. She had an office across the hall. Her face went funny, and she told me that one night she had been working late, alone in the building, and was balancing her checkbook register. She went to the restroom, came back to her desk, and across her register someone has written a big line of zeroes. She assured me it was 9:00 p.m. and no one but her was still at work.
We were kind of nervously laughing about this stuff to the receptionist, who told us that the fire alarm in our building tended to go off at 2:00 a.m., bringing our boss out to Gallatin from Nashville. About a 40 minute drive each way. The firemen could never find anything wrong in the house, but they told her the place had a local reputation as haunted.
I resigned shortly after that (for other reasons), but would never work in that building again!
The story submitted by Chris stirred some long forgotten memories from my childhood. This is a true story (but not an entry in our scary story contest):
When I was about 12 years old we moved from our mobile home into a brand new house my parents had custom built.
My younger brother and I shared a bedroom for the first couple years. We had a set of bunk beds. Our bedroom was right across the hallway from the bathroom.
Not too long after we moved in weird things began happening. We had a door in our basement that opened into the garage. This was usually the way everyone came into our house - they'd walk through the garage, and into the basement.
Well there would be many times when you'd hear the door open and close, but no matter how long you waited no one would come upstairs. A thorough search of the basement would turn up nothing. It was as if someone came in but never came upstairs. There was never a second sound of the door opening, as if someone was leaving, there was always only the one.
We also had a pair of birds in the basement who would begin to sing when someone came near, and many times after we'd hear the door the birds would begin to chirp like they saw someone yet no one would ever be there. There was even a couple times when you could hear muffled voices talking to the birds but you could never make out what they were saying, and when you'd go into the basement no one would be there.
Then, other things started to happen. I remember my brother telling me that he woke up one night and looked towards the bathroom and he saw someone standing in the bathroom door looking at him. I told him it must have been a dream, but a couple days later he told me it happened again. So I told him that the next time he saw it, to wake me up.
Well a few nights later he did and when I looked towards the bathroom I saw him too - a tall figure wearing an overcoat and hat. He was big - filling almost the entire doorway, yet somehow there wasn't any fear. It was just as if someone was watching over us, protecting us. And he was staring right at us, not moving and not saying anything.
There were other things too. I remember when I was a little older, I moved into a basement bedroom and one night I was woken up by this incredibly shrill noise - either howling or screaming and it was coming from the utility room in the basement. I was terrified! It only lasted a couple minutes then stopped. I only heard it the one time and never again. The weird thing is the utility room was right below my parents bedroom yet they say they never heard anything.
A few years later, after we had moved out my brother asked me if I remembered any of the stuff that went on in that house. I told him I had forgotten until that very moment, so we discussed it for a while and came to the conclusion that the house was haunted by some evil spirits, yet the figure in the bathroom was our recently deceased grandfather and he was there to watch over us and protect us.
He then went on to tell me that, after I moved out weird things began happening again. This was after we'd moved a thousand miles away to a new town and new house.
He was in the basement of the "new" house and he was about 17. He remembers similar things happening yet again.
In the basement of this house, the bathroom was adjoining one bedroom so that you could walk right into the bathroom from the bedroom. There were also other similarities. You see, in this new house, we had a basement door that opened into the back yard, and the birds were again in the basement.
He said that on a few occasions he'd look over towards the bathroom and see "grandpa" standing there, again watching over him.
He also told me that he heard a shrill howl or scream coming from the laundry room in this house that lasted for about 2 minutes one night and it scared him pretty badly.
He told me that there were times when he heard the basement door open and close and someone talking to the birds but no one was there again.
And when he moved out, my youngest brother moved downstairs and also had some weird things happen to him. I remember him telling me about the figure in the bathroom door, and someone talking to the birds when no one was there but all of a sudden it stopped and never started again.
I'd say that if these were "hauntings" then we experienced them for about 20 years as a family, but not sure why they would have stopped all of a sudden. And even more confusing is how the "ghosts" or whatever you want to call them followed us such a distance.
When I was about 12 years old we moved from our mobile home into a brand new house my parents had custom built.
My younger brother and I shared a bedroom for the first couple years. We had a set of bunk beds. Our bedroom was right across the hallway from the bathroom.
Not too long after we moved in weird things began happening. We had a door in our basement that opened into the garage. This was usually the way everyone came into our house - they'd walk through the garage, and into the basement.
Well there would be many times when you'd hear the door open and close, but no matter how long you waited no one would come upstairs. A thorough search of the basement would turn up nothing. It was as if someone came in but never came upstairs. There was never a second sound of the door opening, as if someone was leaving, there was always only the one.
We also had a pair of birds in the basement who would begin to sing when someone came near, and many times after we'd hear the door the birds would begin to chirp like they saw someone yet no one would ever be there. There was even a couple times when you could hear muffled voices talking to the birds but you could never make out what they were saying, and when you'd go into the basement no one would be there.
Then, other things started to happen. I remember my brother telling me that he woke up one night and looked towards the bathroom and he saw someone standing in the bathroom door looking at him. I told him it must have been a dream, but a couple days later he told me it happened again. So I told him that the next time he saw it, to wake me up.
Well a few nights later he did and when I looked towards the bathroom I saw him too - a tall figure wearing an overcoat and hat. He was big - filling almost the entire doorway, yet somehow there wasn't any fear. It was just as if someone was watching over us, protecting us. And he was staring right at us, not moving and not saying anything.
There were other things too. I remember when I was a little older, I moved into a basement bedroom and one night I was woken up by this incredibly shrill noise - either howling or screaming and it was coming from the utility room in the basement. I was terrified! It only lasted a couple minutes then stopped. I only heard it the one time and never again. The weird thing is the utility room was right below my parents bedroom yet they say they never heard anything.
A few years later, after we had moved out my brother asked me if I remembered any of the stuff that went on in that house. I told him I had forgotten until that very moment, so we discussed it for a while and came to the conclusion that the house was haunted by some evil spirits, yet the figure in the bathroom was our recently deceased grandfather and he was there to watch over us and protect us.
He then went on to tell me that, after I moved out weird things began happening again. This was after we'd moved a thousand miles away to a new town and new house.
He was in the basement of the "new" house and he was about 17. He remembers similar things happening yet again.
In the basement of this house, the bathroom was adjoining one bedroom so that you could walk right into the bathroom from the bedroom. There were also other similarities. You see, in this new house, we had a basement door that opened into the back yard, and the birds were again in the basement.
He said that on a few occasions he'd look over towards the bathroom and see "grandpa" standing there, again watching over him.
He also told me that he heard a shrill howl or scream coming from the laundry room in this house that lasted for about 2 minutes one night and it scared him pretty badly.
He told me that there were times when he heard the basement door open and close and someone talking to the birds but no one was there again.
And when he moved out, my youngest brother moved downstairs and also had some weird things happen to him. I remember him telling me about the figure in the bathroom door, and someone talking to the birds when no one was there but all of a sudden it stopped and never started again.
I'd say that if these were "hauntings" then we experienced them for about 20 years as a family, but not sure why they would have stopped all of a sudden. And even more confusing is how the "ghosts" or whatever you want to call them followed us such a distance.
Well Jenn didn't submit this one, necessarily - it came as a comment but I thought it deserved to be entered. Remember to vote with your comments!
Here's a real life story for you. My first job at age 15 was as a banquet server in an old mansion in a county park. The estate was turned over to the county after the dentist who owned the estate murdered his wife and 5 year old son in the house. The county turned the mansion into a banquet center, and the grounds into a beautiful park. Each night after service, one server, bartender, disher and manager had to stay late to clean up and set-up for the next day...you drew straws for the dubious honor. Going into the basement at the end of the night to take laundry down, you would often come across castle-shaped stacks of canned tomatoes on the floor, and walking by (quickly), the air was always cold right there over the stacks. The 5 year old boy was killed in the basement. Going upstairs, to clean the bridal suite (which used to be the master bedroom), you'd tidy up, vacuum, remove any dishes, and turn out the lights. Walking out to the parking lot after work, you'd look up, and every single night, the desk lamp would be on in the master bedroom. It was not on a timer. It still gives me goosebumps to think of all the run-ins with the former residents of the mansion, but I never really felt afraid of their presence, just sad that some part of them was trapped in that space.
Here's a real life story for you. My first job at age 15 was as a banquet server in an old mansion in a county park. The estate was turned over to the county after the dentist who owned the estate murdered his wife and 5 year old son in the house. The county turned the mansion into a banquet center, and the grounds into a beautiful park. Each night after service, one server, bartender, disher and manager had to stay late to clean up and set-up for the next day...you drew straws for the dubious honor. Going into the basement at the end of the night to take laundry down, you would often come across castle-shaped stacks of canned tomatoes on the floor, and walking by (quickly), the air was always cold right there over the stacks. The 5 year old boy was killed in the basement. Going upstairs, to clean the bridal suite (which used to be the master bedroom), you'd tidy up, vacuum, remove any dishes, and turn out the lights. Walking out to the parking lot after work, you'd look up, and every single night, the desk lamp would be on in the master bedroom. It was not on a timer. It still gives me goosebumps to think of all the run-ins with the former residents of the mansion, but I never really felt afraid of their presence, just sad that some part of them was trapped in that space.
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