The City of Estevan will be celebrating Halloween, and the Civic Auditorium, through its Spooky Civic event on Halloween.
Erin Wilson, who is the program manager for the city, said the Civic’s dressing rooms and the back area will have various decorations, props and characters, creating an impressive haunted house setting.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for the group of people described as “little scares.” The little scares can tour through the different rooms for the first two hours. Then there will be a 30-minute break to prepare the rooms for the “big scares,” who will have their turn from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“We didn’t want to define the big scares and the little scares by ages,” said Wilson. “We wanted to be able to have parents and even young adults … identify which they’re ready for.
“Myself, I’m a little scare kind of person,” she said with a laugh.
Each dressing room will not be for everyone, she said. Some rooms will be for the little scares, and some will be for the big scares.
“We’re encouraging them to walk the full circle underneath the civic that many people haven’t seen before, and there will be some guidance as to which dressing rooms they should go into, and check out what’s in that room,” said Wilson.
Spooky Civic will feature some conventional Halloween decorations such as ghosts and goblins. There will be a cave in the back area, a witch’s lair in one dressing room and a mad scientist’s lab in another.
The Civic’s concession will be open for snacks. People will be able to visit and hang out for a while, and Wilson encouraged them to venture through the dressing rooms more than once.
The event will also be a tribute to the Civic, which is celebrating its 60th year of existence this year.
“It’s been a part of our community for a long time,” said Wilson. “This was a really fun adventure in order to do that. It’s been an interesting way to get people to come into a facility that they may not have entered other than for a hockey game.”
Wilson said Spooky Civic has drawn a lot of interest from the public, and she hopes to see a large crowd on Halloween.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the positive response that we’ve had, so that’s really been motivation to get our act together and make sure we’re able to provide what the public is expecting, and were having a lot of fun doing it,” she said.
Spooky Civic is free for the public to attend. Wilson encourages people to bring a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army’s food bank.
