The Estevan Public Library is preparing for a pre-Halloween event that it hopes will spook teens and adults in the community.
The second annual ScreamFest will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night from Oct. 25 to 28. Admission will be $5 per person.
Teen program co-ordination Diana Aitchison and her assistant Rachel Kramer said this year’s event will be loosely based on the Netflix television series The Stranger Things.
ScreamFest is rated PG-13, they said, and is geared towards an older audience because of its content.
“We don't recommend younger children coming to it,” said Aitchison.
Those with epilepsy or heart problems, or who are pregnant, shouldn't come either, she said.
The people who attend ScreamFest will enter a laboratory, and then move into another dimension.
“Scientists have discovered that something has happened,” said Aitchison. “It's like an apocalyptic thing that's happened.”
Once escaping the dimensional portal room, people will venture out into the library. The entire library will be used for ScreamFest.
Aitchison said she and Kramer have been haunting for many years, and they're big fans of Halloween.
Kramer recalls that when she was a child, she was asked to put up some Halloween decorations, and she wound up making an axe murderer room.
Aitchison, meanwhile, has 20 years of experience doing haunts for charities, and she views events like ScreamFest as being a lot of fun.
“Our ScreamFest is part of the Canadian Haunters Association this year,” said Aitchison. “People can learn about that. There are awards. It's international. It's a Canadian thing, but they give out awards for North America.”
There is also a Saskatchewan Haunters Association with details on places that people can go to for Halloween.
“This is a lot of effort and a lot of time,” said Aitchison. “You've really got to enjoy what you do.”
Aitchison noted that one of the highlights for this year is a creature. One of the teens who was involved in last year’s event sent Aitchison some information about Carl Leck with CBL Imagery, who built a costume for ComicCon in San Diego.
The teen thought it would be cool to have something like that for ScreamFest.
Aitchison looked all over the place to create the costume, because it's mechanical with moving parts. She e-mailed Leck, and he phoned the library, and agreed to provide assistance with a creature called a demigorgon for ScreamFest.
“He looked up Estevan, saw the population was just a small town, and he just fell in love with the idea it was for teens and teen programming,” said Aitchison.
It took a lot of hours to complete the demigorgon, but Aitchison is excited with how it turned out.
Leck offered advice to some of the teens involved with ScreamFest on how to make the creature.
The library has received a lot of assistance from Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) students to create the props, sets and the disguises that will be used for ScreamFest. They came up with the back-story for the lab and the trans-dimensional portal as well.
The teens started working on it in July.
“They are awesome,” said Kramer. “They do a lot of the work and they're part of the ScreamFest.”
The young people have created a body part wall that is pretty graphic, Aitchison said.
Aitchison added that the teens who help out get credit for volunteer hours they need to graduate ECS, and the library is fortunate to have their support.
“Every time I see them, they talk about ScreamFest and gush about it,” said Kramer.
Around 30 teens will volunteer with this year’s haunt.
Proceeds from ScreamFest will be directed towards teen programming at the library. Much of the budget for the teen programming each year is raised at ScreamFest, Aitchison said, and that money is directed to art, food and other programs.
