Nitro's Festival of Fright!

This Halloween season has been a season of firsts for my family.  I'm not sure why our schedules seem to be so different than they were last year, but we're finding that we have much more time to attend quite a few of our local Fall/Halloween events! Each year we say we're going to try and go....but this is the first time in a LONG time we've had the opportunity to attend Shocka-Con in Charleston and Hurricane's annual Harvest Festival.  And for the first time EVER we got to attend Nitro's Festival of Fright!

In its third year, Nitro's Festival of Fright is a pretty cool family-friendly event with a little something for everyone.  It's held at Nitro's Ridenour Lake, which is a beautiful setting with lots of space.  We didn't get the chance to check out the line-up of bands that played Friday night, but it definitely looked like a great show with local favorites, The Renfields, Robot Jurassic,  REL-X and Ghost Road.  We did, however, get to do most of the activities the following Saturday.

We had kind of a late start since Luke had jujitsu class at noon.  But, we left right afterwards and made it in plenty of time to see the ACW wrestling show by 2 pm.  It was absolutely sweltering with temperatures in the lower 90's and the sun beating down (I actually ended up getting sunburned.  Who gets sunburned at a damn Halloween festival?), but the guys managed to put on a good show.  They even managed to bring in some classic wrestling legends such as Tracy Smothers, Mr. Hughes, and Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake. Michael Myers added a touch of Halloween absurdity by serving as a manager? valet?

After wrestling, I had planned on having a tarot card reading.  It's my goal to work in a little
paranormal/supernatural wherever I go, lol. I was really disappointed, however, to see that sometime during the show, the lady doing readings had packed up and left.  So, instead, we let my son Luke get in as much Autumn/Halloween fun as possible.  He ran into a friend while at the festival, so they spent a few minutes playing games.  They did a ring-toss, rolled some pumpkins down a hill to see whose would reach the bottom first, and then shot zombies with Nerf guns.  While the festival itself was free to attend, and the wrestling show was free to watch, there was a very minimal charge ($1) for the games, which, if I remember correctly, was to raise money for some club or program at Nitro High School.

When the boys had their fill of games, Luke's buddy joined back up with his family and we walked over to the pumpkin carving area.  We were extremely lucky in that we got the last pumpkin available.  The guys working the pumpkin carving event were really awesome.  Our assistant cut off the top of our pumpkin and even scooped the guts out for us!  He then let Luke have a marker and a carving kit and let him have at it.  To my astonishment, Luke drew his face and carved his pumpkin ALL BY HIMSELF!   Luke turned 9 years old a few weeks ago, and this year is already shaping up to be quite a transitional year for him, as we found out at the Hurricane Harvest Festival last weekend.  He's not a little kid anymore.  He's too big for bouncy houses and many of the little kid activities found at family-friendly events and festivals.  Yet, he's not quite ready to be a big kid yet.  Carving his own pumpkin was a big step for him...and he only managed to stab himself once with the safety knife.

Another big transitional step for Luke was the Trail of Terror!  Normally, Luke is not the kind of kid who really enjoys haunted houses and similar attractions.  But, for whatever reason, when we were telling him about the activities available and asking him if the festival was something he'd like to go to, he latched onto the idea of that trail and wouldn't shut up about how cool it was going to be.

The opening of the trail was delayed by about 45 minutes, and I thought for sure as we were waiting, Luke was going to change his mind.  He was determined, though...and really excited.  We paid our $5 per person admission fee, which I secretly thought was going to turn into thousands of dollars worth of therapy costs in the near future.  As we waited for our turn to go down the trail, the ladies working the entrance did an excellent job interacting with and entertaining the line.  They had some awesome witchy costumes, which were beautiful...but just a tad out of place for a zombie-themed haunted trail.  When it was finally our turn, we started off hearing a quick back story.  I absolutely loved how they tied in the true history of Nitro's role in World War One and made that the basis of the zombie theme along the trail.  Our guide then took us down the path where we'd encounter zombie after zombie...and also quite a few mutant spiders, rats, and other creatures.

It's important to note that we went on the trail while it was still full daylight, so we could easily see all of the zombies well ahead of time.  That took a little of the spookiness out of it, but at the same time, you could get a good look at the wonderful makeup and it afforded the zombies the opportunity to focus on meaningful interactions with guests, and not JUST jump scares.  Things were fairly calm at first, and then you hit the climax of the trail. The zombies completely take over and run amok, causing plenty of screams from the crowd. Luke even got chased down by a couple of different zombies, which as his mother, I found absolutely hilarious.  The volunteers really knew how to work the crowd and create a fun atmosphere.  Luke was scared, but not traumatized. He left the trail with a newfound confidence, and I left full of pride for my little dude who showed so much bravery and tried something new that I thought he'd never do in a million years.

The only downside of the trail is my own personal issues.  Despite my horrific back pain, I still try to
do everything that I want to do and not accept my physical limitations. I love haunted attractions, and wanted to share my son's first experience with such...but the walk up the hill to the head of the trail, and then the incline at the beginning of the trail was way too much for me, unfortunately.  It caused us to fall well behind the pack. At one point, I was in so much pain and so out of breath, that I, deader than any zombie, just sorta laid across a toxic waste barrel for a few minutes.  I have to hand it to the volunteers---they made sure I wasn't actually dying and that Luke and I made it out of the trail safely without ever breaking character.

Overall, the whole day was a really nice family experience for us.  I got to pick up a few souvenirs from Jeff Wamsley at the Mothman Museum booth and I got two beautiful stained glass ornaments from Kelly Bryant's Studio 13 booth.  There were a few things that I wish would have gone a bit smoother.  It seems like a lot of vendors packed up and left when wrestling was over.  The food was good, but it was a bit pricey and I would have liked to have seen a bit more variety. Having to bring your own seating for the wrestling was a pain when you had to park so far away or ride the shuttle.  Still, we made it through and everyone we encountered was extremely kind and helpful...and yet our festival experience wasn't quite over yet!

After dropping Luke off at his grandmother's for the night, Aaron and I grabbed some dinner and headed home to rest for awhile. Then we headed back out to Ridenour to wrap up this year's festival with a midnight drive-in showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show!  All evening long, there were FREE movies being offered on an inflatable screen.  Some were kid-friendly, and some were a little scarier...but we chose to come for Rocky!  Ever since Aaron and I started dating, we've tried to go to at least one showing of Rocky Horror each October, and this was the perfect chance.  We had a parking pass, but didn't end up needing it.  We arrived about 20 minutes 'til midnight and the weather was perfect.  We could hear and see perfectly, and got to sit comfortably in the car while watching our favorite movie.  My little black heart was thrilled that some of the people around us were into the audience participation lines and some even got up and did the Time Warp.  No concessions were available for purchase, but we brought our own snacks and had a great time.  It was the perfect ending to a nice event.

I'd like to thank Jim Caudill, Tim Arnott, and everyone else who volunteered at this year's festival or who came out in the heat to entertain us, cook for us, and provide us with lots of fun art and other goodies.  Like I said, everyone was just really nice and it made for quite a special experience.  Being able to see my son carve his own pumpkin and bravely push himself to do a haunted trail was an experience I won't forget.