3 minute read
Scaring in the harvest season
Yearly festival at Pierce begins with families hunting for pumpkins
Taylor Rouch, Temi Fajemisin/ Roundup
With all the decorated pumpkins, haunted houses, face paint, and of course, candy, the Halloween festivities have definitely begun.
“All I need to see are the electric colorful carved pumpkins at the festival and that’s when I know Halloween is here,” said rides supervisor Allison McMenamy. “It’s going to be an exciting month.”
The festivities include musicals, comedy and dance performances, rides for kids to enjoy, assortments of carnival food, pumpkin carving, arts and crafts centers, and haunted houses.
The Halloween Festival’s founders and owners, Robert and Cathy McBroom, made sure to bring something different to the festival this year.
“We wanted to switch things up with the activities people could enjoy as well as keeping our favorites such as the corn maze and hay rides,” said Cathy.
Funding the foundation
“This is the one time of year when we raise enough [money], that we actually support the
farm throughout the rest of the year,” said Pierce Farm Center Director, Robert McBroom.
The food will be provided by several catering trucks, and will include everything from barbeque, to roasted corn, and funnel cake.
The Farm Market will sell vegetables grown at Pierce, and pumpkins from Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch.
There is also a carousel, a mini-train, and a rickety, fun tractor-pulled ride.
“Not only is the annual Halloween Harvest Festival a great way for families to enjoy spending time with one another, but the festival is also a huge fundraiser for providing a foundation for Pierce College and that’s something I’m most proud of,” said McBroom.
Families come to pick out their own pumpkins from the patch, while their kids are treated to shaved Hawaiian Ice, and run around with stained red and blue mouths.
“We came last year to buy a pumpkin, and thought it would be nice again this year,” Kelly Shmueli said, as she watched her son look enviously on at the other kids riding the train.
‘Creatures of the Corn’
At night the Harvest Festival transforms into the Fright-Fair Scream-Park.
Children’s laughter is replaced by the screams of classmates.
Fright-Fair offers three haunts: the Factory of Nightmares Maze, the Creatures of the Corn Haunted Trail, and the Insane Reaction Maze.
It’s not only kids who get to have fun at the festival, but teenagers, and adults who come to the festival get a thrill out of the haunted houses.
Robert McBroom would suggest FrightFair to any college student that wants to get the “shit scared out of them.”
During the day, the festival is geared towards children and families, with its performances and pumpkin carving. Once the sky turns dark, the farm transforms into ScreamPark until 10 p.m. on weekdays and 12 a.m. on weekends.
“The ‘Creatures of the Corn’ is scary for me; it’s intense,” said Dragicevich. “Sometimes people hit the emergency exit because of how real it seems, they really did a good job in getting great actors and good props to frighten people.”
