Standoutness

Standountness, how can you have your festival and event standout from the crowd?

The tiny Town of Bucoda, Washington, population 565, and with only two businesses captured the media’s attention with their first annual two monthlong Boo-Coda Spook-Tacular Festival. In May 2018, the idea of the Boo-Coda Spook-Tacular was proposed by George Sharp, Rural Program Manager with the Thurston Economic Development Council (EDC) to Bucoda Mayor Alan Carr as a way to build on their annual Scary-nites Haunted House, Bucoda Thriller event and the fact that they change the name of the town from Bucoda to Boo-Coda by proclamation each October.

The Mayor formed a committee and got to work on creating a list of events and activities that would set the Festival apart from other Festivals in the Pacific Northwest. The Mayor and committee decided to create the following: Do It Yourself Halloween Decorations (Tombstone) Workshops, Trick or Treat every night in October at Joe’s Place (120 year old business), Pumpkin (Shaped and Tasting) Pancake Breakfast every Saturday in October, Halloween Home Decoration Contest, Ghost Story Telling Contest, presentations on Funeral Industry Cultural and Religious Customs and How to Write your Own Obituary and Tombstone workshop, a Hearse Procession (like a parade) and Viewing (like a car show), Pine Box Derby Casket Races, Cemetery Tour, Pumpkin Carving Contest, Coloring Contest, Vendor Fair, as well as continue the Haunted House and Bucoda Thriller which is part of Thrill the Word, where communities across the world dance to the Michael Jackson Thriller Video on the last Saturday of October at the exact same time, 3pm PST in Bucodas case. To further standout from the crowd the Mayor and Town bought a Hearse to take to area parades and festivals with magnetic signs and a banner to promote visiting Bucoda, the Festival and Haunted House. The town approached Eastside Big Tom, a popular Burger stand in Olympia to create the official Boo-Coda BooBerry Milkshake made with Vanilla Ice Cream and BooBerry Cereal. Eastside Big Tom handed out $2 off coupons to the Haunted House with every Milkshake purchased.

The media coverage was amazing for a tiny town and

a new festival. The EDC created a press release about the Town buying a Hearse and creating a two month long festival to become Washington’s Halloween Town. The Mayor sent the press release out to more than 300 media outlets in Washington State and nationally. The Mayor also worked with Experience Olympia and Beyond, the official Destination Marketing Organization for Thurston County to pitch the Boo-Coda Spook-Tacular and the Haunted House to media in the Seattle and Portland area. The press release resulted in the Bucoda story being picked up on the front page of the Daily Olympian, Tacoma News Tribune (TNT), the Daily Chronical (Centralia) as well as the video attachment of the story being picked by more than 100 Newspaper websites across the country. King5’s Drew Mikkelsen interviewed the Mayor and Town Council Member Steve “Digger” Purcell the friendly undertaker onsite of the Haunted House for 2 hours which resulted in a 2 minute segment on the 5:30pm King5 evening news and that story was picked up on other stations. The Seattle Times sent a reporter to cover the Hearse Procession and Viewing that resulted in an almost full page story, as well as the story being promoted on their Facebook page and included in their daily enewsletter.

The Only in Washington website, Facebook and email channels picked up the story as well. The Thurston- Mason Senior News included the story on the front page of their publication.

Boo-Coda Spook-Tacular was deemed a success and the Mayor and committee voted to do it again in 2019. They will being branding Bucoda as the World’s Tiniest Town with the Biggest Halloween Spirit and with the goal to ultimately be the home annually to the World’s longest (108 Hearses) Hearse Procession and largest Viewing and the Pine Box Derby featuring the World’s largest Casket Race with 80 Casket Race Teams. You can watch them grow and get International Media Coverage at www.boocoda.com .

How can your festival or event standout from the crowd? Review the inventory of what you already are doing and look for ways to tweak it to create something unique just to your event, maybe try to set

a world record or secure a proclamation by your local elected officials. Look for Human interest stories and connect with a partner and or a worthy cause. Reach out to area media and invite them for a behind the scenes view of how your festival is making an impactfor your community and attendees. Good luck and report your results to us for inclusion in our enewsletter.