Dia de Muertos Cleveland, 2014

After a whirlwind Halloween Friday night, I decided to brave the cold temperatures of Saturday and headed up to the 10th annual Dia de Muertos festival in Cleveland.

Honoring the spirit of deceased loved ones with mariachi bands, altars created by local artists, a cemetery display, dancers, sugar skulls, food, intricate dia de los muertos makeup, giant puppets and a skull and skeleton parade made for a really great way to spend a frigid afternoon...

 

A pleasant surprise was artist Nancy Cintron's giant altar dedicated to horror icon, Vincent Price! A large collection of Cintron's sketches of Price in his many iconic film and television roles as well as an area to sit and sketch or write your personal memories of him. Even if there were no sketches of Dr. Phibes, it was a perfect way to wrap up the Halloween season!

And while it was cold with a few flakes of snow in the air, the warmth of the colors, the music and the people made for a spectacular and fun event. I will definitely be back next year, camera in hand, and this time, some paint on my face! Feliz Dia de Muertos!

Highbury Cemetery, 2014

Well, we had another night of rain, but it didn't stop our setup and it sure didn't stop the 245 trick-or-treaters that came through the yard haunt, so I'm going to say that Halloween 2014 was a success. A cold, wet and fun success!

T-shirts and posters go out to the following Cemetery members, who without their help, Highbury Cemetery wouldn't exist: Sharon, Karen, Jenn, Scrapes, Andrew, Stacey, Vince, Neighbor Joe, Laurie, and new friend to the Cemetery Mike, who just showed up to check things out but stayed all night and helped with the tear down (I have one extra shirt coming your way, my friend!!).

Without further ado, I present Highbury Cemetery, 2014:

 

The Morning After

Another Halloween has come and gone, and every inch of my body aches as I sit here and type this. Definitely a sign of a good night of haunting!!

Everything went up in the yard haunt in record time and the makeup went on smoothly...

...and then the rain started. Less than an hour before trick-or-treat. Damn. Cursed again. Luckily, it wasn't a torrential downpour like last year, but it continued throughout the rest of the night to put a damper on the evening's events.

We still had a great turnout of kids, parents and curious onlookers and we still got all props and lighting set up in the yard, so overall I would call it a success.

All the props are now in the garage, slowly drying out, and so far it looks like only my talking skull greeter was affected by the rain. By the end of the night, he wasn't so much talking as just blurting out a random sound every few seconds. Hopefully after a few days of drying out, everything will be okay.

I have quite a few photos to go through and will post them as quickly as I can. The rain actually helped with the cemetery fogger and I think I got a couple of really great fog photos. And because everyone and everything was pretty soaked by the end of the night, I opted out of shooting any video, as I think everyone, myself included, was ready for tearing down and getting into the house for some dry clothes and warm food.

But for now, I'm going to plant myself on the couch for a while and decide on whether I want to make the trip to the annual Dia de Muertos parade in Cleveland this afternoon.