Highbury Cemetery, 2018

It's now Saturday morning and I'm sitting in my home office, looking out the window. It is STILL raining. I just have to laugh. Four days straight with rain...

I wrote about the weather problems we faced this Halloween here. It was rainy and none of my animatronic props even made it out into the display this year, but we still managed to put together a great cemetery haunt and a ton of people still braved the elements to come check it all out. And we had a great collection for our annual canned food drive, so overall I'd still mark this year's Halloween display as a win.

I'm still sore from the day's events, but the smile is still there. I've gone through the night's photos and I was able to capture the fun and spooky spirit of the haunt, even with less in it. In less than 24 hours, we were able to set up the entire display, run our 2 hour trick-or-treat, photograph, and then completely tear down, leaving no trace of what had just happened. It's admittedly crazy, but it's a part of what makes Highbury Cemetery special. An exclusive, one-night only event. Miss it, and you'll have to wait another 365 days...

So sit back, relax, (grab your raincoat!) and enjoy the photos from Highbury Cemetery, 2018!

The Highbury Crypt
With the evening's rain and reduced amount of props being put out in the yard, I was able to focus more on the front porch. The walk-in crypt is the climax of the display, where trick-or-treaters have to enter to receive their candy. My focus has always been to make sure it has the most amount of detail. 

This year, I got a new blue LED bulb for the overhead light, giving off a bit more overall light, yet keeping a nice, dull cool blue hue to the entire room. I also brought all of my LED flicker light candles in and spread them to each of the four burial chambers. And then finally, I picked up a new Laser Swamp laser vortex from Slaughterhouse Effects. Together with the fog machine, it added an incredible green swirl near the floor. It had kids and adults alike stopping to run their fingers through the light all night. This was an upgrade that made a really big difference!

My only real casualty of the night was losing the small tap light that backlit my custom crow stained glass window. 0-for-3 on getting the perfect backlighting with that thing! Next year, I'll look for something better to really show off the art on that...

And even with the rain and a slow start to the night, we managed to get 437 trick-or-treaters, parents, neighbors and visitors to our door. That's the second most attendance, only 50 behind last year's record total. And last year, we had dry weather. It seems as though the word is spreading about Highbury Cemetery. And that puts a jack-o-lantern sized grin across my face!


The Second Annual Halloween Canned Food Drive
For the second year running, we did a canned food collection in support of the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank during our trick-or-treat. The announcement sign went up in my yard about a week before the big night, informing all neighbors and passersby of the event. And the neighbors showed up for the second year in a row! Kids and parents dropped their canned food and monetary donations into our "Coffin For A Cause" and got an extra-special treat bag filled with candy, plastic jumping spiders and a glow-in-the-dark pin that read "I Filled The Coffin for a Cause!"

In two short rainy hours, we collected 93 canned food items and an INCREDIBLE $151.57 in monetary donations. I really have to thank our friends and neighbors for their generosity in helping to make a difference in our community!! Well done, everyone. Now let's collect even more next year!!

And of course I couldn't end it without thanking the hard-working crew who REALLY went above and beyond in lending help with Highbury Cemetery for 2018. Everyone stepped up and earned their Highbury Cemetery shirts this year! A HUGE Highbury thank you goes out to the following crazies: Mrs. Highbury, Sharon, Karen, Laurie, Josh, Dave from Closed Casket Studios, Brother Scrapes, Stacey and Vince Rager, and Andrew. Without you, I'd just be one guy screaming curse words toward the sky. The dreary, rainy sky!!

And yes, even with the scaled-back display, it all ended on a high. It all came together and we still managed to have a ton of fun. I'm energized to hit the ground running for 2019 and I already have big plans for next year's display. There's only 362 days to go, so it's time to get back to the garage. Are you ready??