Where to begin, where to begin with the 2018 edition of the Midwest Haunters Convention? I got back to the Cemetery Sunday afternoon and had to give it a bit of time to sort my thoughts before sitting down to hammer this post out.
For 2018, the convention had been bumped forward two weeks from their usual time, landing right on Memorial Day weekend, which led to a few problems. The amount of vendors was noticeably reduced, leading to a much quicker timeframe to make your way through the entire show. Some of the usual big name vendors didn't make it to the show this year and the trade show hall seemed kinda "empty." They added a two-hour "preview" of the show on Friday, which meant that by Saturday morning, you had pretty much seen everything. Twice.
The Friday night haunt tour consisted of one haunt and then a "Scary-Oke" event back at the hotel. There isn't enough beer in the world to get me up on that stage with a microphone in my hand...
The Saturday night Masquerade Ball seemed a little flat, too. Although I didn't have any problem with him, a few people complained about the DJ. The problem I DID have was with the lack of food available, making me question what exactly I had paid for. And don't even get me started on my series of costume mishaps this year. It made for a very trying evening.
And finally came the bombshell rumor/unofficial announcement of the unthinkable... for 2019, the Midwest Haunters Convention would be moving from its permanent home in Columbus, Ohio to Schaumburg, Illinois. Schaumburg? What the hell is in Schaumburg?? Suddenly, my annual, wonderful two-hour drive was suddenly turning into a six-hour drive.
But even through all of that, I sat back and reflected on the entire weekend and quickly realized something.
I had an absolute blast. Every year, the Midwest Haunters Convention is like my second Halloween and for three straight days, it's a non-stop party by haunters for haunters.
I arrived early Friday morning and immediately got to work. I got an early check-in and actually got a room on the 14th floor with a sweet view of the city.
And how many of you knew that you could still get a drink called "Bawls" from the hotel gift shop? And with a poster THIS cool, why wouldn't you!? Bawls deep, bruh. Ugh...
After check-in, I made my way over for registration and a quick class on Animatronics. I got just enough information and inspiration to cause some damage this Halloween, so look out!
After the class, I had some time to kill, so I got into the trade show floor to help my friend Dave from Closed Casket Studios set up his booth. Again, with all of his new prop heads and masks, he absolutely killed it. I honestly think he had the best booth at the show. And I'm not just saying that in hopes of getting a discount on whatever new prop heads I buy from him for my display this year...
With mere minutes to spare, the booth setup was finished and the trade show opened up for the Friday preview. I perused the smaller show floor, but was REALLY impressed by what each vendor had on display. I made a couple of rounds, making mental notes of what would be coming home to the Cemetery with me. Another year with not enough money in my pocket!
The only Friday purchase was a cheap/awesome burlap sack mask from Robot Creative Worx, because I knew they would sell out fast. I was able to score a couple of bloody masks, which is cool because it made me look like I was in the band Ghoul...
After walking the show for the two hours, it was time for the Friday night haunt tour. At this point of the night, I was still flying solo, but I said what the hell and got in line for the bus. It was there that I saw fellow haunter Nate Dingman, who had started his "hydration" very early that day, get removed from the tour by TransWorld and MHC owner Jen Braverman herself...
Yikes. A bit harsh maybe, but I had a bit of a chuckle over it. It really was symbolic of how the rest of the weekend was to go!
And while in line, I got the chance to meet a couple of other Ohio haunters who I only knew the names of, and was able to tag along with them. This really is one of the cool aspects of this show. Putting faces to names, hanging out and growing the haunt family. Things were really looking up.
The tour itself went to Carnage Haunted House, a first-year haunt in the Columbus area. And while I hadn't heard of this haunt before, I was quite impressed with the amount of work that they had achieved in their first year. I'll definitely add them to the Haunted Hoochie and the upcoming 13th Floor Columbus (formerly the ScareAtorium) to my list of must-see haunts in the Columbus area.
An amusing group of queue line actors, a nicely-detailed haunt, and then a cool group of seizure-inducing "zombie apocalypse" vehicles made for a fun event...
And after the haunt tour, I ended up meeting up with a few of my locals and we did go to the Scary-Oke event. And it was fun. We sat back and watched people jump on stage and try their hardest, in most cases, to sing a tune. But the highlight was watching George from the Andover Haunted House sing his song, while pulling his pants down to show off his boxers to the crowd. The entire crowd was cracking up.
And that is just one more reason I will NEVER do a karaoke event.
After the Scary-Oke event, I got to go to the Andover suite at the Drury to continue the party until late, late into the night!
On Saturday, I decided to sleep in a bit and wait for my partner in crime, James, to show up. We ran down to the trade show floor, made a quick loop around, and then met up with the crew for the annual Saturday lunch get-together over at North Market. Market & Boar BBQ every time. Every time.
After gorging ourselves on delicious meats, we went back through the show and then headed back to the room for our other tradition - cold beers and a B-horror film! And the first film was a classic that I had always wanted to see...
So cheesy and so, so good. I really loved the craziness of this one and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it or is in need of a good party film.
After the film, it was time to get ready for the night's big event, the Masquerade Ball. In record time, we both had our costumes on and we were ready to rage. I was going to debut my newest character, The Death Bringer, a plague doctor that dealt in the black arts...
James dressed up as Ol' Scratch himself, and we were ready to go.
We made our way to the ballroom for mingling and photos. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes in, one of my contacts popped out of my eye. Never had that happen before, but luckily I had brought the lens case with me and simply decided to drop it in and go as the one blue-eyed Death Bringer. And then as I was putting the lens case away, the strap of my brand new hip pouch broke. Dammit. Things really weren't going well for me.
Luckily I was able to rig everything back together, James was ready with a cold beer and we regained our swagger to hit the Ball. Somehow I had my staff, a cold beer and my camera all in my hands and was able to get some shots of some really great costumes.
Highbury Cemetery local, Miss Stacey Rager!
Bob Kowal owned the floor with his "Man-tis" as well as his lovely assistant Lydia Rossi...
Two devils. One dance floor...
And what can you say about the Espadas' titillating, no-bull couples costume. Ugh, I can't believe I just typed that...
Killer Klowns From Outer Space!! It's Craazzy!
And no MHC Masquerade Ball would be complete without the Nasty Ol' Witch telling me I'm number one!!
After a few tunes and a walk around the dance floor with another beer to scope things out, it was time for the Body Art Fashion Show. Again, if you're not camped out at the front of the stage at least 30 minutes before, you won't get a good view. I tried to grab some shots over some really tall people...
After the body art show, the dance floor was sparsely populated, although I though the DJ was spinning some great tunes along with his laser-finger light show, so we decided to get some grub. We hopped over to the food table and noticed that there was nothing substantial on offer, so we decided to grab another beer and bail. We headed down to the bar on floor 2 and met up with a lot more people. I guess everyone thought about the same of the Masquerade Ball...
We ended up grabbing a bite to eat, a few more beers and then decided to call it a night early. At 2 am...
Sunday was our final day, so we decided to hit the trade show floor hard and make all of our purchases. I also decided to grab as many photos as I could. I picked up some cool props and the creativity is already exploding for this year's display...
(And at this point, I have decided to just dump the best photos from the trade show floor here, so grab some popcorn, grab a seat, and enjoy the photos!)
So even though there were some rough spots this time around, I still had one hell of a time at the 2018 Midwest Haunters Convention. I set out to have a fun time and I exceeded that goal by a mile. New friends, new props and new memories.
And even though I'm sad that the show will be moving next year, I'm happy that I was able to attend 8 years of shows in Columbus, and truth be told, I'm somewhat excited to see what happens next year. I have decided that I'm going to give the show a chance and hope that they have new, big and exciting things planned. And I'm very excited to see some of those infamous Chicago haunts on a tour.
The torch is being passed to you, Chicago. Whatcha gonna do with it?? See you in 2019...
