{"id":46117,"date":"2018-11-24T15:20:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T22:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=46117"},"modified":"2021-02-08T08:05:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T15:05:11","slug":"screamfest-lives-on-in-new-event-launching-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/11\/24\/screamfest-lives-on-in-new-event-launching-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Screamfest lives on in new event launching in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Fright Night:<\/strong> Screamfest participants get a scare even outside the haunted houses on Oct. 12, 2018 in the Grandstand Building at Stampede Park. Patrons braved the cold to visit the six outdoor haunted houses and indoor festivities. (Photo by Sydney Walker\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A<\/span>fter scaring Calgarians for more than a decade, Screamfest has announced a new event for next year for Halloween.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Although, yes, I am very sad that Screamfest, as we know it, is ending, we are coming up with something else,\u201d says Michael Sheppard, Screamfest founder. The original event marked its final year this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s called HEX<\/a>, Halloween and Entertainment Expo.”<\/p>\n

Sheppard explained the event as a \u201cmashup\u201d of Screamfest and Comic Expo, \u201cbut for Halloween lovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-weekend event will take place completely indoors at the beginning of October 2019, and will feature a separate space for the haunted houses.<\/p>\n

The rest of the space will be occupied by vendors, celebrities, customers in cosplay, and Halloween-themed learning seminars.<\/p>\n

During these seminars, customers will have an opportunity to learn how to carve pumpkins or build props for Halloween.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have anything to do with Halloween, as opposed to just the \u2018scaring\u2019 side,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n

After planning for this new event for the last couple of years, Sheppard and his wife found a partner that loved their idea and bought into the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey saw our vision,\u201d said Sheppard of Canwest Productions, their new partner.<\/p>\n

Canwest Productions already stages the Calgary Tattoo & Arts Festival, the Calgary Women\u2019s Show and\u00a0 other events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know events, and they know trade shows,\u201d said Sheppard, adding that they\u2019d be able to \u201cput on a good event\u201d between the two of them.<\/p>\n

Sheppard and his wife have been in the Halloween business for 18 years, during which he started the Fright Nights event in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

They also held Fright Nights in Calgary for a year, but it was too difficult to have two different locations with the same name, so they changed it to Screamfest for Calgary.<\/p>\n

Sheppard described Screamfest as a \u201cHalloween carnival.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are rides, carnival games, and entertainment that include a monster truck ride and \u201czombie paintball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheppard also started another business called Cobb\u2019s Adventure Park, where they also have a Halloween-themed event called \u201cField of Screams.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have five haunted houses out there, and even a kangaroo petting zoo, but it\u2019s all outdoors, as opposed to Screamfest and the upcoming HEX.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have anything to do with Halloween, as opposed to just the \u2018scaring\u2019 side. – Michael Sheppard<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe are very much into the Halloween business,\u201d Sheppard says.<\/p>\n

Sheppard says that he is drawn to businesses that are entertainment, where people can have a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like watching the people laugh and scream and just have a good night out,\u201d said Sheppard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Screamfest’s end, Michael Sheppard brings to light new Halloween event for 2019 during an interview in Calgary, Alta. on Oct. 17. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":503,"featured_media":46127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S3 Screamfest 2018","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1108,9,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-halloween","9":"category-life","10":"category-victoria-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46117"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47722,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46117\/revisions\/47722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}