AVON LAKE – A beloved annual tradition in Avon Lake gave families some chills as the city held their 11th annual Boo by the Woods festival this past week, featuring the main ticketed event attractions of “Trail of Haunted Tales” and “The Basement of Terror.” Held this past Thursday and Saturday at the Avon Lake Public Library and the Lorain County Metroparks Kopf Reservation, the event was sponsored by Kopf Builders and presented by the Avon Lake recreation department and the public library and enjoyed by several thousands of local revelers.
Avon Lake hosts 11th annual Boo! in the Woods at the Avon Lake Public Library and Kopf Reservation.Rodger Roeser
The Boo by the Woods featured the two main ticketed events as well as popular attractions that included an inflatable obstacle course, pumpkin decorating, and tarot card readings. Food trucks were on hand, and there were also visits from dinosaurs, The Cleveland Ghostbusters, various superheroes and princesses, a hay maze, and a presentation of “creatures of the night” which showcased such critters as spiders and owls to name a few from a group called Back to the Wild.
The once backyard Halloween party has morphed into the largest ticketed even in Avon Lake and is now a full-blown Halloween festival. Tickets went on sale three weeks ago, and the 2,000 allotted tickets were completely sold out in just a matter of hours. The remainder of the festival is open to all with no need for tickets. There will also be music, visits from cosplay experts dressed as Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, and Jason from the horror movies.
The entire concept of Boo in the Woods dates back nearly 20 years when local resident and now city council member Dave Kos held a little block party in his neighborhood. It united four of his neighbors that he admitted went slightly over the top with their Halloween decorations, who then hosted various stops along a fun filled fright night mostly targeted at the ‘tweens and teens, rather than most other venues that are either geared toward toddlers or skip right to adult themes.
“My house has always had a big Halloween display. My neighbors had one too and the street behind us had two big, huge Halloween displays,” Kos recalled. “Really cool stuff. Really over the top on our displays, and we’ve always thrown a Halloween party when all our kids were around the age of seven or eight. What we’d always say was there really wasn’t a Halloween event the kids that are third or fourth or fifth grade that are too old for the Boo at the Zoo and that type of stuff, but too young for the intense commercial haunts that you see.
“So, what we did with our Halloween party was we said let’s get all the kids all about the same age, all about in the same grades and we took them on a circular route to all of four of the houses that have these big displays,” Kos continued. “At each house we would get to the homeowner to come out and tell a scary ghost story. The kids loved it. We said this would be really cool if somehow we can grow this idea of scary storytelling for kids this age and create a program out of it.”
In these early incarnations, about 20 kids enjoyed the experience.
Avon Lake hosts 11th annual Boo! in the Woods at the Avon Lake Public Library and Kopf Reservation.Rodger Roeser
Kos then decided to grow this event in earnest and reached out to the city and their parks and recreation director. He shared the concept and asked if they could have access to Kopf Reservation, and the city agreed. Approximately 60 people attended this first incarnation, who were broken up into groups and they went through the circular route in the woods. They would come across an actor and a vignette, and the character would share their scary tale.
And the concept received tremendous feedback, and the city agreed that this was just too good of a concept not to share with the entire community. The Avon Lake Public Library got involved, as did the city parks and recreation department and the very first annual Boo in the Woods was launched 11 years ago, although at the time it was simply called the Trail of Haunted Tales.
“Creating this concept of bringing families with kids in those age groups primarily and taking them through the woods and they would her these spooky creepy stories created with elaborate sets and creepy characters. and they would do all of that to get a true Halloween experience for these kids.” Kos said. “We didn’t know how many people were going to show up. We didn’t think were were going to get anyone to come, but that first year we had about 500 people. Fast forward now eleven years later and we have what I think is one of the premier Halloween attractions in northeast Ohio.
The vignettes feature local actors from the Avon Drama Club and from Avon Lake High School. Kos also thanked the library for giving organizers access to the library and allowing them to turn the library basement into the Basement of Terror.
“It’s legit,” Kos exclaimed. “The people that put this together work their butts off. The quality of props is outstanding, and they just do a tremendous job.”
Kos said organizers begin planning and working on the event every January.
Approximately 5,000 visitors are expected.
Dollars raised from the event all go back into the event itself, and for the parks and recreation department to provide additional or upgraded programming.
