A Nightmare on Flint Road
Fright Night has proved a horrifying success for the Stratford A&P Association
The kooky and spooky, the weird and the wonderful were all there for the scare at Stratford’s Showgrounds on Friday night. It was all in good fun and for a good cause, said Stratford A&P Association event manager Stephen Vince.
He says the A Nightmare on Flint Road “fright night” was the first in a series of similar events planned for the showgrounds. Each event will provide a night of themed entertainment while also helping raise funds for the Stratford A&P Association.
“I’ve always wanted to do a fright night type of event. The original idea was to create a maize maze, but after walking around and through the old buildings here like the cowsheds, the idea of a walk through fright night made a lot of sense.”
He says Stratford A&P Association committee members, along with volunteers including Terri Bracey from Eltham shop The EclecTerri transformed the showground’s cowsheds into a horror wonderland for people to walk through and enjoy the scares.
Terri says Stephen contacted her after she had created a Halloweenthemed miniature scary walkthrough for kids and adults to enjoy at her Eltham business. She says she was keen to get involved as she enjoys the creative process as well as supporting a local initiative.
“I enjoy creating things. Everything I make is out of recycled materials like milk bottles or pallets. I love getting involved with things like this and bringing a scene to life.”
As well as the multiple props helping create specific scenes in each of the four-room cowshed, a team of around 20 actors are also present ready to add to the scares and jumps at each event, says Stephen. Stephen says three more events are planned and while all are under the same “A nightmare on Flint Road” name, each will be slightly different. “Each event is going to have something different included in it. At each event we also have food trucks and live entertainment operating two hours before and during the event. This gives people the chance to have a feed and relax before or after getting scared.”
One of the events will also be less scary and more familyfriendly, he says. “This will happen during the daytime to make it less frightening.”
While the intention is to scare, the team have precautions in place at each event for people who find it too much, he says.
“If they want out, all they need to do is put two hands up and someone will take them to the nearest exit. We also do have strobe lighting in one of the scenes so please let one of us know if this will affect you.”
Stephen says there was a steady crowd of people through the gates for the first event, and he looks forward to welcoming both repeat customers and newbies to the next events.
“We had an amazing turnout despite the weather. There were lots of screams and we’re looking forward to the next event.”
For Genevieve Martin, the chance to get scared was worth the trip from New Plymouth.
“It was absolutely fantastic. It was so much fun and very scary.”
Anabelle Madden, who was in a group with Genevieve, says the chainsaw man right at the end was the scariest.
“He gave me the biggest fright. He came up behind me and chased us out of there. It was really scary but a lot of fun.”
For more photos from the first event, see this article on our website: www. stratfordpress.co.nz