Riverside will get spooky this weekend with the second annual Carved Experience scaring up both family-friendly and more frightening fun at the Briarcliff Waterfall.
Carved will run from 6 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, Oct. 19 at the waterfall and surrounding trails in Riverside. Admission is free, but some activities such as the haunted trail, fortune tellers and food vendors will have a separate fee. Parking is available on the site, or across the street at Red X. In case of rain, the event will be moved to Sunday, Oct. 20.
Hosted by the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, the event is the brain child of its executive director April Roberson.
“I’m a huge Halloween freak,” she said. Her grandmother created a haunted house in her garage when she was a child and Roberson said she never outgrew her love of the holiday. “When I started having my kids I would do the same thing for them.”
Last year, the event was launched in the E.H. Young Riverfront Park, which this year has been closed due to flooding. Roberson thinks the change of venue will give new life to the growing event, as the waterfall is more accessible and in a higher-traffic area of the city.
With her position at the chamber, Roberson thought Carved would be a good addition to the events offered around the Northland at Halloween, and give families an affordable option.
“I wanted to create an event where a family with a 17-year-old and a five-year-old can go together and there is something for everyone,” she said.
To that end, the chamber and its partners will offer a bounce house, face painting, balloon artists and a magician as well as side show performers, a contortionist and fire twirlers. Mid-Continent Public Library will tell ghost stories and popcorn, hot dogs, beverages and beer will be available for purchase. The event will also include a fortune teller, live DJ, raffle and two paved trails — the pumpkin trail featuring colorful carved gourds and the haunted trail, which will cost $10 per ticket.
Staffed by volunteer ghouls, the haunted trail promises nearly a quarter mile of scares and is recommended for teens and older. Many of the actors, in fact, are teens.
“We have a lot of teenagers doing community service hours working on the haunted trail,” she said. Adult volunteers are also welcome, with applications available on the website at carvedexperience.com. “We’ve got some adults that just love doing this kind of thing, and for people interested in theater it’s fun. They can create characters and get really into it.”
Tickets for the haunted trail are also available online for purchase, but area businesses are distributing coupons with discounts for the trail and other attractions.
The chamber is also searching for folks interested in carving pumpkins for the kid-friendly trail. All are welcome to bring a carved pumpkin to the site starting at 8 a.m. that morning. At the end of the night, carvers are free to take their pumpkins back home to enjoy. Pumpkins may be registered at carveorgetcarved@gmail.com.
For more information, check carvedexperience.com or the event page on Facebook.