By John Gerhardt
In a battle with nature, the Haunted gRAVEyard fought hard but lost. It lasted just half an hour before Hammond lost power in the Snowtober storm and forced the cancellation of the event.
However, the Fitchburg Activities Board and the Dance Club collaborated to bounce back: The Haunted gRAVEyard has been rescheduled for Friday, Dec. 16 from 8 p.m. to midnight in the main lounge in Hammond, followed by a one-hour after-party with DJs from WXPL.
It’s a final victory over a variety of problems that haunted the original event, beginning with the loss of Landry Arena as a venue.
“The state fire marshal inspected Landry and said the safety codes were out of date, so we won’t be having any events there,” said Cassie Schull, president of the Fitchburg Activities Board. “We couldn’t reserve the Rec Center either, because we couldn’t get enough people to help out with security in time.”
Time crunches, changing locations, getting the word out and dealing with sudden turns of events are a handful of things that plague event programmers. “Acts of God can’t be prevented, but we had 95 people in the first 10 minutes, 150 in 20, and we lost power in 30,” said Schull, recalling the October event. “They all stuck around waiting for the power to return, and we appreciate people for coming and understanding the situation.”
FAB would also like to give credit to Matt Claar, president of the Dance Club, for originating the idea.