Northern Kentucky will be stirring up some new scares for the haunt season with the addition of a new haunted hayride called Sandyland Acres Haunted Hayride. Let’s hear from Gene, manager of Sandyland Acres.
Gene expresses his feelings about horror in general and how his love for haunts has become a way to scare others.
Getting started in the haunt business happened by way of our love for scary movies and horror conventions. We traveled around the country to different places and we enjoyed it so much we wanted to find a way we could do something for ourselves and our family, along the lines of horror. After all we love going to haunted houses and even took some family to their first hayride and there in the late (Forties) they had the time of their life (love to see family members jump out of there skin). That hooked them, so off to plan our event!
Our family has been farming for 50 years, and each year it gets harder and harder on the farmers to make ends meet due to the cost of raising tobacco and other crops and labor being harder to find each year.
So we put our heads together and started thinking of a way we could use the farm in a different way and we decided we would try a haunted hayride.
After all we had the land, tractors, woods, and barns and a lot of horror knowledge. One thing we decided we would need would be a hearse. After months of searching we finally found one to our liking, but there is one thing about a hearse. No one wants to drive it, ride in it, or even go near it.
They believe it’s a bad omen. We use it for advertising, but still there are only a few select that will drive it. Oh well that has been are biggest setback as far as a prop.
Our planning and hard work is starting to come together, month by month. We never would have dreamed this would have taken a year to plan out and to prepare everything that is needed making a website, designing a flyer and getting the word out over the net. Finding actors is a real task and you have to really go and find all the resources every place possible. Props, masks, lighting, sound can be a real brain thinker. We are striving to make our first year the best to our ability and want nothing less but great entertainment for all ages .We hear so much from friends and families that there is no entertainment in our area and how much people love Halloween.
Advertising is a very costly and important part of an event such as this, which is new to the area. We took photos for our website and our ads and that was a task in itself. Having grown men dress up that have never put a costume on in their life is a sight to behold. We are talking farmers now who have never even been around scary masks and props. Trying to direct where to stand and what to do was like having kids at their first Halloween party.
We have checked out our area and there are very few haunted attractions around for people to go too. And I do feel that people will think that it was more than they expected to experience as we hope to expand the hayride in the next few years. We have so many good ideas, but unfortunately we can’t fit it all in this year.
Visit our website: www.sandylandacres.com
Thanks,
Sandyland Acres Staff