Although it was monstered by gathering clouds earlier in the day, the sun eventually appeared to ensure that hundreds of local children and their caregivers will be haunted by happy memories of last night’s annual Halloween Island extravaganza in Queen Elizabeth Park.
The Masterton District Council [MDC] event was already heaving with crowds of creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, and altogether ooky scare seekers shortly after it began at 4pm.
The Fright Train was continuously packed with frightfully pleased passengers, Hollywood horror characters rubbed shoulders and the occasional severed limb with visitors, and Coronation Hall – reincarnated as a haunted house by Wai Techs and the Wairarapa College drama department – already had a terrifyingly long queue outside when it opened at 4.30pm.
At print time, when there was still an hour of scary fun to go, the only awful incident to be reported was that scammers on social media had been claiming to have tickets for sale and a pay-per-view livestream for what was an entirely free MDC event – something that Mayor Gary Caffell described as “really disappointing”.
