With Halloween just around the corner, many University students are looking for ways to celebrate the holiday. Whether people are searching for the perfect hay ride in a pumpkin patch or just a way to scare themselves silly, Eugene has a wide variety of Halloween options available.
Scream in the Dark is a haunted house hosted by the Eugene Active 20-30 Club, a local nonprofit service organization benefiting children’s charities in Lane County. According to Arnie Morosky, the organization’s marketing chair, the haunted house features a maze of rooms, including a jungle room and graveyard. Local high school students volunteer for all the acting roles in the house, such as ghouls or prisoners, he said.
Scream in the Dark runs today through Sunday and Oct. 30 and 31 and is located at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Admission is $5, and participants can get $1 off with a coupon from Taco Bell, a Bi-Mart card or the donation of a jacket for the Coats for Kids campaign. All proceeds from the haunted house will go to 20-30 Club charities.
Spiral Star, another local nonprofit organization, is putting on an all-day, family-oriented Celtic festival Sunday at the Knights of Pythias Hall, located at 12th Avenue and Lawrence Street. According to Sue Sierralupé, the program director, the festival will offer costume and jack-o-lantern contests, a mystery maze, games, crafts and workshops.
At 7 p.m., Celtic band Tom’s Kitchen will perform, and at 8 p.m., there will be a public ritual honoring “faery folk,” Sierralupé said.
Workshops will run from 1 to 6 p.m. and include discussions about herbal magic and the four phases of the goddess, she said. While the workshops are for adults, the festival as a whole is family-oriented.
“Other (events) include children, but I want (this) to be for kids,” Sierralupé said.
Admission costs between $5 and $10, depending on how much attendees can afford, and they can get $1 off the entry price by donating a can of food to Food for Lane County. The festival runs from 1 to 10 p.m.
Lone Pine Farms, located north of Eugene at 91909 River Road, has several different activities for the Halloween season. According to Dan Murray, the operations manager, Lone Pine has a 10-acre corn maze open through Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m.
The maze is haunted each night beginning at 7:30 p.m., he said, and features actors carrying chainsaws or dressed as Dracula, to name a few. Admission for the maze is $4 for children under 12 and $6 for adults.
In addition to the corn maze, visitors to Lone Pine Farms can hitch a ride to the pumpkin patch on draft horses from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays until Wednesday, Murray said. The five largest pumpkins from the Northwest Growers pumpkin contest are also on display, he said, with one pumpkin weighing 1,100 pounds.
Lone Pine Farms also has a playground and a free petting zoo for children.
Detering Orchards, located about 5 miles north of Eugene in Harrisburg at 30946 Wyatt Drive, also has a pumpkin patch. Cindy Dixon, a clerk at the orchard, said it will offer hay rides from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and free apple cobbler and ice cream on Sunday. Children also receive a free small pumpkin at the orchard, she said.
Campbell Club, part of the Students’ Cooperative Association, is hosting a Halloween party tomorrow from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Betsy Hunt, the social coordinator, said The Sugarbeets, Kawaiea and Slipping Glimpser will perform at the party, along with several DJs. The party will be held at the Campbell Club, located at 1670 Alder St., and the cover is $6 with costume, $8 without.