It is that time of year again, a time when the leaves are changing colors, cool winds are beginning to blow, and Wal-Mart’s aisles are filling with pumpkins and candy. Halloween is just around the corner, and the MSU Block and Bridle Club is inviting all into the macabre world of Halloween on the Farm. Halloween on the Farm is an annual three-night fright fest involving a spooky hayride through the pitch-black pastures of MSU’s South Farm culminating at the infamous haunted barn.
Instead of the beef cattle that usually abide inside, courageous visitors will find the run-of-the mill animal pens transformed into creepy chambers filled with ghosts, zombies, demons and some favorite psychos and scenes from movies such as “Saw” and “Children of the Corn.”
The hauntings will happen Thursday, Oct. 25, Friday, Oct. 26, and Saturday, Oct. 27 beginning at 6:30 p.m. and continuing until fresh victims stop arriving, usually around 11:30 p.m. The $5 admission fee goes to support the Block and Bridle Club’s activities, including their trip to the Block and Bridle national convention in Kansas City, Mo., and their spring collegiate rodeo that benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Parking is available in the Rec Sportsplex at the intramural soccer fields. From there, willing terror-tourists will be loaded into converted cattle trailers in groups of approximately 15 people and taken across part of South Farm’s 1,100 acres to the cattle barn where around 40 costumed Block and Bridle Club members await to chill, intimidate and spook groups of unsuspecting victims. The trailers will then transport visitors back to the land of the living with a total tour time anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour.
Block and Bridle Club adviser Ann Leed said she is excited about this year’s event. She said last year saw about 475 people came out for the farm frights, but they are hoping for even more this year.
Last year’s attendance was likely dampened by rain during Thursday evening’s festivities and a home football game on Saturday. The Bulldogs are traveling to Kentucky during this year’s event, so that may help attendance. Friday and Saturday are usually the busiest nights.
Leed said they try to make Halloween on the Farm the best they can every year by making sure it will be fun for first-timers and returning visitors alike.
“Every year we try to make it a little bit scarier, something a little bit different. We don’t want to do the same [themed] room every year,” Leed said.
High school student Ariel Pittman recounts her experience of the 2005 Halloween on the Farm.
“I love anything that scares me, and the Haunted Barn did just that. I loved it, and wouldn’t mind going back this year,” Pittman said.
Halloween on the Farm is targeted more towards the high school and college age; so young children may become frightened. Children less than 13 years of age should have parental supervision, and the event is not recommended for children less than five years old.