Haunters Unite at the East Coast Haunters Convention!
Welcome ghouls and goblins to the very first East Coast Haunters Convention in Oaks, PA! This inaugural event is a trade show from same great minds that host both the Midwest Haunters Convention and the famous Transworld convention each year. ECHC is the very first haunt convention to grace the East Coast…and, coincidentally, it happens to be our very first haunt convention as well!
Upon our arrival, we were blown away by the registration line busting out the door and wrapping around several corners. Thankfully the line moved relatively fast, and we quickly ran into some familiar faces from our favorite local haunts. After getting our wristbands it was time to hit the show floor. Immediately we were blown away by the sights, sounds, and smells, mostly because of the Froggy’s Fog booth blasting various kinds of fog every few minutes. Never before have we seen so much spooky goodness all in once place. The show floor was a bit difficult to navigate at first, for three main reasons…
It was crowded…
We kept getting distracted by cool stuff…
We kept running into friends!
It felt like we couldn’t make it ten feet without saying hi to someone, which made the whole weekend feel like a big family reunion. It was wild to see different haunt staff and haunt content creators all in one place. One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing the special effects make-up demos by talented makeup artists from multiple different haunts including Laurel’s House of Horror, Field of Screams, and Pennhurst Asylum, in addition to other demos happening all day at the ProAiir makeup booth. Models were transformed into other-worldly beings before our very eyes, and we were so impressed to see the final reveals!
Among the many other incredible vendors, we were very excited to see the convention debut of Scaredy Bears. These terrifying teddys are given a new life by our friend and fellow haunter Saphire, who - until this event - had only sold her wears through an online storefront. Throughout the weekend we saw so many of her bears go home with happy customers…and don’t fret, we managed to grab two for ourselves before she nearly sold out!
We often found ourselves by the main stage for various activities and demonstrations, the first of which was the haunter relay race. Teams representing area haunts competed in a series of challenges that were highly entertaining for viewers. Never before had we seen such in intense game of flip cup. The show stealer though was definitely the “Hot Ones” adjacent hot sauce competition. The heat was on as contestants tried to outlast each other as the sauces got exponentially more intense. Apparently, ECHC set a new record for the Transworld convention circuit as a whole - with a total of nine contestants making it through the final round! At the far end of the con floor were props for photo ops supplied by Kim’s Krypt that we definitely took advantage of, as well as a guillotine carnival game from our friends at Field of Screams. This was the one area of the floor that may not have been utilized to its full potential, as there was plenty of empty space either for more vendors or other props/activities. Given the obvious success of this inaugural event, we would love to see the con expand more into this area next year.
Above: Haunters from several different haunts join forces for a great photo at East Coast Haunters Convention!
One thing that we did not cover in our vlog was the seminars that also took place at this event all weekend. These seminars are an additional charge and sold out very quickly as the classroom was quite small and could only hold a limited number of attendees. Topics for these seminars included fire and safety, marketing tips, haunt audio, scare acting, prop and set creation, makeup and costuming, among many more! This incredible event offered a wellspring of spooky fun and monstrous merch for haunt enthusiasts on in the Northeast, but it also offers true blue haunters an opportunity to learn, grow, network and acquire props and set pieces for their upcoming season(s). The fact that the event weekend happened to fall on Tim’s birthday just made the experience all the more memorable! HUGE thanks to Laurel’s House of Horror for gifting us our convention tickets. Join us for one of the best convention weekends we’ve ever had in our East Coast Haunters Convention event and experience vlog!
