About Creepy Caledonia
In 2007 I rounded up some of my classmates and coordinated a revival of the 1997 Haunted Mill event. We spent about a month planning everything out and on October 27th and 28th 2007, we pulled off a barely successful event. We spent hours and hours trying to work out the logistics. It was decided that we would have the haunted house in the 30x60 foot wedding tent owned by the Caledonia Old Mill Corporation. The sunlight shone through the canvas and the spooky atmosphere was non-existent. We decided that if we were going to hold another Halloween event that we would have to choose another location, preferably indoors.
In the summer of 2008, I made contact with the Caledonia Agricultural Society, who own and maintain the Caledonia Fairgrounds. The event fit perfectly and was scheduled to be held on October 31st and November 1st 2008 in the Exhibition Hall. Now all that was needed was a new name.
After lots of brainstorming we finally decided to use a play on words for our name. A popular TV show at the time was called Creepy Canada, we decided to call our event Creepy Caledonia. Now that we had the name we just needed to pull off a successful event.
We had absolutely no experience working with a space the size of the exhibition hall, and so the first Creepy Caledonia only filled about 3/4 of the hall. When the weekend was over the event was deemed a small success. There were some changes to be made, but it was agreed that it would be worthwhile to hold the event again the following year.
Some changes included: the reduction of the number of loud rock and roll bands, and a goal to gear the whole experience more towards kids and families. The biggest change was to hold the event only one day to reduce a little bit of the stress on all the volunteers. Creepy Caledonia 2009 and 2010 were much more successful than imagined.
In 2010 the 'Tunnel of Terror' was added with rave reviews by our guests.
Creepy Caledonia 2011 was a huge success. Many corporate sponsors made it possible for an expansion of the event. 2011 saw the first Creepy Caledonia Classic Car Show and other outdoor events which helped bring in more guests.
2012 is set to be a great year for Creepy Caledonia. On behalf of the entire group of volunteers and the Caledonia Agricultural Society, I would like to personally thank everyone for their support and enthusiasm over the past few years.
Sincerely,
Ian Thompson