Fright Night has been laid to rest in Bermuda

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28: Seven has proven an unlucky number for popular Hallowe’en party Fright Night.

Seven years after it first haunted our shores, the Volcanic Productions event has finally been laid to rest.

 The decision came by organizers after City of Hamilton made the historically-important Fort Hamilton an “off limits” location for the popular kids’ Haunted Playground and adults’ Fright Night dance party.

The party had been held at the Fort on five occasions but this week Parks superintendent Steven DeSilva told the Bermuda Sun that the event had proven “too damaging” to the shrub borders and foliage.

“There is inherently far too much plastics, non-organic fastenings, plastic ties and props used at the event. All sorts of things are lost in the shrub borders and aren’t found until weeks later.

“It is untenable — it requires goblins and ghouls to jump out and scare people and the shrub borders can’t take it. The trees and bushes and plants only see that type of damage as a result of a hurricane.”

Volcanic Productions’ Jon Legere, who is this year  organizing a similar event in Brooklyn, New York where he is now based, said: “It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to use the fort anymore. We had tried other venues but they didn’t compare to the fort — it’s the perfect venue for this. It was the closest thing we had to somthing like The Burning Man festival (in the Nevada desert).

“So many people, so many kids and so many parents loved the event. It was about creating a positive energy, supporting the arts and also raising money for the island’s charities.

“Bermuda needs positive events like this. It’s a shame we couldn’t work with City of Hamilton to figure out a situation where we could make it sustainable in the future such as hiring more cleaning staff or sectioning areas off. They only recently communicated to us that it was about the place being left untidy.”

DeSilva said that the fort is still used for public events that “pale into insignificance” compared to Fright Night such as private cocktail parties for exempt companies.