By KEVIN HOOVER
Over eighteen years and seventeen shows—damn you, COVID—SCAREFEST HORROR AND PARANORMAL WEEKEND has firmly rooted itself in the October itineraries of horror fans. This year, Lexington, Kentucky’s annual convention once again takes over the Central Bank Center from October 17th–19th, drawing tens of thousands of attendees the world over to three floors of meet-and-greets, tattoo contests, paranormal events and vendor booths.
The event goes bigger and bloodier than ever before, with the largest The Monster Squad reunion ever assembled, plus cast gatherings from My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th and Re-Animator. And, for the first time ever, attendees will be in the midst of the infamous Annabelle doll, as the Warren’s Occult Museum will welcome anyone daring enough to take a tour for an up-close view of the famed paranormal investigators’ cursed collection.
SCAREFEST Co-Owner Brandon Griffith and Event Director Adrienne Elder spoke with RUE MORGUE about the upcoming show.
Over the past eighteen years, SCAREFEST WEEKEND has steadily grown to becoming one of the largest horror and paranormal cons in the country. How did you guys get your start?
Brandon Griffith: The show was actually founded by Chuck and Patti Starr. They’re paranormal investigators in Kentucky, and that was back in 2008. It’s always been a convention center show, focusing on horror and the paranormal. And it’s always been a privately owned event that’s held in Lexington and it’s something we’ve been very proud to keep going. Chuck and Patti were the owners up until around 2016, and then my wife, Nicole, and I took over.
I started as a volunteer, and when Chuck and Patti decided to retire, I was lucky enough to be in a position to step in and kind of take the reins. Jumping headfirst into a horror convention, and a large one at that, there’s a learning curve—and we still learn something new every year.
Adrienne Elder: I started out with SCAREFEST at the beginning, and I went to the first-ever volunteer meeting because I enjoyed horror movies. I went with a friend of a friend, and I spent years volunteering.
Speaking of growth, the annual event draws thousands upon thousands of attendees from all over the world. How many fans are you expecting this year?
BG: We’re expecting between 30,000 and 40,000 over the course of three days. That wasn’t always the case!
For each of you guys, what’s the most rewarding—or even the wildest part—of the show?
AE: That’s a really easy one—it’s the community that SCAREFEST has grown into. It started with about 30 of us. We would have our volunteer meetings at a framing gallery in Lexington that Chuck Starr owned. We affectionately call our attendees our “ScareFam.” People have gotten married at our show. People get engaged at our show. They celebrate all of these milestones. Someone recently just shared a pic of their baby getting ready for her first SCAREFEST, and they’re like a month old! The sense of family is undoubtedly the most rewarding part that drives the whole thing.
BG: The activity that I enjoy the most the entire weekend is that Sunday. There’s about an hour that I get to clock out and I’ll take my 9-year-old daughter and go around the con floor. She sees this thing come to life that she’s watched us work on all year. And I’m friends with lots of the vendors and people we have there. We’ll walk around and vendors will come out and give her a high five or Felissa Rose will run around the table and come up to my daughter. She’s just blown away by it all.
And the fans—the fans that come in are absolutely phenomenal. There’s no fans on the planet like horror fans. SCAREFEST has turned into a big family reunion.
Horror cons are usually more than just that—they’ll encompass tattoo shows, art exhibitions and film fests. SCAREFEST, however, pays homage to its origins by giving paranormal coverage equal billing.
AE: Going back to the beginning, Patti and Chuck were ghost hunters, and they were approached by someone who wanted to do a horror convention. That’s where the amalgamation of horror and paranormal came from. And you don’t see it often.
Something that I’m really looking forward to this year is the Warren’s Occult Museum. It’s a great segue for horror enthusiasts who, maybe the paranormal isn’t their gig, but the Warren Museum houses objects that inspired films like The Conjuring series. That blending of the genres is very unique and it’s something that I always look forward to.
BG: Something that is really important to touch on is our staff and the people that make this thing happen. You’re not going to find a better quality of volunteers and staff that run an event. I would take the Pepsi challenge with our team against any show in the world. They care about the guests. They care about the vendors. Regardless of what celebrity we brought in, SCAREFEST would not be as successful without them, and especially Adrienne.
Aside from your recently announced plans for a new mid-year show in 2026, The Spawn of ScareFest, what does the future look like for the October event?
BG: In the last few years, the show has grown a lot. Attendance has continued to increase, and we’ve focused on being the best large convention center event that we can be, but with a hotel show feel. We’re staying true to our roots.
We keep getting better and better every year. And we focus on bringing people these events and experiences they can’t get in other places. We love the community feel. And (Spawn of ScareFest) will be a smaller, more intimate event that fans have been asking for. We’ve always focused on giving people what they want, and it seems like that’s the best avenue to go.
As people are reading this interview and making their plans, it would be easy for someone to feel like they could miss something because there’s so much going on over the three days. Aside from the guests and panels, what are some other activities that deserve special attention?
AE: The biggest thing would be for folks to look into the add-ons that we have—not just the paid events but all of the free and low-cost things that you can do. We have scaryoke, paranormal investigations, free bingo where you find different things around the show and then turn your card in for a prize. We have a full weekend of special effects classes, of which five of them are free and one is paid, but it’s hands on and you get a kit. There’s a ton of free events for kids—trick-or-treating, an evil laugh contest, a costume contest—it’s a whole experience. It’s not just come in, check out some vendor booths, buy some autographs and go home.
