ELORA – Grab your witch’s hat and black cat. Things are about to get frightening in Centre Wellington.
October is Monster Month and with modifications to thwart that scary coronavirus that’s ever in the background, the village is continuing its tradition of celebrating Halloween with a month’s worth of monsters, haunted walks, and front yard displays scary enough to keep the crows away.
The tradition begins and is centred around the Twilight Zoo – a collection of monsters created by local artist Tim Murton.
You’ll find an array of these strange creatures wrapped around light posts, hanging in trees, looming over business entrances, and peeking around corners if you wander downtown Elora in October.
Spooky by day, they are even creepier at night when lights throw shadows, and they feel alive.
Murton started installing them around the village some 20 years ago and added more each year.
Local businesses, community groups, and individuals added events to give residents and visitors more to do on a visit to the village than just look at monsters.
Eventually the collection became too big for one man and five years ago, Murton announced the monsters were for sale.
“At that time, we didn’t want to lose Monster Month in Elora so Sensational Elora bought them,” said Kirk McElwain, a Centre Wellington councillor and chair of Sensational Elora.
Since then, a Monster Month committee has formed that includes Wellington County Museum and Archives, the Elora Centre for the Arts, Grand River Raceway, Elora and Fergus Tourism, and numerous individuals, community groups and local businesses.
“It’s a pretty large, active committee and we have a lot of events,” McElwain said. “But the Twilight Zoo is the main infrastructure it’s built on.”
Volunteers have been working on the monsters for the past five weeks, preparing them for installation and the committee has been finalizing details on the other Monster Month events.
This scarecrow display was one of last year’s Walk and Gawk winners. Submitted photo
There’s also a webpage, monstermonth.ca, and that’s been growing too, McElwain said.
Along with a calendar of events during the month, there a page for local businesses to post their Monster Month specials.
There will also be a map of the monsters’ locations and QR codes at some of the sites that take the participant to a story about a monster or a spooky historical fact.
“We’ve been trying to expand every year to make it bigger and better,” McElwain said, adding that in 2019 the website got 300 hits and last year it got 5,000.
Murton has made some more monsters, “so there are a couple of new ones this year,” McElwain said.
“The demand for them is expanding every year. Over time they’ll probably be in Fergus too.”
Monster Month includes a corn maze, the Fergus Ghost Walks, cemetery tours, a Zombie Walk, the Spooktacular Market, and more events are being added.
A big feature of Monster Month is the Monster March, a parade without motorized vehicles – just a ton of people in costume.
The march would attract dance groups, marching bands, community groups, cheerleaders, individuals, and families.
Julie Denneny is the brainpower behind the Monster March and last year created an alternative activity called Walk and Gawk, when the pandemic meant the parade couldn’t go on. That is the case this year, too.
There are two parts to Walk and Gawk.
First are the individuals and families who create Halloween displays at their homes. Displays must include a scarecrow. These entries are registered on a map and then from Oct. 20 to 31, residents are invited to cruise through Centre Wellington, check the displays, and vote for their favourite.
Prizes have been supplied by local businesses for first, second and third place winners.
“It’s all volunteer,” Denneny said in an interview. “For me it’s all about building community.”
There were 38 participants last year and Denneny is hoping for at least that many this time around. Participants must live in Centre Wellington – that includes Fergus, Elora, Aboyne and Salem.
“Some were cute and funny, some were scary, but it was family-friendly and nice to see so many creative ideas,” she said.
Anyone who wants to participate should email a photo of their display to halloweenelora@gmail.com and they’ll be emailed a pdf of the map to pin their location and a number to identify their display.
“Gawkers” can then plot their course from the map and take in as many displays as they can, voting for their favourite by sending a message to the same email account.
The winners will be announced Nov. 1.
Denneny said as a kid, she was shy and creative, which often left her feeling out of place.
“On Halloween though, I could be different and creative, and it was okay,” she said
“So now it’s my thing. And Halloween is such a big thing around here.”
Visit monstermonth.ca for info about all the devilishly spooky events taking place in October.
