PORT LEYDEN, New York (WWNY) – Port Leyden has opened up an old opera house just in time to make it haunted for Halloween.
“We ended up picking out the opera house because it feels like it’s haunted,” said Nancy Fruin, Port Leyden Festival Committee.
The Port Leyden Festival Committee came together with the goal of giving back and trying to recreate a sense of community within the village.
“We wanted to do something for the community, and we came up with a haunted house,” said Fruin.
“I think that Port Leyden has been yearning to come back to being a community again. I think with these events that we are going to be holding that I think that people are going to come out,” said village Mayor Shawn Smith.
The haunted house is open on Saturday, October 22, and Saturday, October 29. Children under seven are welcome from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Older kids and adults are welcome back to face their fears after 6 p.m.
“Oh, it’s going to be scary for the adults. I’m not going to give anything away. The children, we’re not going to scare them too much. They will have little things that they can look at,” said Fruin.
Along with a kids zone, there is a haunted graveyard across the street from the opera house, a witch dance down Main Street at 6 p.m., and concessions outside in the parking lot.
“We want to be unique. We want to have a haunted house here; we want to make it annually. We’ll expand, we’ll put more thought into it, and come next year we’ll have something new for everybody,” said Smith.
Admission to the haunted house is $5 for adults and $2 for children under 7 years old. The money raised will go back to the village to use for future community-related events and festivals.
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