Fall is in the air even with St. George still at 80 degrees.
We are nearing Halloween night, and I went out and experienced three events only featured this time of the year.
Staheli Family Farm
3400 S. Washington Fields Road
Washington, Utah
The Staheli Family Farm started out with a corn maze to promote agriculture education for children and now has grown into a Halloween extravaganza, said Sherri Staheli, one of the owners of the Staheli Family Farm.
The Field of Screams is the main attraction for college students at the Staheli Family Farm. I advise you to get there early as there are three long lines, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds.
“It isn’t a dinner and movie,” Staheli said. [The Staheli Family Farm experience] is unique, and it only comes around once a year. The haunt only gets better as it goes.”
The Starving Student Card is the only discount offered for Field of Screams, which will get you and a friend in for about $13.
This was my second year going to the Field of Screams. I am a little harder to scare than most people, but I had a good time watching my roommates shriek as we went through the clown-infested room. We tiptoed through the chainsaw-protected Corn Maize and fought to keep our balance as we crossed the bridge in the spinning rainbow-colored tunnel. If you’re the scaredy-cat, just make sure to bring a few of your brave friends to hold onto.
Dixie State University Halloween Art Exhibit
North Plaza
As I walked through DSU’s first Halloween exhibit, I enjoyed taking the time to talk to Samantha West, a junior English major from Salt Lake City and Halloween Exhibit juror, to learn a little more about some of the pieces.
Her featured art piece, “Familiar” was created with colored pencils and water color pencils, a medium I had not heard of before.
“The water-color pencil has a creamy texture and the ability to draw and then when you drip water over it, it acts like a water color,” West said. “It was a fun medium that I have never tried before.”
West’s piece is a black cat sitting amongst pumpkins with a background full of skulls, candy and spiders trying to capture the nostalgia of Halloween as a kid. Another piece was one you could actually wear. Earrings hung on a near by display at the exhibits entrance made from guitar picks with different colored skulls hanging on the bottom themed with its featured character and its color. Of course, the earrings were for sale if you wanted to display the art from your ears this Halloween.
West said the exhibit brings some of the Halloween spirit that we don’t really have at DSU.
“It is a holiday that lots of people enjoy and this is a new way to celebrate it,” West said.
The Halloween art exhibit will be on display until the end of October and is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuacahn Center for the Arts
1100 Tuacahn Drive
It’s true — mummies, vampires and zombies exist, and they come to life at night at the Tuacahn Center for the Arts.
The air was damp, and the smell of wet sagebrush was in the air. Clouds touched the top of the red cliffs as I walked past zombies to find my seat to watch “Thriller,” a Halloween dance concert, at the Tuacahn Center for the Arts Monday.
The chilly weather felt appropriate, with most of the audience wearing a few extra layers and some wrapped up in blankets. I half expected a lighting bolt from a lingering storm to hit the stage and bring Frankenstein and his bride to life.
The show was mostly comical, but a few scenes were more on the horrid side. The scenes were segmented with videos of dancing Stormtroopers by YouTuber Scott David Winn; I wish the Stormtroopers could have been on stage rather than just on screens.
My favorite scene by far was from the “Children of the Corn.” It played out a short story between teenagers and haunted scarecrows in a corn maze. The scene gave me a nostalgic feeling of mixed fear and giddiness as I watched the teenagers’ reactions, which varied between horror and comedy as the scarecrows danced to life.
Kiana Little, a dancer with Odyssey Dance Theatre, said Halloween is her favorite time of year and has been celebrating it continually for the last four years by performing for “Thriller.”
“[Halloween] is just still so much fun, even when you are all grown up,” Little said. “The show is hard, grueling and hurts your body, but it’s an awesome way to interact with the audience.”
“Thriller” will be performing at the Tuacahn Center of the Arts until Saturday.
