Fresh Connections – The Parfitt Way Blog

The time has come.  It is now the most haunted season of the year.  The Kitsap County Fairgrounds have been transformed into the Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds, and if you’re itching for a good scare or simply a fun and thrilling thing to do on a Saturday night, make your way over to their chilling location in Silverdale.

Started in 2003, the “haunted house”, as it were, is located in three buildings on the fairgrounds.  The buildings are connected, and from the ticket booth guests are led (and followed by compellingly grim and macabre zombie actors) into the haunted maze.  The volunteers who act as ghouls and zombies for the event are terrifying.  I visited the haunted fairgrounds on Halloween night of 2008, and never made it past buying my ticket.  I was too afraid.  In fact, I (an 18 year-old at the time) was pursued out of the venue by a grisly and bloodily costumed 10 year-old actor, whose stares gave me the biggest chills I have ever experienced.  I proceeded to wait for my friends to finish the haunt.

Island resident Aryn Versteegh, 22, has also visited the Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds.  Unlike this writer, Versteegh made it through the ordeal.

“I really liked it,” she said.  “My favorite was when they chased us out (at the end) with a chainsaw!  They get you to do a lot and you think you’re safe, then you’re not!”

The Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds is run entirely by local volunteers who are partnered with Kitsap County Parks and Recreation.  This year, as part of a new partnership with the Kitsap-North Kitsap Rotary, all proceeds will directly benefit the local community and charities chosen by the Rotary organization.

The event will run for five more days in October –  the 18^th, 19^th, 25^th, 26^th and on Halloween – plus the first two days of November.  While they do have one hour when guests can experience the haunt with the lights on, I strongly encourage everyone to go for the full scare later on in the evenings!!

For more information on the Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds, or to find out how to volunteer, visit their website at www.kitsaphauntedfairgrounds.com.