The Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds will be the setting for ghostly goings-on this Halloween.
For the first time, the popular gardens will be the backdrop to spooky sketches performed by students from West Suffolk College.
The Ghostly Gardens extravaganza on October 31 will also see activities including pumpkin carving, face painting and a Ghostly and Macabre Tour around the town.
Zombeyonce, Deadmot O’Leary and Heidi Glum are just three of an array of spooky characters who will be starring in a Trick or Treat Tour performed by 12 college students. The interactive comedy sketches will be behind a series of doors in the gardens as the trick or treaters - members of the public - come calling.
Joanna Rayner, St Edmundsbury Borough Council cabinet member for leisure and culture, said: “It sound like the students have been having an awful lot of fun putting the Halloween sketches together. Apart from Zombeyonce and Deadmot O’Leary presenting their own spooky version of the aXe Factor, I hear there will also be a skeleton fashion show and one or two witches up to no good. It is a delight to host the students, and with the support of our two sponsors, exciting to be able to stage such a special and unique Halloween event in the gardens for the first time.”
The Trick or Treat Tour will involve groups of 20 guests being guided around each of the doors by “scary” stewards, who are also students on the Level 2 Performance and Productions Arts Course at West Suffolk College’s Conservatoire East.
Erica Dupuy, course director for performing and production arts at Conservatoire East, said: “The students are very much looking forward to the event after working on their sketches as part of their course work. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes with other students working on props, costumes and makeup and we hope people enjoy the evening’s entertainment.”
The Ghostly and Macabre Tour, led by the Bury St Edmunds Town Guides, will start from the Abbey Gate at 7.30pm. The gardens will also be hosting pumpkin carving, craft activities by Moyse’s Hall Museum, face painting, food and drink stalls, fun fair rides, side stalls and ‘Eye-ball’ golf. There will also be fancy dress prizes for those who come in costume.
The event is being supported by Abbeycroft Leisure and Musker McIntyre Estate Agents and Financial Services.
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