To some parents, it’s back to school time. To kids,* it’s the winter holidays.**
To those of us that love Halloween, it’s time for Salem Haunted Happenings!
Holiday displays before Thanksgiving, 4th of July Peeps, and Halloween in August?
We Americans tend to overdo anything we find special or unique, especially if it is inherently limited, or seasonal. It is in our marketing/consumer nature to push it passed the saturation point, bringing it as far away from the reason we first fell in love with it as possible, either by extending the season, or making the limited unlimited.
Go ahead and put “Pumpkin Spice” in your search bar and see what comes up…
I mean… really? Pumpkin Spice Spam sold out in 7 hours. What have we come to? Is this irony, nostalgia, kitsch, or will certain people buy anything that remotely references something they once loved? Maybe they are doing it for the ‘gram. Starbucks released their PSL’s on August 27th this year. I don’t know what the weather was like where you live, but it was NOT a day I wanted to put on some flannel and sit by the fire sipping my latte. Even my beloved Walt Disney World decorated for Halloween and started Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties on August 16th. Full disclosure: we went to this party when we were there on August 27th. It was ridiculously hot and humid.
Because of this trend, I start to worry when tourists and tour buses start jamming our streets in early September, and think that maybe we are pushing the festivities too early. I understand that making the season longer helps to grab as much of that tourist revenue as possible, but thankfully we have enough going on in the summer that we don’t start October in August. We have an estimated 1 million tourists each year for maritime and literary history, museums, cultural festivals, and a bustling food and drink scene, but the word on the street is that most small businesses can make 50-80% of their annual income during the month of October alone.
What’s in a season?
We typically have 4 weekends of heavy activity each October, starting with the Haunted Happenings Parade (typically the first Thursday) to kick-off the official festivities, and ending with the fireworks on Halloween night. This year, the PEM opens it’s new wing to the public on September 28th. In celebration, they are offering free admission to all and hosting parties throughout the weekend. We also happen to have a Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival that weekend nearby on the common. For this reason, the Salem Visitor Information Booth is opening a week early to assist with the expected crowds.
The booth is delivered to its home for the next few weeks. It will be surrounded by flowers, decorations, and a rack for free maps and guides by the time you come visit. Photo Credit: Salem Main Streets
The booth is staffed by volunteers every weekend, plus some weekdays during special events (the parade, Farmers’ markets, Halloween, etc). If you look at the Haunted Happenings guide, you will see that there are special events every day in October, including new night markets on select Friday nights, and weekly specialty nights at most of the bars and restaurants, but there is a higher concentration of special things to do on the weekends, as the majority of tourists come in as day trips or overnights then.
But what are the crowds really like?
Have you ever been to a Disney Park during school vacation? Our city’s historic and cultural district spans just over 1 mile in length, and half a mile wide when looking at the map, yet, we can reach half a million people in that area just on Halloween night. On one of my Saturday shifts at the booth last year, I helped 474 people in 2 hours! I am, what I like to call, “Aggressively Helpful” when working the booth. I will walk up to people looking at GPS on their phones, or trying to read the giant map nearby (for some reason, it’s posted backwards, which isn’t obvious when you look at it). If those people wave me away and say they know where they are going, 90% of the time they come back to me saying they got lost and needed help. I will compliment costumes, give a smile and a warm “Welcome to my city!” or “Happy Halloween!” to every person walking by. If it’s cold, I will tap a time step. I have had people come back to thank me for my suggestions and ask me for more, and I’ve had people recognize me from helping them the previous year – it’s like they have a friend that lives in Salem! We only count people that we actually talk to, but can include whole groups, even if we only talk to one person from that party. That’s probably how I got 474, although a 3.5 people-per-minute average is not hard to do with families or groups, especially if they have a specific question. I also hand out maps to even more people that I don’t count. The final Saturday before Halloween last year, we had a bad nor’easter come through. There were many intrepid travelers out on the streets that day, undaunted by the weather (and they had already paid for their trip, so why not?), and I still ended up helping 108 people in my 2 hours. The very next day, the storm had passed, and I was back up to 450. All totaled, I personally helped 1967 people (officially – I don’t count the ones I help when just walking around town). The entire booth staff of 75+ volunteers helped over 22,000 tourists that season.
True story: I have yet to meet an angry or mean tourist at the booth.
People may be tired, frustrated, or hungry. They may have been sitting in traffic, or waiting in line for an hour for a haunted house that was a minute in length. They may be overwhelmed with how much is going on, but they are here to have fun, and they are choosing to chat with me, rather than relying on their smart phones. That’s not to say there aren’t tons of a-holes wandering around, getting drunk, and heckling performers. My friends in the service industry have nightmare stories about awful customers, or disrespectful tourists that treat our historic cemeteries like they were fake movie sets.
Tell me again why you love it? It sounds…awful.
I can see someone reading those numbers, or hearing complaints about waiting in line, or trying to drive through the city, could think that it’s too crowded or too frenetic, but I absolutely adore my city: its history, culture, and charm – it’s my little European Walking City right here on the North Shore of Massachusetts. When I first moved her almost 20 years ago, I griped about the traffic and ‘those tourists’ clogging my city, taking my seat in the restaurant, and crowding the sidewalks. My friends and I commiserated, and sighed heavily waiting for November to arrive, but as I got to know the city, and became friends with many of the business owners, I realized how much the city depends on the tourist industry – not only the shops and restaurants, but I’ve met many people that moved to Salem after having visited as a tourist.
What I didn’t explain above is that those 75+ volunteers are all Salem residents, like me, that volunteer our time. We do it because we love our city and we want to help other people to love it, too. We are an expanding family of dedicated, passionate, slightly kooky, people with a need to help others. This year, there are over 100 of us! This is wonderful, of course, but (selfishly) all these new people are taking my spots! I was only able to book 5 shifts this year, and the first one isn’t until October 13th. I’ll have to wait weeks! Oh well… I guess I’ll have to go rogue and walk around town with my “Ask Me, I’m a Local” button and a bag full of brochures…
I’ll create another post with this year’s booth highlights and running tally (like last year). Look out for at least one new outfit, too!
Make your plans now!
In 2020, there will be 5 weekends in October. Halloween 2020 will be on a Saturday… during a Full Moon… Book your hotels now, it’s going to be crazy!
*and kids at heart
**I know, the word “Christmases” appears in the chorus, but other than that, the song is a secular piece about the season of peace and good will to all.
Small Stuff 