Colorado Festival of Horror 2021: Day 1 (Friday)

 

Pre-Con Start 

To start off with we got to this con way too early. We were worried about getting a parking space, but even an hour before the con there was still parking. So… getting there 4 hours early was a bit much… Even with that the hotel itself was ready to go. They already had water stations in place, unlike how the mess we had dealt with the previous weekend at the Gaylord hotel. Note to all, an expensive hotel does not equal a good hotel. We had to wait for some time until the press room was ready so we chilled in the main sitting area of the hotel. Several staff members of the hotel checked in on us during that time to see if there was anything we needed or that they could get us. It was a little annoying, but at the same time it showed that the staff was on point in trying to meet people’s needs. 

This con turned out to be the first con where I was official press. Even though I have covered other cons this was the first one I was official at. My first one was supposed to have been Colorado Anime Festival, but that con got pushed back again to next year. I really didn’t know what to expect. The media contact for this con was Smurf and he was great. When we first checked in he told us about the recording equipment he had for us to use for interviews. Internally I was unsure of what to do. I hadn’t planned on doing any interviews since Geeked Colorado is still new, but I also thought it would be a great chance to expand what Geeked Colorado could offer. Don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel to check out the interviews.  Also, on at least one interview the audio recording went longer then the video. I’m still trying to figure out how the get the audio recordings up.

Before the con I also had fun wandering around taking pictures of all the cool decorations they had up. I’m not normally big on selfies, but this was a lot of fun with all the scary stuff. 

Panels 

6-6:45pm: From the Case Files of Rocky Mountain Paranormal with horror historian Bryan Bonner

We will learn about the haunts and history of the Colorado Vampire, the Ghosts of the Colorado State Capital, and the inspiration of the movie The Shining, The Stanley Hotel.

This was a great panel that Bryan even had a PowerPoint for it.

Notes:

            -The Colorado Vampire: Lafayette Colorado. Only ghost hunters have had experiences here  and not the locals. There are two graves – Theodore Glavia & John Trandafir, and they both die during the time of the Spanish flu. People think that the legend came from one of them being from Transylvania.

-Colorado State Capital: There were once tunnels that ran between the capital, hotels, the brothels, and bars. These tunnels are no longer in use and many have been filled in or blocked off. Some of the legend comes from the Bloody Espinosa Brothers (1863). Their heads were stored in the tunnels because the staff didn’t know where else to store them.

-Stanley Hotel: Stanley was an inventor with many important inventions accredited to him. It opened on June 22, 1909. Stephen King had 2 personal experiences here that helped to inspire his book. Most ghost hunter shows fake things here just so they can get footage. Bryan had the government do soil samples here that proved many of the myths wrong, but people in the paranormal community will not accept these findings and continue to spread the myths. 

7-7:45pm: Lost In The Dark: A History of Horror Films with Author Brad Weissman and moderated by Daniel Crosier 

This panel was mostly focused on the author trying to sell his book. It was designed as a survey book that would be good for film schools/classes. It also had a college text book price of $25 for soft cover.

Notes:

                -Advice from Weissman, “write the book you want to read.”

                -Horror is a threat or something that disturbs you.

                -He also recommended seeing the movie Night of the Lepus. 

Other Events 

8:45-10pm: Jigsaw Horror Trivia with Bryan Bonner and Jack Hanley

This trivia was actually really hard on some of them. During the game they would also give out random prizes and Twinkies. We walked away with 4 Twinkies. Mom and I tied for 3^rd place with only 2 correct answers. The sudden death match between me another girl to break the tie had us list all the movies we could that were directed by one person. I got 2…she had a lot more and won. I need to work on my horror trivia. The said thing is later during the con several of the answers would be given in different panels. That’s ok, there is always more for a person to learn. The 3^rd place prize was a statue and a Ouija board. My mom kept yelling at me to just let her win since she didn’t want it in the house. We’ll go with I let the other person win….

10pm: Horror Charity Raffle for My Quiet Cave

Between my mother and I we put in $31. We didn’t win anything, but the money went to a good cause. Some of the prize bundles were really cool. There was everything from movie night packages to the hottest item being a Lucifer blanket/pillow set that everyone was trying to get.

After the raffle we decided to call it a night so that we could get back early the next morning.

Event descriptions came from: https://cofohorror.com/program/ 

Picture 1 from: https://www.facebook.com/cofohorror/videos/

All other pictures were taken by Geeked Colorado at the event.