Illustration by James Callahan
“I believe that demons take advantage of the night to mislead the unwary — although, you know, I don’t believe in them.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, as quoted by Philadelphia editor George Rex Graham in 1877
We think Poe, a part-time Richmond resident, would have enjoyed two of the city’s most fright-filled ongoing traditions: the annual Halloween Parade hosted by All the Saints Theater Company, and the Zombie Walk, both of which mark their 20th anniversaries this month.
Puppets on Parade
During the gloaming of Oct. 31, 2006, the All the Saints Theater Company Halloween Parade formed up in Monroe Park with 60 costumed celebrants, some of whom were manipulating big, deliberately tatterdemalion puppets; the swarming Cutthroats Bicycle Club formed a protective screen. A top-hatted Lil Lamberta, a Richmond native and veteran of the world-touring, socially conscious Bread & Puppet Theater, led off the “Funeral for Prometheus.”
The artist, who uses they/them pronouns, wanted to continue the Bread & Puppet experience, which they had reluctantly left due to family health concerns. Lamberta sought to emulate the group’s mission in their own way, but held no expectation that their event would not only survive, but endure. “Every year, once we take the street, I feel this massive exhale,” they explain. “I get to lock in and enjoy it.”
The All the Saints Theater Company Halloween Parade traverses Oregon Hill on Oct. 31. It embarks from Monroe Park at 7 p.m. and ends at Pleasants Park. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Wending through the streets of Oregon Hill, the parade is reminiscent of a New Orleans Second Line procession and a Day of the Dead ritual. Annual themes have included 2015’s “Funeral March of Individual and Collective Depression,” 2017’s “Funeral for the Confederacy,” and 2019’s eerily prescient “Funeral March For Life As We Had Wished It.”
The parade has never asked for permission, which provided some challenges in the first few years. During the fifth or sixth event, Lamberta recalls, an officer approached them for information and another officer intervened with, “It’s the Halloween parade,” as though everyone should know.
Boldly carrying anti-establishment messages, the parade champions making life better for everybody, but it’s also a joyous Halloween mixture of Richmond elements: a punk gothic celebration with blasting brass and strumming bluegrass, twirling winged fairies, gamboling costumed characters familiar and original, glowing bicyclists, amazing stilt walkers, enormous puppets manipulated with rods, and vehicles tricked out for a treat of music and merriment. Oregon Hill’s tree-humped herringbone sidewalks crowd with excited spectators.
Lamberta, now a mother and a registered nurse, didn’t foresee the numbers of either participants or observers, nor anticipate the eagerness with which the neighborhood embraced the event. “I’ve had people come up to me and say they moved into Oregon Hill because of the parade,” Lamberta says.
While living in New York but contemplating the decision to leave a life they loved, Lamberta went to Bread & Puppet founder Peter Schumann for advice. “‘You will go home, and you will do what you do here, there,’” Lamberta recalls him counseling. “It was an a-ha moment … and I love, love, love Halloween.”
Around the same time, a longtime friend, teacher and artist, Happyanne All the Saints Kuhn — a daughter of the locally renowned Happy the Artist — died of cancer at age 25. “She symbolized a person with a pure, sweet, generous disposition,” Lamberta recounts. “I felt I had a lot to learn from her.”
Raised Catholic but not “aligned with all that,” Lamberta nonetheless considered the real persons behind exalted martyrdom and the ceremonies of remembrance. Thus came the name of the company and the nature of the Halloween parade.
All the Saints Theater uses crowdfunding to support the technical and security aspects of the event, which includes cycling “ushers” to keep side streets clear. “We learned to have a vehicle at the back to protect us,” Lamberta reflects. “The first year, a driver tried to run through. It’s a scary world — there’s no denying that. But that’s one reason the art is so important: It keeps us grounded and fighting back.”
(From left) Josh Bishop and Anthony Meñez organize the Richmond Zombie Walk, which shuffles through Carytown beginning at 3 p.m. on Oct. 25. (Photo courtesy Richmond Zombie Walk)
Reanimated Richmond
Among the lurching platoon of groaning zombies that progresses through Carytown every October is one with a bushy mustache and a fez. The “Dead Mason,” also known as Anthony Meñez, is the leader of the undead pack.
Explaining the origin of the Richmond Zombie Walk, Meñez says of his friend and event co-founder, Roger Barr, “We were web designers. I knew from work he did crazy things. He had his own site, I-Mockery. He was really into weird games, and he’s a super Halloween fan.”
Inspired by the popularity of flash mobs and the cultural preoccupation with zombies, Barr used I-Mockery to collect phone numbers and arrange the first corpse crawl in 2005. “It felt like we were some kind of covert organization,” Meñez recalls.
On the appointed Saturday, at least 50 zombies assembled at a public park near Barr’s house. When a concerned police officer pulled over to inquire about the goings-on, Barr explained it as a kind of Halloween party. The plan was to surprise shoppers at Short Pump Town Center, but before the horde could leave the park a second officer arrived to announce that mall security had been tipped off and intended to cite them for trespassing. “He told us, ‘If you go down there, it won’t be good,’” Meñez recounts.
So, there they stood, dressed for the undead and nowhere to go. A brief discussion occurred: Stony Point Fashion Park? Same problem. Carytown, with its public sidewalks? Yes!
Some 80 zombies met in the Kroger parking lot. They shuffled down the Cary Street sidewalk to The Byrd Theatre and back, groaning “bra-a-a-a-ins” as they went, but careful to obey crossing signals.
Reactions from onlookers ranged from laughter to disgust. Some shoppers ducked into stores, while a few blase cafe habitues feigned indifference. “Our instructions were: Don’t touch anybody, or any property, or scare anybody,” Meñez states. Those rules remain, as well as prohibitions against weaponry, profanity, speed walking and other forms of disorderly conduct.
The following year, Barr moved to Los Angeles but encouraged Meñez and his friend Josh Bishop to continue the crawl. The numbers grew, costumes became more elaborate and a competition was born with categories such as Most Disgusting and Best Pop Culture Theme. The event attracts young and old. “It’s nice to know we’ve been around so long that families have integrated our event into their annual traditions,” Meñez says. Event organizers request that each reanimated rambler make a small, optional donation, which since 2022 has benefited Suicide Awareness and Prevention. “We don’t make that much money,” Meñez admits, “but we wanted to do some good, rather than looking like a bunch of people with nothing better to do.”
People usually don’t recognize Meñez out of his Dead Mason outfit. The costume has changed through the years — the fez idea came from his wife, Audrey — but not the character, and participants expect him. “I get stoked to do it every year,” Meñez enthuses. He’s told his twin brother, Myk, a professional photographer, “If anything happens to me, you have to take over.” —Harry Kollatz Jr.
The Richmond Zombie Walk takes place Saturday, Oct. 25; for details see richmondzombiewalk.com and instagram.com/richmondzombiewalk. All the Saints Theater’s Halloween Parade takes place on Friday, Oct. 31; see cargocollective.com/allthesaintstheaterco and instagram.com/allthesaintstheater.
TRICKS
Photo by Justin Vaughn
Halloween is a night of mischief and ghoulish frights, and the local scene exudes spooky lore, scary costuming and skeleton-chic decor
Bona Fide Frightening
It’s perched above the street corner or peering over a backyard fence with hollow eyes and a menacing stature. When Home Depot first launched its 12-foot-tall skeleton yard decorations in 2020, few could have predicted their popularity. These days, if you walk around North Side, Church Hill or the Museum District this time of year, you’ll see giant skeletons in honor of the season. Some of them, such as SkelēRVA in the Museum District, stick around to celebrate more than just Halloween. Since October 2021, Justin Bowers has literally kept Skelē hanging on — the skeleton has been securely welded mid-climb to Bowers’ house at Kensington Avenue and Roseneath Road — with custom decorations and outfits that have delighted passersby on major holidays and local events, like the Carytown Watermelon Festival. “It became a regular staple in the neighborhood, and everyone has been very accepting of it,” Bowers says. —Kevin Johnson
Photo by Megan Irwin
Movie Palace Poltergeists
As you would expect of a building that has stood for nearly a century, Carytown’s Byrd Theatre is home to at least two ghosts. Robert H. Coulter Sr., the theater’s manager from its opening in 1928 until his retirement in 1971, had a favorite seat in the balcony. “Before we replaced the seats, that one would regularly be in the down position even when it was put up,” says Operations Manager Samuel Hatcher. Several paranormal investigation teams have visited The Byrd, he adds. “They asked [Coulter’s ghost] what the last movie he saw at the theater was. His answer was ‘Gone with the Wind,’ and that he hated the movie.” Hatcher says the nameless ghost of a young girl is found primarily in the downstairs women’s restroom; people have reported hearing her scream. Hatcher himself has seen doors slam shut or open seemingly on their own and watched old film shuffling as if someone had walked by. —Bailey Miller
Photo illustration by Justin Vaughn
Paranormal Personalities
Certain local cryptids live on through shared sightings and vintage reports of monster-like beings. Rumors of the Richmond Vampire date back a century to Manchester native William Worthington Poole, who was interred in a Hollywood Cemetery mausoleum where sightings of bloodied, fanged figures have been reported since. Then there’s Elmer, the name given by Georjie Douglass in 1935 to an unknown creature that frenzied locals; more than likely Elmer was an opossum family roaming the streets. The Goochland Devil Monkey — a six-foot, noisy woodland creature seen and heard in the county — has been sighted semiregularly since the 1950s and even inspired the name of a now-shuttered ice cream parlor. —KJ
Photo by Justin Vaughan
Boogeyman Bargains
As the season of goblins and ghouls approaches, one thing’s sure to make your skin crawl: overpriced costumes. Fortunately, Richmond’s secondhand stores are ready with a rescue. Local shops set aside fall-themed donations year-round to roll out once October returns, helping customers bring their Halloween visions to life.
The Clothes Rack on Cary Street offers discounted prices on spooky goods during weekly Friday happy hours. Manager Chris Hague says, “The cool thing about thrifting is that the stuff is different every year. It’s great for anyone looking to shop sustainably and nonprofit.”
Hague encourages shoppers to exercise their creativity and opt for DIY costumes. His pointer for perusers? “Come in with an inspiration photo or two. We love to help; we’ll always know where to find that thing you’re looking for.” —Anna Kiepke
Eerie Experiences
Haunted houses, terror trails, fright farms and even a creepy car wash
Tunnel of Terror
Enjoy fun and fright from the comfort of your car — and end the experience with a clean ride at Tommy’s Express in North Chesterfield. Select dates in October. tommys-express.com/tunnel-of-terror
Journey Haunted Trails
Choose your own unearthly adventure at New Hope Church in New Kent, where two walking trails offer old-school scares. Saturdays in October. newhope.tithelysetup4.com/events
Terror on the Farm
Ashland Berry Farm is Hanover’s home to horror once night falls. Select dates in October. ashlandberryfarm.com/hauntedfarm
Total Terror Haunt
In Powhatan, join a paranormal team to exorcise evil, then explore a corn maze with a sinister reputation. Weekends through Oct. 31. totalterrorhaunt.com
Red Vein
Four terrifyingly immersive haunts take guests inside an elaborate and unsettling legend at Hanover Vegetable Farm. Weekends through Nov. 1. redveinhaunt.com
Creepy Hollow Scream Park
The region’s longest-running haunted attraction has added a new trail and a bonfire break area in Glen Allen. Weekends through Nov. 1. richmondscreams.com
Halloween Haunt
Kings Dominion shows its darker side with haunted mazes, scare zones and spine-chilling shows. Select dates through Nov. 2. kingsdominion.com
—Mindy Kinsey
Note: Most haunted attractions are not recommended for children. Many require advance ticket purchases online.
TREATS
It wouldn’t be Halloween without some sweets and festive eats. From confectionaries to the best spots for trick-or-treating, Richmond has plenty on offer to score some sugary joy. Plus, check out some elaborate illuminated seasonal displays.
Photo courtesy A Secret Forest
Confection Destinations
When you want special treats for your Halloween honey or a Friend-o-ween fest, head to one of RVA’s numerous candy kitchens and specialty shops.
If you’re a sucker for handmade lollipops, look to A Secret Forest for candy-encased skulls, black cats and other Halloween themes.
Prefer all things chocolate? Pop into Chocolate Cravings on Lakeside Avenue for white or dark bark with fruit or nuts. Gearharts Fine Chocolates offers its Charlottesville-made assortment at a bespoke store in Short Pump. Find Miss Maude’s multiflavor bars at the source on Three Chopt Road. And when you need a little of everything, Carytown’s For the Love of Chocolate and Westhampton’s Zazoli Sweets are both packed with candy from around the world, including trendy freeze-dried varieties and pistachio-packed Dubai chocolate. —MK
Photo courtesy Fan District Association
Sweet Spots
About half of Americans hand out candy on Halloween, so plenty of homes are hoping for visits from vampires, Minecraft Steve and the occasional skibidi toilet. Trick-or-treaters looking for a big haul, however, can consider a few tried-and-true spots beyond your neighborhood.
For more than four decades, one hot spot has been the 1900 to 2300 blocks of Hanover Avenue in the Fan. For a safe and fun time, the Fan District Association suggests walking in numbers and making yourself visible to any drivers.
Another popular option is attending a free community event. From 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture hosts its annual trick-or-treat celebration. The final Squirrel-o-Ween at The Diamond (before the team moves to CarMax Park) is set for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. Your local government, especially its law enforcement and fire departments, also routinely hosts trunk-or-treat events; check their social media for more details. —Mark Newton
Best of the Rest
A good Halloween candy haul results in a sugary shower of overabundance. The trick can be knowing what to do with so many treats.
While candy can be frozen to eat later, the tastiest solution for leftover sweets is to repurpose them. Try adding chopped Milky Way or Snickers bars or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to brownies, accenting toffee with M&Ms, or topping sugar cookies with your many, many Jolly Ranchers to make stained-glass sweets.
Donating candy is an excellent way to encourage little ones to be generous. Children can give candy to their teachers and school staff or leave a bowl out at home for delivery drivers or maintenance workers. Programs like Treats for Troops and the Halloween Candy Buyback facilitate the collection of candy to be delivered to soldiers. And of course, check your nearest food bank’s regulations to see if they accept candy donations. —Kelsey Robinson
Photo by Rich von Schmidt-Pauli
Get Lit
When it comes to Halloween decorations, Richmonders are going all out with tacky lights that rival the Christmas season. Lyndsi Austin, owner of RVATukTuk, says, “It just seems to have gotten bigger and bigger every year.” She offers private Halloween tours inside Tuk Tuk vehicles.
Discover Richmond Tours offers Spooky Lights Tours by bus, while the Ashland Spooky Lights Tour, a self-guided option, maps historic homes aglow with ghostly splendor.
Find bonus seasonal lights at the Science Museum of Virginia during Science After Dark: Spooky Science on Oct. 17, featuring a Halloween laser show, themed STEM activities and “The Power of Poison” exhibition. —Nicole Cohen
Edible Antidotes
Photo courtesy Jiji Frozen Custard
Straight Outta Coffin
This cute li’l grave comes with a scoop of your choice plus brownie bites, hot fudge, Oreo “dirt,” creepy crawler gummies and a tombstone cookie. Buried in there is your heart.
Die Tai
If you wear black on the outside but you don’t feel quite black enough on the inside, this activated charcoal-laced Mai Tai will get you the rest of the way there.
We Don’t Kill Everything
The walls may be splattered with “blood,” but that doesn’t mean your burger was butchered. Vegan ricotta, caramelized onions, roasted red pepper and black pepper mustard top a fried artichoke patty. Try it with a nice Chianti. —Bird Cox
Pumpkin Pickin’
Farms and fields offer fall family fun
Fall Festival & Pumpkin Harvest
Chesterfield Berry Farm offers an 8-acre corn maze, wagon train rides, a fun zone, hay mazes, pedal kart track and more, through Oct. 26. chesterfieldberryfarm.com
Ashland Berry Farm
In addition to homemade doughnuts, children’s entertainment and haunted evenings, the renowned $30 All-You-Can-Carry Pumpkin Challenge lets participants keep as many of the field’s gourds as they can hold, through Oct. 28. ashlandberryfarm.com
Photo courtesy Goat Yoga RVA
Gallmeyer Farms
This family farm in Henrico County offers hayrides, a hay bale maze, play areas and more, through Oct. 31. gallmeyerfarms.com
Pumpkin Carving With Goats
Katie Evans, co-owner of Pactamere Farm in Hanover County and Goat Yoga RVA, says it’s “exactly as it sounds”; guests carve the pumpkins and goats do the cleanup. A bounce house, lawn games, boo barn, and animal meet-and-greets round out the experience. Weekends through Halloween. pactamerefarm.com —NC
