Photos by Catherine Stachowiak
The Kern Valley Future Farmers of America (FFA) holds its Kern Valley FFA Haunted Barn event annually. However this year locals will be in for extra and new surprises added into the yearly experience.
This year’s event will be held at the usual location, at the Kern Valley FFA Ag Farm inside the cattle barn and at surrounding pastures, located at the back side of the Kern Valley High School campus.
The FFA, which has been holding this event for the past few years, close to Halloween, this time plans to hold the event Thursday October 31 through Saturday November 2, giving new meaning to the experience of All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. While the event has nothing to do with religion, the correlation of the dates gives participating visitors the opportunity for a treat filled delve into the full encounter of the Day of the Dead excitement with a spooky kind of flare.
FFA teacher, Maghan Miller told the Kern Valley Sun what visitors might expect at this fun filled fright extravaganza. “We’re hoping that it will be bigger and better this year. We’re doing some really big installs for the theme. We’re going to have more actors than we’ve had in the past. So we’re hoping that this year, being three days, will really bring in the community,” Miller said.
“It will be a three day event this year. A little bit longer to give the community more opportunity to come out, but then also to provide a safe place for our kids to go celebrate Halloween, especially on Halloween night, so we’re really excited about that. I think we have 12 different themed rooms planned out for this year. Similar to years past, each room will have different themes, with different jump scares.”
From 7pm to 8pm nightly, the FFA brings little ones a Funny Farm. “It’ll be similar to years previous. We’ll have the Funny Farm happening earlier in the evening. It’s a lights-on tour. All the actors are out of character, just so that kids can walk through and not get too spooked, but still kind of get the spooky experience,” Miller said.
The FFA will have the carnival going on during the haunted barn. Featured there will be carnival games, sweets, popcorn and cotton candy.
From 8pm to 10pm the haunted barn will flip scripts. Lights will go off. Actors will be in character and that will be the scarier version of the haunted barn. FFA students have created and designed the decor and rooms. “That’s always super cool that the students get to have a part in that,” Miller said.
Student actors will play as several different characters, throughout the haunted barn, to provide the jump scares that the community enjoys.
Miller said, “We enjoy putting on a safe event for the community. The kids have a lot of fun putting it together, but it also serves as a huge fundraiser for our students that are hoping to attend the leadership conferences this year. We have three conferences that this fundraiser helps students be able attend. So we’re definitely hoping to make some good money this year also.”
Conferences students attend through FFA depend on age. Freshmen attend a one-day summit focusing on high school and preparing for college. Sophomores are attending the Made For Excellence Conference where they learn to be an influence on the community. Juniors are hoping to go to the Advanced Leadership FFA Conference where they’ll learn to be an influence and a leader within the community. Change Maker Summit teaches the students how to make changes in their world and continue on with their leadership goals.
Miller said that the difficult part of the preparations for the annual Haunted Barn is the students start planning in August, and by September students really start honing in on the themes and appearance of the barn. And then once the FFA returns from the Kern County Fair the FFA students work on building and decorating the barn before school, after school, and at lunch.
Those wishing to support this endeavor please send donations to Kern Valley High school under the name of Kern Valley FFA. Donors can drop cash, cards, and checks at the front office or send the gift via mail to the high school addressed to the attention of the FFA or come by the finance office.
For tickets to this event, there are two options, General Admission or Fast Passes. Fast Passes are a pre sale item. Fast pass holders won’t have to wait in line to get in and have to be purchased at the Finance office or bought thru students. Tickets are discounted until October 4. October 7 prices will go up.
Tickets at the door will be $10 for general admission. Typically fast passes are sold out before the event but they are $15. Fast passes cover general admission and cover the barn, carnival, and everything. However fast pass ticket holders don’t have to wait in as long of a line. “We are excited and we’re hoping the community comes out and supports the high school,” Miller said.
