Huntingdon Spookfest Debuts to Thousands

HUNTINGDON (October 14) — Thousands of families filed into Huntingdon’s Kelley Sports Complex Tuesday night for Spookfest, presented by the Nolan and Courtney Turner Memorial Fund, the Carroll County Prevention Coalition (CCPC), the Carl Perkins Center and the Town of Huntingdon. The event began with a trunk-or-treat and ended with an outdoor showing of “Hocus Pocus” on the soccer field.

“My son and I went to the movies all the time,” said Jesse Turner, Spookfest’s primary event coordinator. Turner’s son, Nolan, and Nolan’s mother, Courtney, died in 2023 following a car accident. Turner founded the Nolan and Courtney Turner Memorial Fund as a way to pay tribute to their legacy, spread positivity within the communities they loved, and enrich the future of those in Nolan’s graduating class and beyond.

“In memory of him and in honor of our family time,” Turner said, “the Nolan and Courtney Turner Memorial Fund sponsored a movie and tried to give everybody the chance to have the movie nights that we had.”

Though the first Spookfest at this scale, the Nolan and Courtney Turner Memorial Fund and the CCPC hosted a similar event last year at Huntingdon’s Court Square.

“Last year, we were way bigger than the Court Square or the movie theater could handle,” said Heather Foster from the CCPC. The event reached more attendees than Foster or Turner could have dreamed, filling the Court Theatre’s 200 seats sooner than expected.

Turner and Foster decided to expand the event to the Kelley Sports Complex this year to accommodate a larger audience. Within an hour of the event, Foster’s CCPC trunk had given out more than a thousand pieces of candy to Carroll County children.

At 7 p.m., the event transitioned into a movie night. Turner chose “Hocus Pocus” as the night’s movie, opting for an older classic families could enjoy together. Event planners set up a blow-up movie screen, a projector and speakers onto the soccer field, and attendees set up blankets and fold-up chairs on the field to watch the movie together.

Spookfest’s success was a combined effort from the Nolan and Courtney Turner Memorial Fund, the Carroll County Prevention Coalition (CCPC), the Carl Perkins Center and the Town of Huntingdon. The Carl Perkins Center coordinated the trunk-or-treat, providing sign-up sheets for vendors and mapping the trunk locations. The event was scheduled in coordination with Carroll County schools’ fall break, giving students a fun activity during the break and not interfering with other Halloween events in the county.