After the sun sets this Halloween, the Carbondale Creative District will be flooded with costumed party-goers celebrating the spooky holiday at a new collaborative event: Bonedale’s Halloween Spooktacular: When the Lights Go Down, the Arts Rise Up. 

The multi-pronged event invites locals to celebrate their favorite fear-inducing holiday through an interactive screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and a late-night dance party, all while supporting three beloved organizations — the Thunder River Theatre Company (TRTC), KDNK Community Radio and the Crystal Theatre Alliance.

“How often do you get to do a movie screening of an iconic classic and then get chased by some zombies from a movie theater to TRTC and then listen to some awesome music and dance the night away all while dressed in costume?” TRTC Artistic Director Missy Moore said. “I feel like since the pandemic…trick or treating is so truncated to one neighborhood now. Let’s bring it back to the heart of Carbondale.”

Arranged in a flurry of activity over the past two weeks, the collaborative event was born from a mutual desire to host a fang-tastic Halloween event while bringing the community together. In what became a fortuitous series of events, TRTC’s planned Halloween programming fell through, KDNK Community Radio wanted to bring back its former Halloween party and the Crystal Theatre Alliance had already been planning to host a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

That’s when the three nonprofits decided they’d be better together. 

“It’s the first year we’re all doing this together, and I think that really benefits the community as a whole,” Crystal Theatre Alliance Executive Director Kate Schwerin said. “Originally, selfishly, I was like, ‘I want to own Halloween for the theater, and it’ll be our big fundraiser of the year.’ 

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“But the more I started talking with Chris Hassig and Missy Moore, I was like, you know what? Our town is better if the whole town participates in Halloween,” she added. “The community is better if we all do this together, so that’s how it morphed into the three coming together.”

The Halloween Spooktacular will feature two interactive screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” with local drag troupe the Roaring Divas — and a complimentary goodie bag to — and KDNK’s Late Night Dance Party at TRTC. 

“This is the first interactive Rocky Horror in Carbondale that I’m aware of, so we’re expecting a lot of (Rocky Horror) virgins, so the Divas and myself will be working very hard to keep the crowd interactive, to provide cues,” Mugsy Fay, KDNK board president and Roaring Diva and performer, said. “We’re really excited to invite Rock Horror veterans and virgins alike to come out and experience this interactive screening that will be following the model of how they’ve traditionally been performed.”

At the dance party, Fay will open for Sweet Jessup and the Dirty Buckets and DJ Cody Lee from KDNK will keep the party thriving until 1 a.m. There will also be a costume contest with prizes like KDNK swag, a Crystal Theatre punch pass and tickets to a main stage show at the TRTC. 

“I’m really excited that KDNK is bringing back this Halloween event. I know we used to do a pretty big event in the past,” KDNK Underwriting Director Tracy Strode said. “This is the first time we’ve done it since I’ve been with the station, so I’m really excited, not just to have the event, but also to collab with Thunder River and the Crystal Theatre. I think we’re three organizations that fit each other really, really well, and it’s just a big love fest between all three of us.”

Libations from Bomb Dia Wine, RKYMTN Adults Drinks and Carbondale’s El Dorado will also be available for purchase. 

“We just want to throw a hell of a party,” Chris Hassig, KDNK membership and events coordinator, said. “We already know there are so many cool people involved in this, so it’s a great way to meet really interesting, creative people in the community…I think it’s going to be a really great showcase of what the freaky spirit of Carbondale can offer creatively.” 

Proceeds from the event will be divided equally between the three organizations. 

“By and large, nonprofits across the board, be it radio, turning a-for profit model into a nonprofit model, i.e. the Crystal Theatre Alliance, and nonprofit theaters, throughout the nation we are on an uphill battle,” Moore said. “Every little bit helps. 

“Highlighting the fact that each of these organizations are in the heart of the creative district is awesome messaging,” she added. “If we have a community that continues to support us, we collectively continue to thrive.”