Lexington is hosting ScareFest Weekend October 17 – 19. Billed as the Sinister Side of Comic Con and Kentucky’s largest horror convention, this festival features some of the top names in spookiness.
Celebrity guests include Juliet Lewis (Yellowjackets), Allan Trautman (Return of the Living Dead), Jason Patric (The Lost Boys), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects), and Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street).
Getting the most buzz, however, is the news that the real Annabelle doll will be exhibited for the first time in Kentucky before ScareFest Weekend, in August at the Dark Arts Fair. Not a lot of information is available about the Dark Arts Fair just yet.
Yes, you will likely see the porcelain Annabelle from the “Conjuring” movies, but THE Annabelle Doll, a Raggedy Ann, is kept behind glass to contain the supposed evil the doll possesses.
The Warrens’ Occult Museum is touring several of its haunted artifacts, including the famous Annabelle Doll, while its home base in Monroe, Connecticut, finds a solution to some recent zoning issues.
So what’s the story of the doll?
A nursing student received the doll as a gift in 1970. The student felt the doll “behaved strangely” and consulted a psychic, who proclaimed the doll possessed by the spirit of a girl named Annabelle. For a while after learning about Annabelle, the young nurse and her roommate tried to appease the doll and care for it, but the behavior became sinister and frightening. At that point, the Warrens were contacted and came to contain the doll and the spirit.
Since the doll has been on tour, people are reporting strange events happening. After the doll made a stop in New Orleans, the largest plantation in the state, Nottoway, burned to the ground. There was also a prison break around the time of the visit.
The news of the doll arriving in cities since the fire has created panic, and here in Kentucky twice, that same panic about the “demonic doll” is showing up in local social media.
Certainly, the loss of a large plantation, which is akin to a prison labor camp for enslaved Black people in America, isn’t necessarily malicious or demonic. If the real Annabelle doll is evil, this event can’t be blamed on the doll, right?
Regardless, if you’re interested in seeing the real Annabelle doll. Visit the Dark Arts Fair on August 2. (More info to come), or visit ScareFest Weekend in Lexington, Oct. 17 – 19, at Central Bank Center (430 W. Vine St., Lexington). Get tickets and add-ons at https://scarefestweekend.ticketspice.com/scarefest-weekend-17.
