Start prepping your costumes and getting in the Halloween spirit, the Midsummer Scream horror and Halloween convention is back again July 26-28 in Long Beach to kick off the spooky season.
Visitors can gather at the Long Beach Convention Center for the largest Halloween and horror convention the world has to offer.
The three-day convergence offers celebrity panels, performances, educational presentations, haunted houses – even kitten adoptions – and more than 350 vendors across the convention floor selling items from signed movie posters to full scale, Hollywood-grade animatronics.
“We’re essentially the kickoff event for the Halloween season,” said Claire Dunlap, event producer and co-creator. “It’s like a Halloween theme park pop up for the weekend.”
Haunt enthusiasts can summon the courage to tour the Hall of Shadows, featuring the best home haunters from around Southern California, as well as an all-new Lionsgate horror walk through, and pro sliding troupe Decayed Brigade, might come sliding across your path
This year’s theme is “Ghosts and Hauntings” so panels will include presentations by historians on allegedly haunted California locations like the Queen Mary and the Winchester Mystery House.
Other classes include haunting 101, where attendees can learn the basics of a good scare, as well as horror writing courses, prop-making classes and seminars on the proper use of Tarot cards.
Panels feature guests including John Kassir, the voice of The Crypt Keeper; Roger L. Jackson, who voiced Ghostface; the voice cast of Monster High; Tony Todd from Candyman, Final Destination and The Crow, and Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira.
During a full weekend of haunting, visitors can wind down in the Black Cat Lounge where adoptable cats and kittens from Kitten Rescue Los Angeles can curl up on your lap and maybe even entice you to take them home. Last year, every cat in the lounge found a forever home by the end of the weekend.
Guests can choose from a $21 single-day pass to a weekend passes to $145 for the VIP Gold Bat experience.
The Gory Details:
Midsummer Scream
Long Beach convention Center
300 E. Ocean Blvd.,
Long Beach, Calif.
6-10 p.m. Friday, July 26
11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27
11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday July 28
More info at midsummerscream.org