Haunted Palouse net estimated highest ever
November 8, 2018
Numbers are coming in for the 17th annual Haunted Palouse, held the weekends of Oct. 19-20 and Oct. 26-27 in Palouse.
Total paid attendance was 4,006, the fourth-highest total in the event’s history, with the final night this year bringing in 1,572 people, the second highest single-night ever.
Palouse Chamber of Commerce treasurer Janet Barstow estimates the net profit will be between $69,000 and $70,000, the highest ever.
Last year’s $59,477 net profit was the previous high, on an attendance of 3,547.
In 2014, looking to control the length of lines/wait times from the previous year’s high attendance mark, organizers changed the admission price from $15 to $20.
“We felt bad about the long lines that year, and we were exhausted, so we raised our prices, thinking that would reduce the crowd,” Barstow said. “Combined with rain the next year, it did reduce the lines. Until this year.”
For 2018, the positive results continued on the final Sunday with new volunteers arriving and help from the Pi Beta Phi sorority from WSU.
In the end, once Haunted Palouse 2018 money is finalized, total contributions to the community since 2002 are expected to be at or near $650,000.
Fluctuating expenses make for the variance in profit each year.
For this year, Barstow cited a key discount on supplies from Moscow-Pullman Building Supply, donations of work crew meals and snacks by McLeod’s Palouse Market, more people cooking and donating crew meals and snacks and a new donor this year, U-Haul, which supplied the trailers for Shady Lane on the second weekend after charging for the first.
Recipients of 2018 Haunted Palouse proceeds will be Palouse Community Center, FFA, Garfield-Palouse Athletic Club, 4H Palouse Area Robotics Team, Palouse Skatepark & Garden, Roy Chatters Newspaper & Printing Museum and Palouse Chamber of Commerce.
The Palouse Lions Club and Xenodican Club again served food and drinks as one of their annual fundraisers.
“I’ve heard several times that this year was also the best overall entertainment, which makes us really happy,” Barstow said.
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