Festival Website End of An Era?

[Uncle Roger]

I happened to Google the festival website, darkshadowsfestival.com, to see what merchandise might still be available. I received a notice from a hosting site called Plesk. The message stated that there is "no website at this address."
I guess that we shouldn't be surprised. The website and the Maplewood New Jersey post office box were both affiliated with the late Ann Wilson. With no Dark Shadows Festival since 2016 and none on the horizon, perhaps TPTB simply let the site expire.
Perhaps it was inevitable but it's just sad.

[Annie]

Hi Uncle Roger that is sad too bad .
Anne

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Has anyone told Jim Pierson the prospective bad news yet?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Back in December of 2021 a friend was curious as to whether or not any of the merchandise offered on the Fest Web site was actually still for sale. I told her I'd e-mail to ask. Never got a reply. But that prompted me to send a snail mail letter with a SASE. I didn't hear back until March of 2022 and it wasn't good news because Ann Wilson said none of it was available. That made me wonder why any of it was still listed for sale, but as most of us know, ours is not to question such things. But when Ann Wilson passed in October of 2022 I figured the likely reason it took so long to hear back was because she was probably not up to being her usually efficient self. It also made me think that unless someone else was going to take over the Fest's site, it probably wouldn't be long before it disappeared. And apparently now it has. But it always seemed as if it was hosted on a pay site. And if none of the merchandise was available for sale, the site wouldn't have been generating any income, so there wouldn't have been any money to continue to pay for it unless someone paid for it out of their own pocket. However what is interesting is I just looked up darkshadowsfestival.com on WHOIS and it says that domain name still exists and will remain so at least through July 30, 2024...

[Gothick]

A fan asked me a few days ago if there would ever be any more DS Festivals. I was trying to recall when the last one happened. I think it was 2016 but that's a really vague guess. I do remember a few years ago some fans were trying to get one to happen in NYC, and I think it had to be canceled because too few people signed up for pre-registration.

Never say Never but I doubt there will ever be another Festival.

G.

[Gerard]

Undoubtedly, the festivals are over.  There just aren't enough of us anymore (can I get any more morbid?) and even if we wanted to attend one - let's face it - the finances and even the youthful mobility are just no longer there.  I'm grateful we've still got each other and some of the other resources still surviving.  And I'm also grateful I got to attend a festival one time, in 2003.  So long as the memories of it remain with me, I'll be happy.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I think that KLS would be mortified, if not discomfited, by all of the sad and pessimistic comments expressed here in this thread regarding the presumptive end of the Dark Shadows Festivals. Ms. Scott has always impressed me as being an always upbeat and optimistic person.

Heck, in a recent article, KLS has expressed her great joy and delight that she is now a proud octogenarian! Yes, the realization that she has now hit the BIG 8-0 has not caused KLS to feel that it’s all passed her by and that she’s ready, if not resigned, to retiring to Florida, also known as “God’s Waiting Room.”

I remember reading the novel, Recessional,” the late, great James Michener’s last book about retirees living in a Florida retirement home and hospice,  and how many of them welcomed, if not embraced, the changes and
challenges of aging in America today. No doubt, Ms. Scott would heartily endorse the novel’s upbeat and
sanguine philosophy of life!

So, I have to believe that the actress who portrayed the beloved and unfailingly spunky waitress, Maggie Evans, would never concede that we have seen the very end of the Dark Shadows Festivals! This is a woman who,
almost singlehandedly, kept this festivals going for over thirty years. And, I find it hard to believe that such a
dynamic and assertive person would be willing to throw in the towel, so to speak, regarding these much-
anticipated yearly get-togethers for all of the Dark Shadows “cousins” across this great country!

Oh, sure, we’re all facing the inevitable infirmities and the indignities of the aging process. The many young fans of DS, whom the late, great Louis Edmonds once referred to as the “Dark Shadows kiddies,” are now
sexagenarians, and, dare I say it, even septuagenarians. And, I suppose it’s a true blessing, that one’s eyesight begins to diminish with age. You can look in the bathroom mirror and still convince yourself that you still have that full, dark and lustrous head of hair you had while you were watching the forty-something Barnabas trying to romance every attractive woman in Collinsport, who was, at least, twenty years younger than him.

Yes, even with the onset of arthritis, high cholesterol, dental problems, incontinence and constipation, I like to think that we will all eventually encounter Mr. Best, with whom we will be able to negotiate a deal which will enable us to be another Dorian Gray as the now ageless Quentin Collins was able to arrange when he met with that grandiloquent Angel of Death in 1969.

So, take heart my fellow Dark Shadows fans. As KLS is probably wont to say, “Age is a state of mind.” (Just ask Ezra Braithwaite and the bodacious Bathia Mapes!) 

[Gerard]

I hope you're right, Bob.  Maybe there is still a spark left in the DS Bic lighter and if anyone can get it to ignite that dying flame, it is TLATKLS.  Maybe she can work miracles.  I remember, from my one festival 20 years ago (god, can you believe that was 20 years ago? - about once a year, I'll search my past posts to look at the photos I loaded and just can't accept that guy with the dark hair and post-Bermuda cruise tan standing next to a posing and smiling TLATKLS for a once-in-a-lifetime pic), the thousands and thousands of people, long lines everywhere, ballrooms for events standing-room only.  Disney World would've been green with envy.  Will that ever happen again?  I guess we'll have to leave it to hopes and dreams.

Your mentioning, Bob, of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and whether or not he had any indication that his cash cow may be gone made me picture him, a Dickens' character, in a room filled with everything DS that he would never relinquish, sitting at a table, crouched over, maniacally laughing as he lifts up gold coins from his spoils in his fingers and drops them back down, repeating it over and over, until there's a knock at the door and one of his minions tries to tell him about the possible demise of the festivals.  He angrily shouts out:  "Go away!  Leave me be!" and then returns to his coin dropping.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Gerard,

Yeah, a DS Festival 20 years ago, time really flies, doesn’t it? I went to three of them over the years and the last one I attended was in 1998 in a hotel near Times Square. And, I remember seeing those photographs of you and your two friends at that 2003 DS Festival. Didn’t the late Christopher Pennock compliment you guys regarding your cruise ship tans? Mr. Pennock was a heck of a nice guy; I remember speaking with him at one of the earlier NYC festivals and he couldn’t have been any friendlier and outgoing. What a d@mned shame that Mr. Pennock died at such a relatively young age. He is greatly missed.

And, in regards to “J.P.,” I remember that he was presiding at an auction at one of the festivals, and I got a big kick, when he announced to the crowd in that soft, Texas accent of his, “We have a semi-nude photograph of Lara Parker for sale.” I tell you, I was almost tempted to shout out, “And just how ‘semi-nude’ is Lara Parker in that shot?” 

By the way, if you haven’t read KLS’ article on aging, it’s entitled “I’m Turning 80! Why I couldn’t be happier with that number and my life.” It’s over on her Kathryn Leigh Scott Online web site. It’s very well written. In addition to being a wonderful actress, Ms. Scott is also a terrific writer.

Well, excuse me, but I’m heading right out to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy  my official, new Aaron Rodgers New York Jets football Jersey. 

Bob

[Uncle Roger]

I was at the fest festival in Beautiful Downtown Newark (insert sarcasm) back in 1983. I remember JP being in the dealers room selling prints that had been copied from the Viewmaster Reels. Not particularly outgoing or friendly.
The early festivals were chaired by someone else whose name escapes me for the moment. That person had landed a very prestigious, well-paying job and no longer had the time to devote to fan pursuits. He got the job, not so much because he was so well qualified but because he had the time to devote it. In retrospect, he's done a reasonably good job with the basics. The festivals were basically well run but fell into a rut. A lot of fans went simply to meet the actors. After getting autographs and taking pictures, some didn't need to repeat the experience year after year. There was a total lack of promotion. The festivals never reached other horror fandoms which could have brought new people in.
And I very distinctly remember TLATKLS putting JP on the spot at what was supposed to be the last DS festival. She basically shamed him into saying that the festivals would continue. And they did.
Maybe she just doesn't have that amount of influence anymore.

[PennyDreadful]

I attended two DS Festivals and tried to go in 2016 but got a letter in the mail via my SASE saying that it was sold out. In retrospect, I certainly wish that I had attended more of them. I had a great time at the ones I went to, and got to meet Midnite, ProfStokes, and several other wonderful folks.

I do feel that the Festival kind of fell behind in terms of keeping up with changes in the con and fandom landscape. The fact that the SASE method was still being used in the age of things like PayPal made me raise an eyebrow at the time, and the website was in need of some updating, which I suspect would have been done for free by fans who knew how to do such things. It just felt like there was some resistance to making any changes or letting new people help out, but maybe I'm off base there?

At any rate, if the powers-that-be don't want to do new DS Festivals, I don't imagine there's anything stopping some enterprising fan with good organizational skills and business sense from launching their own fan convention for DS. They could call it ShadowFest or Collins Con or whatever, book a hotel, make a site, invite the actors, etc. Maybe hold it in Los Angeles, where many (though not all) of the DS stars live, and only have the actors there for a panel or two and a signing on the Saturday, leaving the Sunday for fan programming and events. I suppose they couldn't use the DS-specific branding like pics of Barnabas, etc in the advertising, but I don't think there'd be anything stopping someone with the skills from holding a convention of that sort. The question is, who could do it? It's a substantial undertaking, both cost and time-wise, so I wouldn't dare to tackle it myself, but I have seen some fans who claim they either want to do it, or plan to do it.

It's weird. Like Uncle Roger points out, there was no real crossover with other horror fandoms even though there's substantial interest in DS from the classic horror fandom in general. Still, I have yet to see DS represented at events like Monster Bash. I would think if Ron Adams gave the Bash a DS theme one year and invited three or four of the actors from the show, the DS Festival regulars would attend.

[Uncle Roger]

Other groups have tried to put on DS events. The COLLINS Association and The Friends of the 1991 DS put a few smaller scaled events, which were okay. But both crashed and burned for one reason or another.
Some of the cast have appeared at other comic book/retro/memorabilia shows, mostly TLATKLS. I do remember seeing her, Lara Parker, Marie Wallace and Diana Millay at Chiller Theater some years ago. Diana, in particular, did not understand what Chiller was. It was not the kind of venue to sell her cookbook or her rather primitive artwork. She also took deep offense that the majority of the attendees didn't know who she was. In short, the ladies did okay. They were a draw. But not the draw.
Some of the DS fans who attended were taken aback that they had to pay for autographs. The "no charge" at the festivals is an anomaly.  At other shows, you pay.
The last convention to both numerous DS actors was The Epic Con somewhere in the Midwest. I believe the lineup was KLS, Lara, Marie, Jerry Lacy, Sharon Smyth and Adrian Paul. The promoters promised the actors the moon. At least, it terms of airfare and lodging but reneged on it. So this left the actors rather reluctant to participate in any event that is not local. And, hopefully, taught them to get the arrangements in writing beforehand.

[PennyDreadful]

I went to Chiller a number of years ago, just to check it out, and I remember it being pretty intense. Not as overwhelming as San Diego Comic Con, which is bananas, but Chiller was definitely mobbed! I got to meet Zacherley there, and then met him again at Monster Bash. It's one of my everlasting regrets that I never got a photo with him.

Now that the Fests appear to be dormant, there's no other game in town, so it might be a good time to try something new. Then again, I suppose it'd take 'DS: Reincarnation' or some other high profile project to really light the fuse and convince someone (maybe JP himself) to take a gamble on another big fan event.

[Patti Feinberg]

I attended two DS Festivals and tried to go in 2016 but got a letter in the mail via my SASE saying that it was sold out.

In 2001, I was going to attend my first ever Fest. But it was sold out for Saturday, the only day I could come.

I do remember feeling that, considering within mere weeks, 9/11 occurred, maybe God was trying to save my mental health....

So, I've never attended a festival. More's the pity.

Patti