Main image courtesy of Brand Garage Doors.

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It’s that time of year again! Fall is among us, which means it’s time for all the fun fall & Halloween festivities. From corn mazes to live shows, to festivals and haunted houses, check out what all there is to do around Youngstown, OH!

Maze Craze Corn Maze

Did you know the best corn maze in all of Ohio is actually located in Youngstown? Maze Craze is right outside of Youngstown in New Springfield, OH, and it was even featured in the USA today’s top ten corn mazes of both 2018 and 2021. What makes this corn maze even more unique is that there is a different theme every single year. This year of 2022 the theme is Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book!

Enjoy boatloads of family fun including:

• Straw pyramids
• Sunflowers
• Corn boxes
• Corn hole
• Wood cut-outs for photos
• Gemstone mining
• Corn cannon
• Kiddie zipline
• Hayrides
• Barrel train rides
• Tire playground

The Pumpkin Walk at Fellows Riverside Gardens

Fellows Riverside Gardens is a gorgeous public garden located on the north end of Mill Creek Park. The garden is approximately 12 acres, and you can find a landscape of remarkable beauty with a variety of colorful and unique color displays. This garden is also one of the most popular gardens in the country, attracting over 400,000 visitors every single year. 

When you visit the Fellows Riverside Gardens during the fall, there is even more of a sight to see! Each year a pumpkin walk at twilight is held, where you can take a stroll along the garden paths as the day transitions into night time. You can also check out the pumpkin carving event, which will take place on October 14th this year!

Molnar Farms

From September 24th to October 30th of this year, Molnar Farms will be hosting “fall weekends” on Saturdays and Sundays filled with lots of family friendly activities. Molnar Farms is located in Poland OH, just about 8 minutes outside of Youngstown. 

Activities include:

• Corn mazes
• Hayrides
• Pumpkin picking 
• Enjoying some fresh + homemade cinnamon rolls!

Admission is currently $6 per person, and completely free for children under the age of 2.

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Fall Literary Festival

If you love to read, this festival taking place in Youngstown is one of a kind! The fall literary festival will be taking place on Friday October 21st and Saturday 22nd, and is the 6th annual festival so far. Learn all things writing, publishing, teaching, community outreach, inclusion and more at this festival! More information can be found on LIT Youngstown’s website, who will be holding the festival!

Featured presenters of 2022 include:

• Film scholar/screenwriter: Laura Beadling
• Fiction writer: Kelly Fordon
• Filmmaker: Karla Murthy 
• Children’s author: Candace Fleming
• Poet: Joy Priest

Here’s a preview on some of the different sessions and activities that will be taking place andhow the festival’s schedule is set up. The following is part of the schedule for Friday, October 21st:

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9:15 WELCOME ADDRESS

Karen Schubert 

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9:45-10:45 SESSION ONE

Creative Reading 

Mixby Dickon, Jim Ferris, Sara Moore Wagner

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Life Like: Crafting Memorable Settings in Creative Works

Melissa Dunlap, Amanda Miller

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Honoring Others with Our Fiction Research

June Gervais 

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Poem and Place Caught on Film: An Interactive Workshop Responding to Photography, Movies, and Other Art Forms

Marjorie Maddox

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Writing Great Nonfiction with Kids

Candace Fleming

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11:00-12:00 SESSION TWO

Creative Reading

Ashley Cowger, LaPerle, Tara Stillions Whitehead

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From the Small Screen to the Big Screen:  Crafting Stories for News and Documentary Films

Karla Murthy

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Crabgrass and Hummingbirds: A Generative Workshop with a Focus on Incorporating -- and Maximizing -- Natural Elements in Poetry and Prose

Erica Anderson-Senter, Christian Whitney

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Moving Past Influence

Ali Black, Mary Biddinger, Dylan Morris

Creative Reading

Karen Frank, Jeff Gundy, Becca J.R. Lachman

1:00-2:00 Changing Narratives and Building Connection: the Power of Documentary Film to Redefine, Reimagine, and Break Stereotypes by Creating Empathy

Karla Murthy

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2:15-3:15 SESSION THREE

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Let's Deconstruct a Story Part 1

​Kelly Fordon

 Literary Mapping: The Place in Our Metaphors

Joy Priest

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Marketing Your Book--Tips from a Professional Marketer and Writer

Gabriel Welsch

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Literary Citizenship: Writing for Other Writers

Christina Consolino, Meredith Doench, Erin Flanagan, Amy Gustine

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Creative Reading

Matthew Graham, Julia Wendell

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3:30-4:30 SESSION FOUR

Screening Proud Citizen

Screenwriter Katerina Stoykova

Redirection as Reinvigoration

Molly Fuller, Robert Miltner

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Let's Deconstruct a Story Part 2

​Kelly Fordon

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION, POETRY!

Rikki Santer

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The Danger of Forced Silence: Why Fighting Book Bannings and Problematic Educational Legislation Matters

Christopher Barzak, Timothy Francisco, Jackie Mercer, Sarah Valingo

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Launching a Writer’s Residency on the Eve of a Pandemic

Arlan Hess, Dade Lemanski, Alyssa Velazquez

Strengthening Artistic Communities Through Podcasts

Jeremy Jusek 

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5:00-6:00 Happy Hour Noble Creature Cask House or Tour Museum of Industry & Labor

​6:00-7:00 “Dinner & Jazz”

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Ghostbusters in Concert at the Youngstown Symphony 

If you enjoy watching live shows, this next activity could be perfect for you. Ghostbusters and fall time go pretty hand in hand, and what could make it better than adding a live orchestra?! Join the Ghostbusters, along with guest conductor Erik Ochsner and the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra as they play Elmer Bernstein’s Grammy-nominated score. All performances will be held at the Powers Auditorium at the DeYor Performing Arts Center.

Mark your calendars for:

• Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, October 9 at 2:30 p.m.

You can visit the Youngstown Symphony’s website for more information!

‍_{The Death of Dr. Frankenstein}

If you’re familiar with the story of Frankenstein, you’re going to want to tune into this live show at the Das Dutch VIllage where you can also enjoy a meal while you watch. Performances are scheduled as a matinee on Friday, October 28th at 12:00 p.m., and then an evening show later in the day at 7 p.m.

Ticketing information:

• Individual tickets (show & meal) set at $65 per person
• Ticket orders over 8 people set at $60 per person
• Bus/group ticket orders of over 25 at $75 per person. This will include the show, meal, and gratuity as well. 

Buy tickets from the Das Dutch Village’s website, or call 866-482-5050 for more information. This would also be the perfect activity to bring a special someone!

The Monster: Silent Film with Organ Accompaniment

The Monster, a world renowned horror movie, stars the iconic Lon Cheney as a doctor committing gruesome experiments in a sanitarium. The film will be taking place at the Stambaugh Auditorium with its own special twist. 

Come see The Monster: Silent Film as a live organ accompaniment by Jay Spencer. Organist Jay Spencer has been playing the organ at the Canton Palace Theater since the early 90s, and has performed with Silent films at the theater for over thirteen years. The instrument Spencer uses to play, the E.M. Skinner Pipe Organ Opus 582, is the only remaining Skinner organ that is left in the area. The organ features four manual consoles, 67 stops, and nearly four thousand pipes. These pipes vary from the smallest which is the size and weight of  #2 pencils, to the largest which is 30 inches by 32 feet and weighs almost 800 pounds! There are 58 ranks altogether.

Halloween Bar Crawl in Youngstown 

Stop by the 5th annual halloween bar crawl in Youngstown, where you can enjoy some drinks with friends and even the chance to win some pretty cool prizes. Here’s everything you will get when you attend the event:

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• $1,000 Grand Prize Costume Contest Entry
• 2+ Drinks Or Shots Included With Ticket
• Crawl With US Stadium Cup! (Only the first 400 check ins so get there a little bit early!)
• Exclusive Drink Specials
• Food Specials At Partner Venues
• Waived Cover At All Venues ($5-$15 at Some Venues Without a Ticket)
• Professional Photographers!
• Fun After Parties
• Custom Halloween Badge With Vouchers

The event will be taking place on Saturday, October 29th from 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Tickets sales will be ending soon, so make sure you head to this website to buy them ASAP! The after party will also be taking place from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. so make sure to plan accordingly 

Factory of Terror

Youngstown is home to many thrilling haunted houses, including the Factory of Terror. The Factory of Terror is located in Canton, Ohio, is actually one of the largest indoor haunted houses in the entire world! This haunted house attraction has been recognized by Guinness World Records three times for this very impressive achievement. This giant haunted house is more than a mile long and consists of five different attractions that are destined to send a chill right up your spine. 

These attractions include:

• 1300 Lost Souls
•  Industrial Nightmare
• Lafayette 13
• Massacre on Mahoning
• The Abyss 

To make things even more intense and exciting, there are lots of talented actors and performers who will scare you as you are waiting in line for each of the attractions! In total, the Factory of Terror employs over 130 actors and staff, including more than 500 of the scariest monsters and animatronics in the industry. The Factory of Terror is known for keeping up with all the current technologies and product developments, along with the trends the haunted house culture has to offer overall. 

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Fortress of Fear Screampark 

Rated as Ohio's top haunted house and best haunted attraction, the Fortress of Fear is located right in the center of Akron, Canton and Youngstown. Here is the story of how the park came to be according to its website. The tour begins through the doors of a “fallen empire” which is known as the Fortress of Fear. Historians believe the empire has been dated back all the way to the 1400s, where excavators on the property discovered the fortress that had almost been completely burned to the ground. 

Many lives were lost, and as the project of the excavation continued many workers had witnessed a multitude of paranormal activity that left onlookers questioning the true evil that exists inside the ruins and into the backwoods of this fallen empire.

Hours of operation at the park:

• The box office opens at 7:00pm.
• On Friday & Saturday Nights the Box office closes at 11:00pm to Fear Pass Admission. The box office then closes at approximately 11:30pm to the Fortress of Fear Haunted Attraction Admission.
• On Sunday nights the box office closes at 10:00pm to Fear Pass Admission and then at 10:30pm to the Fortress of Fear Haunted Attraction Admission.
• Park and park rides open at 7:30pm and the Fortress of Fear Haunted Attraction opens at 8:00pm.

The Haunted Schoolhouse & Laboratory 

A haunted schoolhouse and laboratory, how much more interesting can it get! To begin, The Haunted Schoolhouse will take you on a treacherous three-floor journey through a librarian’s scariest stories. Her name is Ms. Alvah, and you’d be surprised to see what she has to offer you and how scared you might get! Next you can visit the Haunted Laboratory, which is a team of scientists that are working to contain a contagious virus that transforms its victims into tortured creatures. Depending on which day you plan to attend the Haunted Schoolhouse & Laboratory, prices can vary from $25 to $35.

As you have read, Youngstown is home to so many different attractions in the fall. Have fun this spooky season!