Out in a paddock at Googong, right next to the old woolshed, a creepy carnival Big Top is being erected as we speak.
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Event planners are busy setting up for this year's Boogong festival - a night of live music, macabre sideshow acts and a nightmarish clown that makes Pennywise from Stephen King's It look like Cinderella.
Boogong is on this Saturday night and in a freaky new twist will take place next to the old Googong woolshed, built in the mid-1800s and "rumoured to be haunted".
What began as a marketing tactic to draw people out to Googong for a visit, Boogong is now a staple on the Canberra event calendar. Last year, more than 15,000 people flocked to the event, many of whom had spent hours on terrifying costumes like Freddy Krueger, Jason from Friday the 13th and The Addams Family.
Googong project director Malcolm Leslie said event organisers had been forced to move Boogong from Beltana Park to the area near the woolshed due to crowd size.
"We like to reinvent the event every year and the woolshed is an opportunity too good not to use," Mr Leslie said.
"It was built in the mid-1800s and there are rumours of it being haunted - so it makes for a pretty spooky and fabulous backdrop for the event."
While attendees won't be allowed into the woolshed itself for safety reasons, a Big Top and a stage are being erected in the paddock right next to it, with roving performers - including a sword swallower, Crank the clown and a contortionist - wandering through the crowd.
"We're always blown away by the effort people go to when they come to Boogong - we can't believe it," Mr Leslie said.
"While Halloween is a relatively new concept in Australia, just in terms of celebrating it big time, what Australians are into is celebrating community - and it's certainly very Googonian to do that."
Boogong Halloween festival, Saturday October 28, 5pm-9pm, in the paddock next to the abandoned Googong woolshed. Follow the signs from Googong Road. Free event. For further information head to www.googong.net
