HORROR lovers in droves flocked to Beechworth’s Mayday Hills for an annual Asylumfest held at the end of last month. In its third year, the three-day horror book and pop culture festival organised by Beechworth Ghost Tours over the October 27 to 29 weekend drew people locally, from around the region as well as interstate. Held in the Bijou Theatre of the old asylum, the Ghost Tour’s operator Geoff Brown said people travelled from as far as Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, and Wagga. “This subculture of horror lovers is big and strong, we stick together, and we go to everything that interests us,” Mr Brown said. Dion Smith tripped from Wagga Wagga to the Asylumfest for the second time after he discovered the event last year. “I love horror books and once I knew there was going to be horror authors here, I had to come along, and plan to keep coming back,” he said. Horror author and artist David Schembri has participated since the festival started as well as being an event sponsor. “It's great because we get a collective of different creatives here with a lot of individuality from not only artwork and authorship, but you have sculptors and craft too,” he said. Mr Schembri said he had been writing seriously for more than two decades while illustrating since grade three. Mr Brown said this year's event had a significant increase in attendance with 1000 people registered. “It tripled the number from last year,” he said. The organiser said among event features were trading tables, authors, artists, and a gaming company, a ghost story competition as well as a sold-out feature film with special guest Chris Sun from the Gold Coast who made the movie shown at the festival. An excited Mr Brown said with the event’s success, plans are underway to expand next year’s festival with an anticipation of doubling the attendance from this year. Mr Brown said the Ghost tour business attracted 20,000 visitors throughout the year, as well as the growing Asylumfest, boosting the local economy. “We encourage people to support local businesses, and they're happy to,” he said. The decommissioned asylum in Mayday Hills was one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in Victoria. The hospital closed in 1995 after running for 128 years while in its peak time had more than 1200 patients with 500 staff.
