St. Louis, MO. (March 2016) – While the minds of most residents drift toward thoughts of spring, one organization is hard at work building a house meant to scare and chill all who step through its unusual entrance, shaped like an oversized clown mouth called “Tommy Tonsils.” This haunted attraction – like hundreds of others across the nation for the last two decades – was designed and produced by Oak Island Creative, an organization often referred to as the “Great American Scare Company” for good reason.
With more than 20 years’ experience creating full-sensory themed events for Halloween, Christmas, and food and wine festivals in St. Louis, San Antonio, Williamsburg, San Diego, Orlando and Atlanta, the company finally developed its own line of American made, commercial-grade products through its “Holiday Creative” (holidaycreative.com) and “Scare Products” (scareproducts.com) lines.
If you want to check out some of the more unusual and spine-tingling products that Oak Island offers, you’ll have to be brave enough to explore the company’s newest haunted house, to be featured at TransWorld’s “Halloween & Attractions Show,” (www.haashow.com) from March 17-20 at the America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza. There, Oak Island will allow visitors to step into a 1,600-sq.-ft. version of one of their life-sized haunted attractions. Included in it will be elements to thrill all of the senses – like the sound of hundreds of bees buzzing around you, unusual and evocative smells, a “Claustrophobia” tunnel to escape, and more.
Construction of this haunted house will be completed in the company’s recently expanded office and warehouse space, located at the Eastern edge of the Benton Park neighborhood, at 3500 Lemp Ave. Perhaps it’s fitting that Oak Island Creative, with offices in several states, chose a facility in St. Louis that has long been rumored to be haunted.
The site has a long history, and was first built for Lemp Brewery, which thrived through the end of the 19th century.
Later, it was used by the International Shoe Company, which added a building in the 1950s and finally sold the complex in 1992. The facility has been underutilized for decades, but interest for this relic from the past has grown.
Oak Island was one such company that realized the site was perfect for its steadily expanding operations in St. Louis, and recently acquired massive warehouse space there – totaling more than 11,000 sq. ft.
Nicole Iannazzo, Oak Island’s Director of Midwest Operations, said that while she’s thrilled to expand the company’s creative master planning, large events production and consulting services in St. Louis, working late nights in the new space can be interesting. “We’ve heard noises and voices here that can’t be explained easily,” she laughed. “I sometimes wonder if we might be scaring ghosts with some of the products we make.”
In addition to a commercial-grade line of themed products for Halloween and Christmas, the company annually produces the nation’s largest events at theme parks, major venues and cultural institutions across the U.S., including “Brewery Lights” for Anheuser-Busch and “Garden Glow” for the Missouri Botanical Garden. Last year marked a milestone for Oak Island Creative when the company officially produced the largest Christmas event on record in the United States in Williamsburg, Va.
“We are thrilled that Oak Island is the go-to team for transforming the nation’s most beloved theme parks, hotels, cultural institutions and other large venues into special event destinations,” said John Hawkins, Founder/CEO. “We will be ready for TransWorld’s ‘Halloween & Attractions Show’ in St. Louis this March, and I can’t wait to have 30,000 visitors experience a thrill that we never grow tired of producing for audiences across the nation.”
To learn more, please stop by the Oak Island Creative booths #1412, 1413 & 1416 at TransWorld’s “Halloween & Attractions Show,” held March 17-20 at the America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis, Mo. In addition, you can always visit us at www.oakislandcreative.comor “like” us at www.facebook.com/oakIslandcreative.
OAK ISLAND CREATIVE (www.oakislandcreative.com) founded in 1997, is a collaborative creative team from across the U.S. that specializes in experiential special events, entertainment products, consulting and other innovative services. We produce many of America’s flagship holiday events, and provide the gold standard in haunted attraction design and implementation. USA Today recently named three of Oak Island’s holiday events the best in America. We also specialize in many theming products, creative consulting, and walk-through attractions, including Mirror Mazes, International and The Learning Log. Find us at www.Facebook.com/OakIslandCreative.
