Last week in Scoop, we introduced Craig and Sandy Yastrzemski, the husband and wife team who created and run Creature Feature Weekend, a Gettysburg area horror convention. In the first installment of their interview, they shared what inspired them to created a convention, how they wanted to make it standout from other cons, and the work that goes into booking vendors and celebrity guests.

During the second part of the interview, the Yastrzemskis discuss how they promote the convention, the complexities of show weekend, surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the show has changed and grown.

Scoop: How do you use social media to promote Creature Feature Weekend?
Sandy Yastrzemski (SY): There’s a million and one horror groups, so once we have our baseline advertising – we’ve created a poster with all of our celebrities, activities, and the best sum up possible for that year’s highlights – then we’ll post it to the different horror groups that fall in line with the fandoms we’re focusing on that year. As well as creating an event on Facebook – something that’s easily shared. Facebook is a major source of information sharing because there’s so many little pieces to the show that are worth highlighting. To be able to have that constant flow of information available to everybody and promoted by having us as a notification on someone’s profile…I don’t know how we could’ve done it without Facebook, honestly.
Craig Yastrzemski (CY): Because we’re still newer, because we don’t have as many people following us, a lot of it was done through boosted posts. Like actually paying Facebook to make sure more people see it.
SY: It’s very much a grassroots venture asking people to like, comment, and share. Doing the share contests have been really beneficial for us. Not only to get people to share it to their personal page but as many shares as they’re willing to do gives them an entry into a contest for a t-shirt or tickets or for a merch item. People have really hopped on that and enjoyed doing that. That’s boosted us year by year, which is great.

Scoop: In addition to your website and socials, how else do you market the convention?
CY: Postcards and posters. I try to hit as many places as I can within a radius of the venue. Any major towns, music stores, anything like that.
SY: We spend weeks leading up to the show going from location to location like little venues people hang out in. The best piece of advice we got when we first started off was to advertise where people actually are, not where they want to be. Actually going to a location because ultimately you want people to appear in person at your show, so you want to appeal to people who appear in person.

Scoop: You take the boots on the ground approach in addition to online promotion.
SY: We have a street team and we tell them, “Hey guys, we’re a month and a half away,” and people will raise their hands from West Virginia, Baltimore, Harrisburg, New Jersey, and we go to the post office and send them bricks of postcards. Our vendors will say, “I have three to five shows coming up in the next few months, do you have postcards?” Or we’ll put it out there asking for anyone attending shows who are willing to hand out postcards. That helps expand our reach.

Scoop: Do either of you have a marketing background?
CY: No [laughs]
SY: This whole venture has been learning on your feet. Like, okay, we have to learn how to do web design, we have to learn graphic design. [laughs] Thankfully we’ve had amazing teachers along the way who want to see us succeed and teach us how to use Adobe and how to work with WordPress, write a press release… a lot of people have propped us up.

Scoop: Cons have so many moving parts. What are some of the typical issues that pop up during show weekend?
SY: I would say coordination of guests and their schedules because we not only have them doing signing hours, but within the signing hours, they have Q&As, a photo op, a possibility of a special effects application. Accounting for the time that they’re going to be away from their table and still be able to respect their needs, because obviously being at the table is what’s going to generate income for them. But also respecting what the attendees want from the show. So, if they want to have that one on one time at the table, balancing their table time with their activity time. And being able to transport them because our Q&As are held at the movie theater across the lot when it’s 90-plus degrees outside in August. Being able to coordinate transportation for them, creates an extra layer.

Scoop: How many people does it take to run the con?
SY: That’s hard because not only do you have your volunteer base, you have your crew, which is like your heart of things. That’s myself, Craig, we have a ticket person who’s in charge of that area, a celebrity room manager who’s balancing the schedules of the celebrities and questions they have about meals and things like that. Even the vendors provide feedback. Last year it was starting to overheat in the hallway because of the doors constantly being opened and closed. So they’re like our eyes and ears. We have a good 25 volunteers, plus some go-to vendors who will establish themselves at the beginning of the weekend as like the voice of the vendor room.
CY: I would say 30-35 each day. That would be my guess.

Scoop: So, you have someone handling the celebrity guest, another handling tickets, and then people out on the floor.
SY: And a photo op coordinator to be able to pull a celebrity when it’s their time and be able to manage the line, manage verifying the photo op was purchased, and cross their name off the list, etc.

Scoop: What are some other important positions?
SY: We need a movie theater manager to help balance the Q&As, the smoothness of that. Having good emcees that can be flexible when things come up while presentations are happening as well as be able to manage the timing of the schedule. Having a good photographer – that’s definitely key because it’s not only the quality of someone’s memory of your show but also being able to manage the timing of how long people want to be at the show. If something falls behind, and someone needs to leave, they’re not happy. A vendor manager to handle the influx of the vendors and designating them to their spots. While we’re trying to manage delegation, transportation, and making sure everyone is where they need to be, make sure all the equipment is working and everything is accounted for. You have your volunteer coordinator, your vendor coordinator, celebrity manager, photo op gatekeeper, front desk people, and then you have your movie theater manager. From there, responsibilities shift as the weekend goes on because you have your set up, your duration, and then as the activities come up, the needs shift. Someone needs free to set up the VIP party, so somebody gets shifted over to make sure that is handled smoothly.
CY: Personally, I find that every one of them is just as important as the next. For me, I end up trying to figure out who’s going where, who’s going to be with who, who’s covering that area, and every single piece has to be filled. There’s no leeway. It all has to be taken care of.
SY: Being detail oriented is what makes or breaks a show, because once you start dropping the ball in one area, it just invites the rest to go.

Scoop: It does sound like you have to be very good with the details.
SY: Especially when we were a first year show, establishing trust was imperative. Not only were we asking people to trust us to run a show, but trust us that they’re going to be able to make money and have a good time at our show. We’re so thankful that we’ve gained the trust of our volunteers, our attendees, the agents of the guests that we’ve had come out, and everyone that’s worked with us thus far. The relationships that we’ve established through this whole venture have made us better and better. We respect and appreciate everyone who’s come into our idea.

Scoop: A lot of conventions, especially newer shows, didn’t return after 2020. How were you able to keep Creature Feature Weekend running?
CY: A lot of it was keeping the name out there. In 2020 we had the drive-in event. That one came about because all the conventions were cancelling, we wanted to help out with Scares That Care because they had recipients that they were looking to help out. We created that event as a charity event just to help.
SY: Those families lost an entire year of support by not having that convention run. With the question, “well you can’t have an indoor event, how can we have an outdoor event,” the drive-in was a natural fit. The vendors were all for it. It was a hard year for everyone, and the vendors lost all of the opportunities for income because of not having these shows. We asked vendors to come out, didn’t ask anything for them. We asked that if they were able to make a donation to the charity in lieu of a fee, we appreciated it. For some vendors it was the first show they’d done in six months, if not longer.
CY: We’ve kept that one on as our charity event each year.
SY: That experience led to more outdoor events. We hosted a Critter Con at the Mahoning Drive-In with Critters 1 and 2 and vendors and [special effects artists] the Chiodo brothers came out.
CY: We’re going to have a couple of other events this year, but haven’t announced yet. We’ve booked people for them, and we’ll announce soon. Right now, I’m trying to get everything out there for this convention then I’ll promote the other ones because they’re all after this con. We’re still booking guests for the charity event this year.
SY: Going back to your original question, maintaining flexibility is key for this whole venture. We are working with an ever shifting model until the show closes.
CY: For me, my stress level reduces quite drastically once the show opens.

Scoop: How has the convention changed from your original vision to now?
CY: We’re only entering our third year. We’ve just expanded on it. The first year, people commented that they wished movies were still going on Sunday, so the next year we had movies on Sunday. A lot of the movies on Sunday were ones we already showed, but we took a select group of movies from the film contest and showed them Sunday.
SY: The balance of activities is something we learned to adapt to because you realize when you have so much going on, an attendee can only do so much. So having repeat activities gives people the chance to get the most out of the weekend so they don’t feel like they missed out.
CY: We got at least two activities we’re looking to incorporate this year that we didn’t have last year.
SY: As much as we’ve been received by the community has definitely shifted our capabilities because of what’s been made available to us once we established that trust after the first year. People reached out to us because they have an oddities exhibit, a hearse… and it’s broadened us more than our imaginations would have.

Scoop: What are you most excited about for the 2022 convention?
SY: Just to be there. We love being there, mingling with everyone, watching people have a good time, seeing the costumes. It’s an amazing experience and is something that we treasure because so much of us goes into it. To see it all come to life…there’s nothing like it.
CY: We have more stuff coming, more to announce, at least one fan film at this one. We have a lot coming. I think it’s going to make it quite an exciting show.

Creature Feature Weekend will be held on August 26-28, 2022, at the Wyndham Gettysburg in Gettysburg, PA. Guests at the show include Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden (Hocus Pocus), Tom Savini (make-up artist), Tyler Labine (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil), Tim Cappello (Lost Boys), Edwin Neal and John Dugan (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), P.J. Soles and John Michael Graham (Halloween), Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th Part V), Mark Patton (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2), and others. Updates are also posted on Facebook.