The Creepy Dolls of Olmsted County are back and ready to celebrate Halloween. On Saturday, October 23rd, from 6 to 9 pm, nine Creepy Doll Contestants will take over Les Fields Hall in the Castle to throw a cocktail party with tasty hors d’oeuvres, a live jazz band, and the coronation of 2021’s winner of the Creepy Doll Contest. For more information and tickets, go to https://www.olmstedhistory.com/creepydolls.
What’s the Creepy Doll Contest?
What began as an innocent perusal by a volunteer in search of interesting artifacts to post on social media became a media sensation in 2019. Nine doll “contestants” were selected from the History Center’s collection of artifacts, and the Facebook and Instagram communities were invited to “like” the doll they found creepiest. By All Hallows’ Eve, staff were fielding messages from around the globe, media queries from New York, Canada, Pakistan and Moscow.
This year’s nine contestant dolls will run on Facebook and Instagram throughout October 2021. Motivated fans can see them “live” at the History Center and cast an in-person vote beginning on October 1, or vote online beginning October 1 on our Facebook or Instagram page.
The primary focus of these Creepy Doll events is to have a lot of spooky fun, close to Halloween. The other, as important purpose, is to promote and build awareness for HCOC by showcasing one of the many great ways the community can experience, explore and examine Olmsted County’s history, in this case our amazing doll collection. The dolls are just one of the material artifact collections HCOC has with approximately 20,000 artifacts related to the history of Olmsted County and Southeastern Minnesota more broadly.
What will happen at the Creepy Doll Cocktail Party?
The Creepy Doll Cocktail Party will take place at the iconic Castle in downtown Rochester from 6 to 9 pm on Saturday, October 23.
The Creepy Dolls want to cater to fans’ every need by providing hors d’oeuvres by Cameo, creepy cocktails, hauntingly hip jazz by composer and guitar virtuoso, John Penney and his band, and front row seats to the coronation of 2021 Creepy Doll Contest Winner.
We’ve found that our Creepy Dolls inspires people to transform themselves into spooky, inanimate beings. For those of legal age joining us at the cocktail event, we’re inviting existing and new creepy doll fans to create a costume inspired by the creepy dolls in the SteamPunk attire. Pageant participants will be dressed as a creepy doll walking the runway. Staff and event attendees will partake as pageant stage runway audience and pick a winner.
Willow from Willomina Art Studio will do a live painting of last year’s winner and we will have knowledgeable staff on hand to share the history of each doll and answer doll related questions!
Fans can heighten their Halloween experience with our exclusive, VIP program, which includes a commemorative glass, a special program that will give you all that we know about these dolls, and a meet-and-greet with the creepy contestants.
For more information and tickets, go to https://www.olmstedhistory.com/creepydolls.
