The Eighth Street block downtown was brimming with crowds of costumed carousers on Saturday night, as Le Chat Noir hosted its 16th Annual Black Cat Carnival.
Each year the black box theatre coordinates a roster of macabre attractions, festivities, games and performances, corralling attendees toward the alley behind its building at 304 Eighth St., to cultivate what it bills as “the greatest Halloween party in Augusta.”
“Black Cat, I feel, is always a surreal experience,” said Rhonda Jones, a regular attendee of the carnival. A local actress, Jones has played “roaming characters” at the carnival in previous years. “Tonight, I’m just really kind of people-watching and really enjoying the costumes.”
While admission was free this year — to encourage visitors to come and go as they pleased amid other downtown Halloween festivities — attendees could purchase tickets, a dollar each, to participate in games, buy drinks and food from vendors, or to see some of the featured stage shows.
“It seems like every year there’s more and more people,” said Will Putnam, another regular attendee. “There’s so many vendors out here, great costumes, lots of handmade art with gorgeous stuff.”
The Arcane Arts troupe presented fire shows along the midway throughout the evening. Included among the many attractions were selfies with performer Jezibell Anat as “Regina Serpentina” with her live pet snake, “the Great Ka,” tea dueling, a game in which players dip cookies into cups of hot tea, and try to be the last to eat the cookie whole before it crumbles, and “beer puppets,” a game in which participants wear an elaborate balancing contraption and try to sip a cup of beer or water without spilling.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
