By Jessica Dillon
The Virginia Museum of Natural History’s Bonez & Booz festival celebrated another successful year with a night full of science, fun, and costumes. The Halloween-themed event featured entertainment, science activities, eight food vendors, and games.
The museum reported nearly 2,000 visitors from across the region attended this year’s event. A costume contest featured five age categories—0–5, 6–9, 10–13, 14–17, and 18 and up. Winners included Gary the Snail from SpongeBob SquarePants, Pennywise the Clown from It, Jinu from the Netflix show K-Pop Demon Hunters, the Lorax from the Dr. Seuss book of the same name, and Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.
“I was in charge of and hosted and made announcements throughout the evening, thanking all of our sponsors and everything,” said Robbie Hendrix. “My costume was the male version of Elphaba, so it was kind of like Elphaba’s brother from Wicked. So, I went with the character name Elsie.”
From 4 to 8 p.m., the museum offered carnival games where children could win candy for prizes. “That was their trick-or-treating,” Hendrix said. “We also had our Cheer Raiders out with spooky specimens, so kids could go and look at different specimens either under microscopes or in specimen jars. Some of those specimens actually glowed under black light.”
Hendrix said the microscope station was one of the most popular activities. “They got to look at ancient insect fossils under the microscope, so hopefully that inspired a few future paleontologists.”
A scavenger hunt was also held inside the museum. Guests received a scavenger hunt sheet and searched throughout the exhibits. “We had decorated the museum with different Halloween aspects, and we also decorated our curator labs to make those spooky and added different lighting elements,” Hendrix said.
A beer garden added the “booz” portion of the event. “That’s one of the reasons that when I created the event, I stuck with a ‘z’ at the end of Bonez and left the ‘e’ off of booze, just so that it would be family-friendly and still give the aspect of Halloween,” Hendrix said.
Outside the contest, Hendrix said visitors embraced the Halloween spirit with creative costumes. “There was SpongeBob and Squidward, and Sandy the Squirrel—they were super cute,” he said.
Entertainment included Dakota Fox Entertainment as the stilt walker, fire and LED performers from Imagine Circus, and magician Joseph Young.
The museum’s next holiday event is set for Dec. 5. “We will be doing our Night with Santa,” Hendrix said. “If I’m not mistaken, the conductor from The Polar Express will be here.”
Corporate sponsors and business partners for Bonez & Booz included Bassett Furniture Industries, Carter Bank, Atlantic Union Bank, Brightspeed, Hooker Furnishings, Renewal by Andersen of Roanoke, and Andersen.
