FearFest Went On As Scheduled Despite Community Scrutiny

This past weekend, FearFest was held at Pelican Park in Mandeville and many were not happy. The event's organizer was hopeful to raise money for a good cause but did not foresee the amount of pushback the event received per Nola.com:

Howard Pitre didn’t expect a backlash to FearFest, the event he’s staging this weekend at a Mandeville venue. He hoped the festival, focused on the paranormal, would raise money for a foundation he established after losing his pregnant daughter to suicide, not raise a ruckus.

But the three-day event, which began Friday and includes speakers on the paranormal, cosplay contests, live music and vendors selling food and crafts, has touched a nerve in conservative St. Tammany Parish, spawning a raft of phone calls to parish government officials and the people who run the Castine Center at the Pelican Park recreational complex, as well as letters from churches and social media posts decrying the festival as demonic and dangerous.

“This event promotes activities like seances, exorcisms, demonology, paranormal investigations, psychics, voodoo, and ghost hunting,” the Rev. Daniel Brouilette said in a post on the Facebook Page of St. Peter Catholic Church in Covington. "While this may seem fun or entertaining to some, these activities are certainly not in continuity with our Catholic faith and expose souls to demonic influence which can have lasting and devastating consequences.”