Brompton Halloween Trail
Brompton Halloween Trail was an immersive public space adaptation of my book The Vanishings of Brompton Town, designed as a spooky, playful and atmospheric experience that transformed Brompton into a living folklore for Halloween.
Characters from the book were brought into the real world and placed around the town — in closed pubs, cafés and community buildings; allowing residents to encounter speculative figures hiding in the architecture of everyday life. The trail blended heritage, ghost stories, local myth and sensory worldbuilding to reimagine Brompton through a slightly enchanted, slightly haunted lens.
Sound was a predominant medium and narrative force. Each character had a bespoke sonic world, with original music, sound design and vocal textures used to bring them to life. I wrote from a challenged perspective: the witch became a protective, misunderstood figure, sabotaged by an evil doctor and a nurse inhabited the community centre; a nod to the estate’s history as an old hospital. In the pub, participants encountered a drunk landlady who local people claimed to have seen as a ghost. These characters were positioned not as clichés, but as folklore emerging from the site’s real histories.
During the trail I became a character myself; a hooded figure moving through the town with a portable speaker, performing each sonic piece live in situ. Participants followed the sound between sites, discovering characters, clues and atmospheres as Brompton shifted between reality and speculative fiction.
Developed under Ideas Test (NPO) and the Creative People & Places (CPP) framework, the trail explored pride in place, co-creation and heritage through sound, storytelling and immersive public space performance. The work treated public space as a stage and sound as a spell, foregrounding listening as a way of encountering place. Closed-down pubs, greasy spoons and municipal buildings became portals; activated by story, re-scored by music and haunted by characters drawn from local voices and histories.
Commissioner: Ideas Test (NPO)
Context: Creative People and Places (CPP)
Source: Adapted from _The Vanishings of Brompton Town_
Approach: Immersive storytelling, sound design, co-creation
Location: Brompton, Medway (UK)
Outputs: Immersive trail, sound performance, public programme
Role: Writer, Composer, Sound Designer, Performer
Themes: Halloween, public space, heritage, folklore, sound, worldbuilding
Year: 2025
