We’re here at the morbitorium at its most spooky time of the year. Halloween keeps getting bigger and the morbitorium does too. We’ll be speaking to curator Dave all about the events he’s hosting this year over spooky season, and how excited he is that more and more locals are visiting his museum.
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00:00Yeah, it's my collection of strange and wonderful things.
00:06There's a bit of magic, a bit of witchcraft, a bit of taxidermy, a bit of strange medical
00:11devices.
00:12There's something for everyone.
00:14Of course, Halloween is always the busiest time of the year for places like the Morbitorium,
00:19and Dave says it's really great that this year more locals have been involved.
00:23He's always been a bit of a tourist destination, but now people from South Wales are seeing
00:27the Morbitorium.
00:29Halloween is always my busiest period, so Halloween through to Christmas and New Year.
00:36This year in particular, it's got a lot busier.
00:39I think more people are finding out about me, word is spreading, so Halloween's caught
00:44me on the back foot a little bit, really, because I'm busy doing a lot of other stuff
00:48as well.
00:49Of course, with Halloween getting more and more popular, Dave thought he'd make the most
00:52of it.
00:53He's going to different markets, conferences, and hosting his own events at the Morbitorium
00:58this year.
00:59There's a Cywain Spectacular in Usk in Cawdor Blethin.
01:03It's a witchcraft conference and a market, there's speakers there, I'll be doing a workshop.
01:10There's some really big names, Maxine Saunders is going to be there, which probably will
01:14mean nothing to most people, but if you know, it's like, oh my god, Maxine Saunders.
01:19There's a witchcraft market in Newport Market on Sunday, that was really popular, we did
01:24one of those in the summer, and it was rammed all day, that was lots of fun.
01:29And then as soon as I'm back here on the Monday, the three days running up to Halloween, I've
01:34got evening events, we're doing, we're looking at some of the haunted items I've got here,
01:39we're doing a little mini seance and a little mini paranormal investigation as well.
01:44Dave is always adding new pieces to his collection, and this one he made all himself is, as you
01:49can see...
01:51And the one that I've built is a kind of a replica of the original 1970s Edward Woodward
01:58film, rather than the Nick Cage remake, and yeah, it's pretty big.
02:04I've been meaning to make one for years, and it was only this year that I just finally
02:08got around and thought, if I don't do it now, I never will.
02:11So it took me a couple of months, and yeah, I'm really proud of it, and it's too big to
02:15fit in the house, so he's got to live outside.
02:19Dave is going all out the week leading up to Halloween, so he says he wants to take
02:23the day itself easy and enjoy one of his favourite days of the year.
02:27Then we've got Halloween itself, where, to be honest, I'm taking it a bit easy.
02:33We're doing trick-or-treating, but I'm not open in the evenings on Halloween.
02:36Last year, it was absolutely bedlam in here, and I'm so busy, I'd like a night off.
02:43I'll be out the side, I'll have a fire going, I've got a few sort of little gimmicky things
02:47for the kids.
02:48But yeah, my sort of haunted shelter is all covered in spider webs, and that'll be fun
02:54for the kids.
02:55So yeah, I'll just sit there relaxing, doling out sweets.