By james art OLD IRVING PARK — A Northwest Side house popular for its elaborate Halloween decorations has brought a skeleton version of Six Flags to Old Irving Park.
Six Hags Boosment Park has spread across three front patios in the 3700 block of North Kildare Avenue, ready to entertain kids and adults alike.
Old Irving Park’s Halloween display features amusement park rides such as Skelly the Striker, The Bone Rattler roller coaster, Wheel of Death and the Fright Flight swing tower. An archery target with a skeleton spins in the background, and a skeleton dog and a man are in the park enjoying the fun.
credit: Anna Zolkovsky Assembly
Skeletons and witches enjoy the rides and games, including some waiting in line — and the wait seems long.
The current wait time to ride The Bone Rattle is about two to four lives, according to a sign at the head of the queue. But while the skeletons wait, they can stop by the concessions, which have “cauldron cooking recipes to die for.”
At night, aboosment scream park glows brightly with red, green and purple lights, and spiders are projected onto the house.
The giant amusement park is the work of homeowner David Kelly, who always goes to great, colorful and skeletal lengths to throw a Halloween party on his lawn. This year, two of his neighbors joined in on the theme.
“We just try to do something different every year and think about what might work on a large scale in our yard, and skeletons are always in the mix, so we just settled on the theme park after looking at the possibilities,” Kelly said in a text message.
credit: Ariel Parella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
The amusement park is the pair’s fifth giant Halloween scene.
Last year, Kelly and his wife created a large skeleton pirate ship that crash-landed on his lawn, which also prompted fans to check out the display.
credit: Ariel Parella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
The homeowners did not put up a display in 2021 and 2022 because they were busy with work and the neighbors noticed. Kelly and his wife said they created the elaborate pirate ship display last year to make up for lost time, and it was a hit.
In 2020, Kelly set up a car dealership, giving out popcorn and showing children’s movies every night leading up to Halloween. It was a time when his company and industry slowed down, so he was able to devote a lot of time to showing, he said.
In 2019, Kelly and his wife put on a superhero exhibit featuring heroes on the lawn. It attracted many children and families — and started a tradition that’s important to maintain, he said.
Kelly owns his own event production company called Frost, which made accessing props, lighting and equipment relatively easy, he said earlier.
All of the Halloween displays reuse elements from past productions, Kelly said.
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