Back in May when Freeform announced they were expanding their “13 Nights of Halloween” programming event to “31 Nights of Halloween” they announced that the 2018 lineup would include a “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Extravaganza.” When the channel released its full “31 Nights of Halloween” lineup earlier this month, there was no “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Extravaganza” to be found. The closest thing to an “extravaganza” was a 12-hour marathon of the film Hocus Pocus on Halloween. Then, last week, we got a glimmer of hope that the special might still happen when a company posted it was looking for audience members for a special Hocus Pocus event for Freeform. Now, Freeform has confirmed that a special is, in fact, happening with the announcement of their “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Bash!”
The announcement was made yesterday via social media as Freeform looks for more audience members to be in the special, which will film in Los Angeles next week. So when is the special airing? As I had mentioned previously, Freeform had already released their entire “31 Nights of Halloween” lineup and no “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Bash” was on the list. The “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Bash” is set to air on Saturday, October 20 at 8:15 pm PST, which suggest the special will air smack dab in the middle of the movie Hocus Pocus, which is scheduled to air at 7:40 pm that night.
With the initial announcement looking for audience members, we learned that the special would include “interviews with the cast, musical performances, a costume contest, special surprise guests, and much more,” but Freeform revealed a bit more about the event yesterday including the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Kenny Ortega would all be on hand for interviews. Additionally, a Hocus Pocus themed costume contest would be held and judged by Sharon Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne and finally, there would be musical performances by Dave Cameron, PrettyMuch, and Junior New System.
You can still submit to be an audience member through the On Camera Audiences website. The filming will take place on Tuesday, October 2 from 6 pm – 10 pm at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
