AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – The Haunted Tavern is a interactive, immersive cocktail experience, and it’s making its way to Augusta. The event travels all over the world to different historic and haunted locations, and educates audiences about the venue. We reached out to find out what people can expect when they make their way to Augusta June 30th through July 1st.

We have Julia Tirinnanzi with us here from the Haunted Tavern. Julia, how are you doing today?

“I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me. We’re excited to be representing the Haunted Tavern today.”

Very nice, and so where are you at right now? I know you guys travel all over and go to all the haunted places across the globe. You are going to be in the United Kingdom coming up in a little while. So where are you at now?

“We are indeed. Right now I am in the lovely state of Texas and we are in San Antonio in a lovely 150 year old historic church, actually. So that’s the lovely brick backdrop behind me.”

What is the Haunted Tavern?

“The Haunted Tavern is an interactive, very, very immersive four part cocktail experience. So you get to hear a few different hosts that will walk you through a very magical kind of macabre time. But it’s very fun because you get to indulge in spirits while hearing about spirits. So we find the more that you think, the more you see.”

How long have you been doing this?

“Yeah, it’s been going on for several years now, actually, and is mostly born out of a passion for many of us. We just like to travel around the historic buildings, especially the haunted ones, and learn about not only the history of the town, but getting to meet some of those people, getting to meet some of the key characters that are descendants of those areas and just really diving into the historic aspect of it in addition to the paranormal.”

Now you are headed to Augusta. Tell us a little bit about the venue that you chose and why.

“So we are at the Marion Hatcher Center, it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous building, very rich history. I don’t want to spoil too much so that the attendees don’t have a any kind of a spoiler alerts going on. But we like to pick things that are very, very, very rich in history with lots of activity and things that are guaranteed to show the guests a good time.”

So if I’m going there for the first time, you know, what can I expect?

“You can expect amazing cocktails first and foremost, but even better storytelling and just a lot of rich history of the area.”

So when people come there for the first time, what’s the reaction, when they come in and you have this place set up and you guys talk about all this, then what’s the reaction when people leave, when they walk out the door?

“Sometimes we have people that have kind of I’m not going to say paranormal interactions, but they’ll have they’ll be overcome with sensations or emotions or feelings that can be tied to the building. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, they let you kind of explore around the property, which is when people have a lot of those kind of enhanced experiences, but for the most part, you just you’ll have a nice, a nice ghostly time with your friends and you get to indulge in not only drinks but also, you know, fun ghost stories. Who doesn’t love a good ghost story?”

Talk to me about some of the cocktails.

“So the first one is by far my favorite. It is mostly a fresh squeezed lemon foundation. So a lot of notes of citrus. That particular beverage is the vodka base, which is one of my personal favorite libations, that it also has a really cool, sinister syringe that you get to inject inside of the drink and you get to kind of tailor it to your actual taste preference so you can make it as strong or less strong.”

Who do you think this kind of event attracts?

“It’s definitely anybody that’s kind of have a little bit of a whimsical personality, somebody more open minded to maybe experiencing some kind of paranormal or even just people that love good old history and good old ghost stories in general. But I will say we have a very, very wide range of guests that come to these events. So anybody from other their 20’s up to we’ve had people in their 90’s at these events, which makes a family friendly event which is pretty cool and unique these days.”

On a scale from one to ten, how brave do I need to be?

“I would say maybe a maybe a five. And then you have liquid courage for that. You know, that’s that’s the good part about being 21 plus is that everybody can all start off in that same level. And that that first drink, that’s my favorite that really takes you there and enhances the experience right from the rising about to get everybody all couraged up.”

All right, and last question, if you were to say one thing to get people to come out to this event, what would you say to get them to come out?

“I dare you to come try our drinks, come hear our stories.”

Tickets for the Haunted Tavern are on sale now, and will be at the Marion Hatcher Center, 519 Greene Street Augusta, GA 30901.