Experience The Darker Side of Victorian Life

Where: Midway Village Museum, 6799 Guilford Road, Rockford, IL

Midway Village invites you to step into this uneasy world, where curiosity and caution walk hand in hand. As you wander our village by lantern light, you will discover unsettling traditions, eerie beliefs, and macabre pastimes that once fascinated Victorian society. Some experiences will intrigue you, others may disturb you—but all reveal how thin the line was between daily life and death in the late 1800s. A period when superstition ruled, science was blurred with spectacle, and everyday life was steeped in rituals that feel deeply strange by modern standards.

Who—or what—might emerge from the shadows as you round the next corner? A barber with a grim reputation? A mourner versed in elaborate funeral customs? A storyteller eager to share a chilling tale? No one knows what mysteries your night-time sojourn might reveal!

Featured Experiences Include:

• Pain and Poison
• Séances
• Barber on Main – Midway’s Sweeney Todd
• Tarot Card Readings
• Victorian Halloween Parlor Games
• Camp Fire Ghost Stories
• Mourning Rituals
• Picnic in the Graveyard
• Victorian Serial Killers
• The Art of Coffin Making

Enter if you dare—and see the Victorian age as few ever have—by lantern light, through history’s long shadows.

Purchase your tickets in advance or at the gate on the day of the event.