Every October, a town near the New Brunswick border turns its attention to a teenage girl who died more than a century ago, and to the things that supposedly happened to her in the fall of 1878. Esther Fest, which runs from October 21 to 31 in 2026, is a celebration of the paranormal and horror inspired by Esther Cox and the events that became known as the Great Amherst Mystery. It is part ghost story, part street fair, part community theatre, and it has become one of the more unusual small-town festivals in Atlantic Canada.
The story begins on Princess Street. Esther Cox, eighteen years old, was living with her elder sister Olive Teed, Olive's husband Daniel, and their young family. Esther shared a bed with her younger sister Jennie. One night she was awakened by what she took to be a mouse in the mattress. Nothing was found, and the sisters went back to sleep. But the disturbances escalated night after night. Rappings and bangings sounded through the house. Objects flew through the air. Esther writhed in pain and, according to the accounts, swelled to twice her normal size. She was scratched and poked with needles. Fires started. And an unknown hand scratched a message into the wall above her bed: "Esther Cox You Are Mine To Kill."
Dozens of Amherst residents witnessed the phenomena, and newspapers across North America picked up the story. An American actor named Walter Hubbell, who had an interest in debunking the paranormal, arranged to board with the family in March 1879 after a theatrical tour of Eastern Canada. He came away convinced. He documented what he saw, then took Esther on a touring show through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, telling her story while she sat on stage and audiences waited for the ghosts to appear. When the spirits failed to show, one particularly rowdy crowd ran the pair out of town and the tour ended abruptly. Hubbell published his account as "The Haunted House" that July; it sold 55,000 copies. The New York Sun called it "in all probability the greatest (tale) of its kind in this or any age." Maclean's later described the case as Canada's most famous ghost story and a classic poltergeist case, and it remains one of the best-documented poltergeist episodes in paranormal literature.
Modern writers have been more careful about what the story actually was. Most versions begin with Esther and a man named Bob MacNeill taking an evening carriage ride into the Tantramar Marsh; some accounts say she was held up at gunpoint, others that she was sexually assaulted. MacNeill left town the next day. Hubbell himself suggested the poltergeist activity began after that ride. Laurie Glenn Norris, co-author with Barb Thompson of the 2012 book Haunted Girl: Esther Cox and the Great Amherst Mystery, has argued that the festival is built on a history far more disturbing than ghosts. "It can be very pertinent to today because a young person, a young girl, [is] looking for help and people don't really know what to do with her," she told CBC.
The festival itself has a clear origin. Charlie Rhindress, an Amherst-born actor, writer, director and producer, wrote a stage adaptation of the story called Guilty! The Story of the Great Amherst Mystery, which premiered at Live Bait Theatre in Sackville, New Brunswick in 1991 to sold-out houses and strong reviews. Rhindress had co-founded Live Bait in 1988 and served as its artistic director until 2007. When he returned to his hometown in 2016, he approached the Town of Amherst about staging the play as part of an annual homage to the local ghost story. The town was interested in capitalizing on the Great Amherst Mystery, and hired him as a consultant to explore the idea. After a series of public meetings and a visit to Salem, Massachusetts, Rhindress delivered a report with dozens of ideas. Esther Fest was born.
The first festival was held in 2017, and various versions followed over the next few years, initially run by the Town of Amherst. The Facebook page still carries the handle EstherFest2017. Then came a pandemic hiatus. Esther Fest returned in the fall of 2023, the same year a new non-profit, The Great Amherst Cultural Society, was created to take over the festival from the town. Working with the municipality and a group of volunteers, the society has grown the event every year since. Rhindress is the festival's executive director; the society's board includes Nancy Boudreau-Sutherland, Ron Kelly-Spurles, Erin Lewis, Heather MacIntyre and Karen McKinnon.
The 2026 edition runs the full stretch from Wednesday, October 21 through Saturday, October 31. It opens with a screening of a new documentary, The Great Amherst Haunting, followed by a question-and-answer session. Returning favourites include the Ghost Investigations, the Psychic Fair, the Witch Dance, the Great Amherst Ghost Walk, and the Great Amherst Street Party, the festival's annual centrepiece, held this year on Saturday, October 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. in Victoria Square in downtown Amherst, with live music from Hittin' Rewind, bounce castles, wagon rides, a vendor market and a petting zoo. New for 2026 are a Victorian seance, a play about Helen Creighton, the author of Bluenose Ghosts, a pub crawl with Esther Cox, and a witchy dance lesson. Other listings include a Spooky Open Mic, a Monster Mash youth dance, a scarecrow stroll called Amherst in Gloom, a psychic medium show with Laura Warren, and a workshop on making books inspired by a grimoire.
The organizers have made a point of keeping the festival accessible. Several events are free, including the scarecrow stroll, the open mic and the youth dance, and the society says it has tried to keep prices comparatively low so Esther Fest is open to everyone, with a limited number of free tickets available for those facing financial barriers. Local hotels have in past years offered deals to visitors coming for the festival.
What makes Esther Fest distinctive is the way it holds two things at once. It is a genuinely fun, family-friendly street party with a petting zoo and bounce castles, and it is a commemoration of a young woman whose crisis became an international sensation, investigated by a man who intended to debunk her and instead made her famous. Amherst has learned to embrace the lore, much as Salem, Massachusetts embraced its own darker history, and the festival has become a community tradition in the process. For ten days each October, the town invites anyone who is curious to walk its streets after dark, hear the story told again, and decide for themselves what happened on Princess Street in 1878.