Kitsap has its share of horrors and frights. Every community knows it.

A floor creaks in an old, empty Port Gamble room.

The voices of ancient cod fishers sometimes whisper in the fog hanging over Liberty Bay, just off the shores of Poulsbo.

A cursed antique keeps returning to Port Orchard shops’ shelves as buyer after buyer mysteriously dies.

And terrors haunt the Grand Forest on Bainbridge where a frail old woman tries to sell islanders non-organic, non-local, GMO food — in a plastic bag!

And once a year, in October, the most chilling of Kitsap’s characters converge on the county’s fairgrounds to give locals a seasonal scare. This October, Kitsap gets creepy.

“This year, our theme is Dance with the Devil down in New Orleans,” said Vickie Josal with the Kitsap  Haunted Fairgrounds.

Each year the Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds boasts a different theme. “We have kind of a Mardi Gras theme,” she said. “We have voodoo witch doctors, an above ground cemetery, a catacomb, Bourbon Street.”

What began in 2002 out of a neighborhood hobby for a handful of Bremerton families, is now a county-wide attraction.

“The haunted fairgrounds is three buildings, over 22,000-square-feet,” Josal said. “It’s our 12th year. We’ve grown about 15 percent each year, the number of people who come through.”

The fairground event is the culmination of haunted houses held in local yards and garages during Halloween. The individual attractions grew in popularity.

The haunted event is now supported by a volunteer effort and serves as a fundraiser for the North Kitsap Rotary.

“The county approached a few of us and we started doing it out of the fairgrounds 12 years ago,” Josal said.  “Last year was our first year with the Rotary. It’s nice to tell people that we are all charity.”

The product is a frightening walk with eerie sights, sinister sounds, and scares around every corner.

The lights are kept on from 5-6 p.m.; a more tame version of the show is presented.

“We encourage families with kids to come through at that time, it’s less scary,” Josal said. “The actors are in their places, but they just wave, not giving a big scare.”

Josal noted that some small kids are OK with the walk through, but very small children never seem to like it.

The full scare begins at 6 p.m. and is quite a different experience.

“We’re talking pee your pants,” Josal said, and she’s not exaggerating.

“At the end of the night, all the actors share how many times they got people to pee their pants,” she said. “It does happen. Every night.”

Actors hide and blend with the scenery. They hide around corners ready to startle patrons. There are things that are “nasty to look at,” Josal said.

It all makes for a spooky Halloween adventure.

Kitsap Haunted Fairgrounds

What: A scary walk through 22,000 square feet of indoor space, through three buildings.

Where: 1200 Fairgrounds Rd., Bremerton.

Cost: $12, or $20 for VIP admission (two trips through the event, front of line service)

Hours: Oct. 17-18, Oct. 24-25, and Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Lights on from 5-6 p.m. Full scare from 6-11 p.m.

Info: www.kitsaphauntedfairgrounds.com