Vance Brand Civic Auditorium is a 1377-seat concert hall/theater venue, located at 600 East Mountain View Avenue in Longmont. Our attention was first drawn to the facility because of numerous Internet sites that report paranormal activity – much of this is the usual, urban legend-style rumor-mongering (“a large black dog appears if somebody sits in a specific seat”). Such stories are common to theaters across the western world.

 

However, there are a number of specific occurrences relating to the auditorium. During construction of the facility, a balcony collapse occurred, killing one of the construction workers.

 

Facility support staff do indeed report unusual occurrences, stretching back over several years. I met with the technical supervisor, who told me that footsteps are frequently heard inside the building at night, with no obvious source to be found. Staff have chased after the sound on several occasions, finding nothing. Loud thuds and crashes have also been reported by the staff.

 

Despite the fanciful stories to be found on various websites, there have been no reported apparitions at this location.

 

Our investigation took place on a Wednesday night in May of 2008. We assembled at 20:00 and received a tour of the facility, before settling down to run baseline readings of EMF levels, temperature, and background radiation levels (all of which were normal).

 

Voice recording apparatus and locked-off camcorders were placed at key points throughout the auditorium.

 

Two incidents of interest occurred throughout the course of the night that bear mentioning. I do not claim that they are of paranormal origin, simply that they are unusual in nature and that no readily satisfactory explanation could be found for them.

 

Firstly, at 23:15, a loud crashing noise was heard from the backstage area. Other than researchers from our team and one member of technical staff, nobody else was in the building at the time. The staff member was located in his office, and in order to reach the backstage area would have had to pass within sight of Richard and Kira, who were standing onstage at the time. The noise sounded like a large piece of furniture being overturned. Richard and Kira rushed backstage but found nothing in disarray, no apparent cause of the sound. Richard headed to the staff office area and found the technician seated in there watching television. He had not heard the noise, and could not have caused the noise himself (even if he had been motivated to do so) without being seen.

 

The second incident took place shortly afterwards, at 23:42. What sounded like five measured footsteps, evenly spaced, occurred on the main stage. Of course, the likeliest explanation for this is that the stage boards were creaking. However, no such noises occurred before that or afterwards, and it was quite eerie to witness how regular and deliberate the noises sounded (again, completely subjective).

 

Other than that, the investigation yielded nothing of note, and concluded at approximate 03:00. We uncovered no evidence to support the contention of paranormal activity at Vance Brand Civic Auditorium.