
2022 in Review
By Idyllwild Town Crier

Built in 1921, the Historic Hemet Theatre is one of the oldest surviving movie houses in the country, according to CEO Susan Carrier. The first movie house in Hemet was built in 1913 across the street from the current theater where the Strawberry Bike Shop building stands. The theater was a vibrant cultural center of…
I apologize to Brendan Steele and his family — including his parents, Kent and Jana Steele here in Idyllwild — and to our readers for my blunder in last week’s Town Crier. I was under the very mistaken impression that a player needed not only to score high enough on the FedExCup list to advance…
For 11 years, Kathy Wilson’s Idyllwild Ghost Town has frightened and delighted fans of the phantasmagorical from on and off the Hill. Now, year 12 is in doubt. Wilson’s month-long Halloween attraction, a walk through live action and animatronic spook fest, had firmly established itself as a major audience draw at the Idyllwild Community Center…
By Elizabeth Miller Special to the Town Crier This time last year Francoise Frigola brought a new inspiration to Idyllwild, the Death Cafe. Having started in England in 2011, the Death Cafe quickly became a phenomenon across Europe, North America and Australasia. In Idyllwild, people come together twice a month at Spirit Mountain Retreat where,…
Janet Fitch’s mega-bestselling 1999 debut novel “White Oleander” makes her well qualified to lead the April 5 to 7 Spring Writers Retreat (idyllwildarts.org/spring-writers-retreat/) on the Idyllwild Arts campus. The course description promises an attempt to “reinforce participants’ connection with their creative sources, and explore aspects of craft,” and the craft that Fitch lavished on “White…
Planning a Lilac Festival in spite of the vicissitudes of climate and weather patterns is a perilous endeavor. Just ask Gary Parton, who has fathered this celebration since 2009 and continues to propagate and promote Idyllwild as a lilac tourist venue. Each year, Parton and his committee set the date for the festival, hoping the…