East Hampton Village, now synonymous with high-end stores and real estate offices, hasn’t been a place many locals think to go to recreate lately, but there’s one weekend in mid-April that you might want to rethink overlooking this historic gem of a village.
Pictured Above: At the 2023 graveyard tour. |. Kelli Porterfield photo for Hamptons Whodunit
April 10 through 13 is a “Weekend to Die For,” according to the organizers of the third annual Hamptons Whodunit, a weekend-long series of panel discussions with true crime writers, forensics experts and thriller writers, along with escape rooms, a murder mystery dinner, ghostly walks through the village’s historic districts, a trivia night and a sneak peak of a new Amazon Prime series based on Hamptons Whodunit founding board member Alafair Burke’s novel, “The Better Sister.”
East Hampton Village Trustee Carrie Doyle, a novelist and screenwriter, pitched the idea for the festival when asked during her campaign for office what she would do to help village businesses in the off-season.
“I love true crime, and I thought we could do a fiction and true crime festival,” said Ms. Doyle in a late March interview with The Beacon. Mayor Jerry Larsen, a former village police chief who has his own true crime tales to tell, his wife Lisa Larsen, who serves as the Director of Fundraising for the East Hampton Village Foundation, and village social media director Jackie Dunphy quickly signed on to help with the project.
With a deep trove of writers hiding in the enclaves surrounding East Hampton Village, it wasn’t difficult to find subject matter experts to share their ghastly tales.
“We’ve had a lineup of incredible talent,” said Ms. Doyle. “The festival is 50/50 fiction and true crime, and our goal is to have some interactive elements.”
The weekend’s events will be centered around the East Hampton Historical Society’s Clinton Academy on Main Street, where East Hampton Town Historian Hugh King will set off on candlelight tours of East Hampton’s graveyards, including the tale of East Hampton’s witch trial of Goody Garlick, 30 years before Salem.
The festival also partners with the neighboring East Hampton Library, which serves as host for the escape rooms and panel discussions. The theater at Guild Hall, which was under renovations the first two years of the festival, will join the festivities this year, playing host to the sneak peek at “The Better Sister” on Friday evening.
Ms. Dolye added that there are events throughout the weekend at all different price points, including some that are free — the Friday night Escape Room and Friday and Saturday evening graveyard tours, to encourage everyone in the community to take part.
Day passes are available for the panel discussions, and St. Luke’s Church hosts a Murder Mystery for attendees to solve while munching on small plates Friday evening. At the Saturday evening “I Think I Know Whodunit” happy hour at Village Bistro, attendees can mingle with forensic experts and share their ideas about new angles on cases they’re working on, before heading back to St. Luke’s for Whodunit trivia night, where attendees will work alongside bestselling crime writers to answer pup quiz-style questions about their favorite thrillers.
“It’s hard to find multigenerational, engaging programming,” said Ms Doyle. “I see this weekend as a destination for people of all ages, girl’s weekends, baccalaureate parties. This historic, beautiful village is a great backdrop. At night, when you’re standing in the graveyard by the pond, you can see how the whole town is evocative. People who come to the festival are really impressed when they see how much we’ve maintained this history and the beauty of our town.”
More information is available at hamptonswhodunit.org
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