Southern Gothic Festival Begins with Camden’s Own Ghost Story

In the South, stories are inseparable from place. They live in old houses, cemeteries, family memories and landscapes shaped by generations of history. It is fitting, then, that the Southern Gothic Festival will begin by telling one of Camden’s own enduring ghost stories: the legend of Agnes of Glasgow.

On Friday, October 9, at 5:30 p.m., Brandon Schexnayder, creator and host of the acclaimed Southern Gothic podcast, will present “Agnes of Glasgow: The Legend and Lore” at Broad & Vine in downtown Camden.

The Southern Gothic podcast explores the history behind the South’s legends, hauntings and unexplained stories. Through careful research and atmospheric storytelling, Schexnayder considers how documented history and oral tradition become intertwined—and what ghost stories can reveal about the people and communities that preserve them.

Agnes of Glasgow is said to have traveled from Scotland to Camden during the American Revolution in search of her fiancé, a British soldier. According to legend, she died before finding him and was buried in Camden’s Quaker Cemetery. Her spirit is still said to wander nearby, continuing the search that brought her so far from home.

But who was Agnes, and how much of her story can be documented? Schexnayder will share the research behind a new Southern Gothic episode devoted to the legend, including historical context and insights gathered from local residents and historians. The program will explore how Agnes’s story has changed across generations—and why it continues to belong so powerfully to Camden. Local historians and writers Glen and Joan Inabinet are featured, as well as local history interpreter, ghost tour leader, and history teacher Liz Canada.

Broad & Vine will be open throughout the program, with food and beverages available for purchase. The event is free, and no tickets or reservations are required.

That celebration of local history and Southern place will continue Saturday. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., local favorite Miles Gardner will be available with his books, including Murder and Mayhem in Kershaw County. South Carolina writers Julia Elliott and Scott Gould will also take part. Elliott, a recent winner of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, brings magical realism and the uncanny into recognizable Southern landscapes, while Gould’s work celebrates the deep family connections, complicated histories, and small communities that shape Southern life.

Podcasters Arcane Carolinas will bring its knowledge of Carolina cryptids, famous legends and strange regional lore, while numerous writers of ghost stories, horror and folklore will explore experiences that may reach beyond South Carolina but remain distinctly relatable to Southern readers.

Later Saturday, Columbia bluegrass band The Mill Hands will perform dark Appalachian songs and murder ballads—the kind of music that might once have been heard in Camden’s own nearby mill villages. Rooted in working-class communities and passed down through generations, these songs are another reminder that history is preserved not only in books and buildings, but also in the stories and music of a place.

Together, the programs and many more celebrate something Southerners have long understood: places hold stories. Some are carefully documented, some are passed from one generation to the next, and some may still be wandering just beyond the edge of the light.