Locals might have seen Leon Donnelly kitted out with psychokinetic energy meter, ghost trap, proton pack and neutrino wand – and he says right now is prime time for otherworldly disturbances.

“Have you heard of the term wake the dead? Because of the increased sound levels throughout the festival time, it’s increasing the paranormal activity around the place.”

But it’s really just some harmless fandom fun for Mr Donnelly; paying homage to the hugely successful franchise and bringing a smile to people’s faces.

“[The paranormal] has always been an intriguing thing,” he said.

“But I guess I just had a love for Ghostbusters … like your Star Trek and Star Wars fans have their thing, my thing’s Ghostbusters.”

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There has also been some “not-so-serious ghost hunting with groups of friends” when they hear of a new, spooky urban legend – but “it’s more of a social event than anything”.

“The lowest level of the Tamworth Shoppingworld car park, for example – supposedly, people have gone blind there,” he said.

“The King George Avenue one always gets brought up about phantom headlights coming your way if you park down the other end … We got EMF meters and all that sort of stuff, but we didn’t really find anything.”

And if he did? “I’d probably freak out; I don’t think I’d be too brave – maybe if the gear actually worked…

“I think I’m going out expecting not to find anything, and if I did actually encounter something, I think that would be pretty crazy.”

Naturally, Leon – whose day job is disability support worker – and his wife Alison are excited about the 2020-due Ghostbusters 3.

But in the meantime he’ll keeping trotting out the gear – mostly purchased online, where there are “a lot of ghosthunting eBay sellers” – on special occasions such as the festival, Halloween and fancy-dress parties.

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