EVANS CITY — Zombie fans will have the opportunity in a few weeks to attend a final “Night of the Living Dead” reunion festival.

The Living Dead Festival is slated for Aug. 30-31 at EDCO Park in the borough where the 1968 cult classic zombie movie, “The Night of the Living Dead,” was filmed.

Gary Streiner, festival organizer and original movie sound engineer, said 17 surviving cast and crew members from the film will attend the event, which likely will be the last time all 17 will be together.

“We're all getting up in years,” Streiner said. “Since the last one in 2009, we've lost five members.”

The festival will celebrate the film's 45th anniversary as well as the refurbishing of the chapel in the Evans City Cemetery, where the creepy opening movie scene was shot.

Tickets are $10 for that Friday, $15 for that Saturday, and $20 will buy zombie lovers a two-day pass.

On both days cast members Judith O'Dea, Russ Streiner, Bill Cardille, Judith Ridley, Jack Russo, George Kosana and Richard Ricci will accompany groups of fans to the three locations where the film was shot. Discussions on the film and the opportunity to get autographs will be included in the location events.

Cost is $50 per session.

A free celebration of the reconstruction of the chapel will open to all from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at the cemetery. From 8 to 10 p.m., ticket holders can enjoy a bonfire at EDCO Park, where they can roast marshmallows and talk with cast and crew members.

Aug. 31 is the main day when festivalgoers can meet the cast and crew and get their autographs on items bought there or brought in for $20, or buy one of 150 official festival posters for $95.

The cast will sign the posters for free, and poster holders will receive a two-day pass to the festival.

Refreshments, T-shirts, and other “Night of the Living Dead” memorabilia will be available to ticket holders on both days.

“We hope we have tons of people show up,” Streiner said. “It's probably never going to happen again.”

Regarding the rebuilding of the chapel, which was constructed in 1923, Mark Gerson of Mark S. Gerson Builder in Mars said he hopes to be finished by this winter.

Gerson said he and his subcontractors are working to return the 20-by-30 foot, two-story structure to its original state, which has required both good luck and perseverance.

Gerson was able to find new doors that happen to match exactly the rotted original doors.

“We got lucky,” Gerson said of the find. “We had to do some searching, though.”

He said four concrete-block columns originally adorned the chapel's porch, but because no support footer was placed beneath them, the columns fell down as the porch sank over the years.

“By 1967, there was one left,” Gerson said.

With the last column long gone, Gerson's workers jacked up the porch slab and injected a stabilizing grout solution underneath. They then cut four holes in the slab and poured concrete footers beneath each one.

Four wooden columns were installed, and special concrete block was ordered.

“It's the same texture of block as what there was originally,” Gerson said.

When it was discovered that crown molding required replacement in several spots, Gerson found a supplier who had knives identical to those used to cut crown molding in the early part of the 20th Century.

Gerson also replaced about 76 feet of gutter on each side of the chapel's roof and repaired water damage from decades of the gutters' absence or decay.

He now is working on the soffit and fascia, flashing, and siding at the ends of the slate roof on the front of the chapel.

After similar work is completed on the back, Gerson plans to replace the broken windows, repair the chimney, strip and replaster the interior walls, and fix unforeseen damage that continues to crop up as work proceeds.

“The project keeps expanding,” Gerson said.

Although he is not a rabid fan of “The Night of the Living Dead,” Gerson is glad he took on the project.

“It is something that I thought was kind of interesting, and that's how I got involved,” he said. “And I do appreciate old buildings.”

For information and to buy tickets to the Living Dead Festival, visit www.livingdeadfest.com.