Woman holds seance and finds her doll is possessed by canine from 1790s
She returned the doll to is home after suffering nightmares, and seeing it move across the room
Brocarde washed the doll in holy water and transported it in a cage
A woman who feared her doll was possessed following a series of strange events after she found it in her basement has returned it to where it came from and held a seance, discovering the origin of the ‘ghost’. Singer Broacrde found the plastic dog doll in her basement and after moving it started suffering vivid nightmares, freezing cold spells, and mysterious movements of objects around her home
She said the haunted dog, a mascot in the shape of the Download Festival logo, has been seen moving across rooms on its own, particularly when heavy metal music is playing.
Brocarde returned the haunted object to the Download site and conducted a séance beneath the Apex Stage at Donington Park in an attempt to connect with its ‘inner demon’. Dressed in a glamorous long black velvet mourning gown, Brocarde escorted the dog, caged inside a dog basket, across the festival grounds in a funeral-style procession.
The cage carried a stark warning sign that read: “Beware of the haunted dog (it may bite),” and was adorned with dozens of hanging crosses to ward off evil and protect anyone it came into contact with. Before returning it to Donington Park, Brocarde bathed it in holy water and saged its cage.
During the paranormal investigation, Brocarde says she discovered that the bobblehead did have a spirit attachment, but it was not human. According to her, it is possessed by the ghost of a dog.
The spirit using the toy as a vessel is said to be a dog called Tommy Tattle, the beloved companion of aristocrat Francis Rawdon Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, who built the historic Donington Hall in the 1790s.
Francis Rawdon Hastings had a son named George, an avid fox hunter who kept kennels full of hounds at Donington Hall during his time at the property. During Brocarde’s earlier Download Festival ghost hunt in 2024, she encountered a vivid apparition of a Georgian era man named George. He repeatedly paraded in front of the stage on horseback accompanied by a pack of angry hounds. Another spirit she encountered in 2024 was his wife, Barbara, known as “The Woman in White”, who appeared in a long eighteenth century gown and seemed considerably more disgruntled.
Brocarde’s Download Festival ghost hunt in 2026 has now provided several missing pieces of the puzzle. “I knew instinctively that there was some kind of connection between my bobblehead toy and the spirits I’d seen at Download Festival. I couldn’t piece it all together, but when I was sitting close to the earth beneath the Apex Stage, the story started to unfold during my paranormal investigation,” Brocarde explains.
“There seems to be a fascinating and long standing connection with dogs at Donington Park, which still continues today as the Download Festival mascot is a dog. It seems obvious that if we can encounter the ghost of a human, we can encounter the ghost of a dog. It’s interesting how I’ve finally discovered what’s been haunting my Download Dog bobblehead. It’s somehow both ironic and obvious that it’s an aristocratic dog,” Brocarde continues.
“I love it when a ghost hunt provides such a detailed explanation. It’s nice to finally understand why Download Festival is so haunted. There’s a theory that intense heavy metal and powerful music can open a portal to the afterlife and create intense spiritual energy fields. It’s amazing to know that the energy of Download captivates both the living and the spirit world alike,” Brocarde adds.
Brocarde captured headlines around the world when an impactful paranormal encounter led to her marrying, and later divorcing, the ghost of a Victorian soldier. Brocarde now travels internationally investigating haunted hotspots and conducting ghost hunts. She claims to have encountered malevolent spirits, murderous ghosts, and even covens of witches while studying the supernatural.
In 2024, she was invited to Download Festival for a late-night ghost hunt on the Avalanche Stage, where she says she encountered headbanging spirits waiting to watch Busted perform.
Fresh from Download, Brocarde travelled to Germany to conduct a séance in honour of Motörhead legend Lemmy at Wacken Open Air. During festival season, she also interviewed some of the world’s biggest rock bands and hosted interviews from the black carpet at the Metal Hammer Awards in Berlin.
2026 marked the launch of Brocarde’s debut album, Good Attendance At Sunday School. Brocarde’s single, Seven Sins, featuring Ray Luzier of Korn, is out now.
