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Local Halloween event series starts Saturday

October 22, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

With a less than exciting Halloween last year, featuring no official events, the Orangeville Business Improvement Association is thrilled to be holding the “Boo! On Broadway and Beyond!” event series this weekend and next.

Instead of doing the annual Harvest Celebration downtown, where kids dress up in costume and go from business to business collecting candy, the Orangeville BIA has created a COVID-19 safe alternative, featuring a spooky market, book reading, live music, scavenger hunt, and pumpkin pop-up.

“We can’t do the trick or treating this year just because with COVID restrictions, we can’t control the numbers of people coming down to the street, because the street won’t be closed. But at least we can do this, and it should be really fun,” says Julia Grys, event organizer and Orangeville BIA ambassador.

“The businesses are just really excited to make it special for the kids this year since they missed out last year,” she added.

The fun starts with Halloween Haunt at the Farmers Market this Saturday (Oct. 23) from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., where attendees can get dressed up and pick up a treat bag, as well as vote on their favourite vendor costume. This will be the final outdoor market of the season.

The fun continues this Saturday at 10 a.m. outside of the Opera House (87 Broadway) with a live reading of Paisley’s Pumpkin and live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The following Saturday (Oct. 30), a witches walk scavenger hunt is being held all day where multiple witches will be setup at downtown storefronts. Participants of the scavenger hunt will write down the locations of at least 10 witches on an answer card that can be picked up at Mill Creek Gardens (3 Little York Street) or printed off at Downtown Orangeville’s website. The answer card is then returned to Mill Creek Gardens when completed and participants receive a treat bag as a prize.

The final event, to wrap up Boo! On Broadway and Beyond!, is the Great Pumpkin Pop-Up. This event will see over 40 downtown businesses participating, where they each craft a jack-o-lantern, and hope to receive the most votes from the community. For each vote cast, the Orangeville BIA will donate $1 to a designated charitable organization or initiative in the community, to a maximum of $500.

To cast a vote, there will be a QR code sign at each pumpkin as well as paper ballots available.

“The idea is that kids can come down in costume and walk around, look at all the pumpkins and then vote for their favourite,” explains Grys.

She noted that the pop-up pumpkin event is new and being held in Orangeville for the very first time.

“Basically, the businesses just wanted to do something extra special for the kids this year, just to make them smile and to challenge themselves and their staff members a little bit to come up with something really good,” says Grys of the pumpkin carving contest.

She told the Citizen there are many talented individuals within the local BIA and she knows of a few who will be using their store as the theme for their pumpkin carving.

“Some of them will be scary, and some of them will be kind of silly. It’s going to be great,” Grys enthused.

The whole downtown area has also been decorated with a Halloween theme, bringing the spirit of the season to those walking along Broadway, and those participating in the Orangeville BIA’s event series.

For more information on the Orangeville BIA’s upcoming Halloween events, visit the events section of their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/downtownoville or visit their website: https://downtownorangeville.ca/


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