Oct. 18—SUPERIOR — For 10 years, the city has been showcasing its Halloween spirit. This year, the Spooktacular Parade and Nightmare 5K will relocate to the university neighborhood and be joined by a new carnival at Hammond Park.
Hammond Park will serve as the hub for the activities on Saturday, Oct. 26. The parade route will end there, the 5K course will take runners through the park, and a “tunnel of terrors” is being set up in the park by volunteers.
The festivities also include an art and music pub crawl and a map of local houses decked out in Halloween decor.
“It’s really fun now to hear people talking about Superior and the Halloween spirit and things like that, and just how one little initiative has, like, exploded into this really big deal for the city of Superior and the recognition that it has received for its Halloween spirit,” said Carolyn Nelson-Kavajecz, president of the board of Superior Activities, the umbrella nonprofit connected to the Spooktacular activities.
The
Halloween extravaganza began in 2015
when the Superior Business Improvement District marketing and events committee sought to bring an event downtown following the Tower Avenue reconstruction project, Nelson-Kavajecz said. Rather than compete with summer events or local Christmas parades, they chose Halloween.
The celebration of all things spooky has grown organically as partners have joined. Grandma’s Marathon hosts the Superior Nightmare 5K race. Goin’ Postal and the Bluebird Foundation organize the music festival and pub crawl. Sterling Silver Studio and the city of Superior are in charge of the parade and Haunt Your House events.
“Every year everything gets a little bigger, more people involved,” said Nelson-Kavajecz, who owns Sterling Silver Studio.
The newest entrant is Halloween at Hammond Park, a festival organized by volunteers Deanna Ellis and Ashley Lane. They’ll offer a host of activities, including pumpkin tic-tac-toe, bowling with pumpkins, trick-or-treat tables, live music, a photo booth, a pet costume contest, a tarot reader and more from noon to 4 p.m.
“We’ve got activities for kiddos. We’re trying to make it inclusive for all ages because I want the teens to be able to feel like they’re involved as well,” Ellis said, calling it “a little bit of everything for everybody.”
In past years, a carnival has taken place at the Salvation Army. Although Ellis and her family have attended the Spooktacular Parade, they were unaware of the carnival or 5K until they stepped up to organize the Halloween at Hammond Park. It’s a chance for them to bring their neighborhood together.
“I used to live in East End, so I would get excited about the East End Days and the Fire Muster, that we would call it. And I just think about, like, those emotions and those memories I had and I want to create those memories for my children and their friends in our community,” Ellis said.
She said they’d like to host additional events at the park for Easter, Christmas and the Fourth of July and raise funds to upgrade Hammond Park.
“I think that this park is the heart of the city. It’s literally in the center of the entire city, so when people drive off of the bridge, no matter where they’re coming from, if they’re heading down Hammond, this is the first park they’re going to see,” Ellis said, and she wants it to give them a Superior impression.
The decision to move the Halloween events from Superior’s North End neighborhood to the university area was fueled by the success of the parade, Nelson-Kavajecz said.
“Doing the parade down Ogden Avenue has always worked really well for us, but we are running out of space down there, so just moving the parade to a more central location allowed us more space for lineup, more space for the parade,” she said.
The route is also lined with homes, many of them decked out for Halloween, which adds another dimension to the event.
The
Superior Nightmare 5K
begins at 11 a.m. The course will start and finish near Wessman Arena on the University of Wisconsin-Superior campus. A kids’ race will follow at 12:30 p.m. Runners are invited to come in costume, and prizes will be awarded in several different costume categories. Registration is online through Oct. 24.
The
Spooktacular Parade
begins at 2 p.m. Lineup is at 1 p.m. on Cumming Avenue next to Northern Lights School. The parade route will take floats out to North 28th Street, turn north on Hammond Avenue, follow the road construction detour to Cumming Avenue and end at Hammond Park.
Online registration
is open up to the day of the parade.
Halloween at Hammond Park
is noon to 4 p.m. Organizers are collecting new and gently used costumes for all ages that will be available at no charge during the event.
“We’re both moms and we want to make sure every child feels included,” Ellis said.
They are also seeking sponsors for the games and volunteers for the event. To donate costumes or help out, email
halloweenathammondpark@yahoo.com
or send a message through the
Halloween at Hammond Park Facebook page
. A link to the pet costume contest can be found on the Facebook page as well.
Ellis and Lane are also holding a logo contest and are in search of additional food trucks to set up at the event.
The Poltergeist Pub Crawl and Music Festival kicks off at 5 p.m. and includes 12 Superior taverns. Visit the
Goin Postal Fall Music Festival Facebook page
for more information.
Haunt Your House maps will be available Oct. 23 on the
Superior Spooktacular Facebook page.
This year there are 43 entrants in the non-competitive event.
“We’re really just focused on being a tour of homes, which means we want this to be for everyone,” Nelson-Kavajecz said. “This is really about just providing something for kids and families to do and to drive around the city of Superior and look at all of the decorations … all of the creativity.”
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