Despite cold and windy conditions, nearly 4,000 people came out for the eighth annual Aurora City Hall-o-Ween event on Thursday.
The event, held previously at City Hall, was staged at Wilder Park at 350 N. River St. in Aurora this year.
“This is the first time at this location but we have gone downtown over at City Hall and had a great time,” Dave Wood of Aurora said as he and his family lined up with hundreds of others Thursday waiting to enter Wilder Park. “We’re just getting started and have some family members to go visit and we wanted to see what was going on down here. There’s a lot of people and we’re hanging out in some lines and waiting to see what’s next for the kiddos.”
At the event, kids were free to collect plenty of candy as well as enjoy live music hosted by a DJ, a large LED robot, photo opportunities with slithering snakes and crawling spiders and plenty of costumed characters.
Clayton Muhammad, chief engagement and equity officer for the city of Aurora, said the change of the location for the event made sense this year.
“We have our light festival that’s going on downtown at the Water Street Mall and we didn’t want a conflict with that and have kids walking through the displays,” he said. “Second, we moved to a location where we can have more people and parking and it’s a little easier to get in and out. We’ll test it out this year and see how it goes.”
Muhammad said the event was held indoors at City Hall for its first four years before being moved outdoors. He said the reason to offer the fest is based on a few things.
“First of all, it keeps the connection with City Hall and the community. There are so many people when we started this and bringing people inside the building who said, ‘This is my first time in City Hall. I’ve been here all my life and never been here,’” Muhammad said. “Unless you come to city council meetings or pay your water bill in person you probably don’t come here.”
The second reason, Muhammad said, “it that it allows our departments to engage with the community.”
“Normally, you kind of have the mayor’s office and the police and fire departments engaging with the community, but now you’re giving every department the opportunity to get face time with community members, which is important to us,” he said. “And third, this provides a one-stop shop for trick-or-treaters.”
Last year when it snowed, Muhammad said parents decided “to come and walk here at City Hall and get tons of candy and be done.”
“It’s more convenient with younger families and kids in strollers – it’s more convenient as opposed to getting in and out of cars and going to neighborhoods,” he said. “But this also is a way for the more hard-core trick-or-treaters to use this as a launching spot before going off to the neighborhoods.”
Justin Cebulski, a police cadet who lives in Aurora, said the event is a winner.
“It’s amazing. You see the cheer on the kids’ faces enjoying the holiday,” he said. “This is an amazing thing and this is a good idea with all the departments. It gets everybody to get to know one another. The crowd is huge. I was here last year and this is bigger than expected.”
Many said Thursday afternoon’s event was just the beginning of their Halloween fun, including Emily Wood, who was expecting more to come. She said her daughter began planning their costumes as far back as July.
“I like that everyone can be creative and kids can dress up by what book series they like or what TV show they like or movie so it’s just a fun way to express things you like,” she said. “We’re hitting a number of stops today.”
Ernesto Olivares of Aurora likewise came with family and said the event “was nice to spend a little time with the neighborhood and the city.”
“It’s nice being around here and this is kind of a little bit of a warm-up. There’s more to come,” Olivares said of trick-or-treating. “We’ll probably be out at least another hour or so but this is a great place to start.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
