People of all ages to are welcome at the downtown BIA's annual Halloween Spooktacular, featuring a hay maze, spinning pumpkin ride and photo booth

The Hamilton Business Improvement Area's Halloween Spooktacular will be on Oct. 27 from 5-8 p.m. in Gore Park. This is a free annual event hosted by Hamilton BIA, and this will be their fifth year running the event. There will be a variety of fun activities to get everyone into the Halloween spirit. People of all ages are welcome to attend, and costumes are encouraged.

This year, they are featuring a hay maze for attendees to navigate, a spinning pumpkin ride, face painting, an interactive pirate ship, a photo booth, a prize wheel, pumpkin decorating and a DJ dance party. Aerialists and a magician will also be roaming the park throughout the event.

The BIA started this event in 2019 because they wanted to foster community and create a space for gathering in downtown Hamilton. Every year, they try to add something new and exciting. This year, they added an interactive pirate ship and a spinning pumpkin ride.

Making it a financially accessible event for the community was very important to them, as Halloween can be an expensive event for some. They wanted everyone to be able to attend and have a good time.

“Halloween is very expensive with costumes and candy … You can come down, there's no barriers to entry. You don't have to purchase anything, just come down and have a good time,” said Emily Gilruth, the operations manager at Hamilton BIA.

Halloween is very expensive with costumes and candy. . .You can come down, there's no barriers to entry. You don't have to purchase anything, just come down and have a good time

Emily Gilruth, operations manager, Hamilton BIA

This is also a great opportunity for students to take a break during midterm season, explore downtown and have a fun time.

Overall, the BIA team hopes that every attendee will have a spooktacular time at this event and leave with a good impression of the downtown core, as they want to advocate for more people to visit there.

“I hope that they kind of leave with some fond memories, some candy, which is always nice on Halloween. But I also hope people have a positive experience of the downtown core and a desire to come back,” said Gilruth.

I hope that they kind of leave with some fond memories, some candy, which is always nice on Halloween. But I also hope people have a positive experience of the downtown core and a desire to come back.

Emily Gilruth, operations manager, Hamilton BIA

In the future, the Hamilton BIA aims to continue running this event and gradually ramp it up with more fun activities each year.

In the future, the Hamilton BIA aims to continue running this event and gradually ramp it up with more fun activities each year.