Lorraine Cull wants children to know that Halloween is about getting into costume and having fun, rather than being scary.
That’s the spirit behind Spooktacular, an event that was held for the second straight year in the Baggage Arts Building at Prince Arthur’s Landing on Sunday.
“Halloween is an event that should be fun, and lets people know that it should be okay to dress up and use their imagination and pretend to be something with lots of other people,” Cull said.
The event is billed as being family friendly and has free admission. Cull, one of the Baggage Building’s co-operators, said last year’s event drew 300 people.
The second edition of the event far surpassed that number. The main floor of the building was filled nearly to capacity throughout the event, which ran from noon until 5 p.m.
The organizing crew chose to a ghost ship theme for this year’s festivities, which featured a shipwreck themed haunted tour, a kraken made of recycled bubble wrap, dive for sunken treasure green screen and other nautical elements.
In addition to the ghost ship theme, traditional Halloween elements were present such as pumpkin carving, crafts and face painting.
The face painting was particularly enjoyed by Simon Sebesta, 9, as it gave him an opportunity to emulate a leopard.
“Those are my favourite animals and I like reading books about them and going online to learn about them,” he said.
Sebesta was joined by his mother Melanie and younger brother Sammy.
One of the biggest draws of the event was the ghost ship haunted walk, which took place in the lower level of the building.
Fellow building co-operator Angie Jensen said it was funny to watch the reactions of some of the people once they exited the walk.
“People love the haunted walk downstairs,” Jensen remarked. “Sometimes the parents come out more shaken than the kids. The kids have more fun.”
Count Sebesta as one who was brave enough to take the challenge, as he was not daunted by the scary reputation.
“Everybody says it is super terrifying, so I really want to see it,” Sebesta said.
The Halloween event is just one the Baggage Building puts on. There will be a Spark in the Park event in the winter, which will be fairly similar to a lantern festival.
Jensen said next year the hope is to have a weekend event, as opposed to the one day.
