The Downtown Trick or Treat Walk will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, and will include trick-or-treating as well as other activities at locally owned businesses and attractions.
A press release for the event said families can start the event by picking up a map of participating locations at one of several Fountain Square Mall stores, including Gather, the Green Nursery and By Hand Gallery.
From there, they can trick or treat at other downtown locations along the square and Kirkwood Avenue, including Global Gifts, Pictura Gallery and Blu Boy Chocolate Cafe and Cakery.
A full list of participating businesses is available at Gather, located at Suite 112 in Fountain Square Mall, and on the Downtown Trick or Treat Walk’s Facebook page.
In addition to trick-or-treating, according to the release, some businesses will also be offering special activities for children. Gather will provide pumpkin painting, and KMB Studio for Music and Movement will have a free ballet class.
Talia Halliday, who owns Gather and had the idea for the event, said it’s also hoping to have a miniature pumpkin patch in the mall for kids ages 6 and under.
Halliday, who is also part of the Bloomington Fashion Collective, said she drew inspiration for the event from a weekend family visit to Columbus. She was impressed, she said, with Columbus’s family-friendly downtown atmosphere and wanted to establish a similar atmosphere in Bloomington.
Halliday said she wants the Trick or Treat Walk to give families with young children a safe place to trick-or-treat while also supporting local Bloomington businesses.
“I have a young child, and so we have many years gone to college mall and done the safe trick or treating there,” she said. “There are lines, and they aren’t local businesses. They’re not supporting our downtown. So this is a way that we can get out that our downtown is here for you and we have a lot to offer.”
Plus, Halliday said, the event provides both an unusual atmosphere for downtown and a learning experience for children.
“I think it’s just going to be really cute to see all these kids dressed up and walking in downtown Bloomington,” she said. “We never see children running around in costume downtown, so I think it’ll be really entertaining. And the kids can get a sense of what it means to support local businesses and that it’s okay for them to be down here and that it’s safe.”
