Spooky season take all kinds of forms all around the Valley
Residents and visitors to the Santa Ynez Valley took advantage of Halloween to roam the area in their scariest, funniest, and wackiest (or some combination of the three) costumes — or in their regular clothes — to partake in “spooky season” events held in the area.
Chief among those events was the 31st Annual Haunted House and Street Fair in Solvang. For the second straight year, the city’s Parks and Recreation created a scary setup at the Solvang Festival Theater for the week- end of October 24 and 25.
Reception for the Haunted House was unprecedented as the attraction drew record numbers, with 1,137 people showing up on Friday, and 1,634 on Saturday, when the line to get in went all the way up 2nd Street and around the corner along Copen- hagen Drive.
“This has been great,” said Candice Libera of Solvang Parks and Rec, who was managing the entrance at the theater. “We had almost 1,200 last night and are expecting more. And everybody’s enjoying the fair we have out here.”
Yes, the Street Fair. As folks were waiting in line at the theater others were roaming about, many in costumes to check out the street vendors and also grab a bite to eat at the Whiskey and Rye food truck. In addition to delicious dishes, the owners also had a widescreen TV so nobody missed Game 2 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays.
However, the big attraction to the Fair, other than the Haunted House, was a flash mob of locals performing the Michael Jackson “Thriller” dance. The group gathered at approximately 6:30 in zombie makeup to do the dance to the classic tune from the King of Pop.
Maria Henning of Santa Barbara was one of the volunteers who took part in the performance.
“I answered an email asking for dancers, and I thought it would be fun,” she said.“We rehearsed for two weeks at the Maverick Saloon, and I think we pulled it off OK.”
An old aquaintance of Henning’s, Kylie Tigard of Solvang, also participated in the flash mob.
“Maria and I went to school together over 40 years ago at Santa Ynez High,” Tigard said.“We’re still out doing crazy stuff.”
Caroline Howe of Solvang was one of leaders of the mob, helping out Vanessa Robertson, a line-dance instructor at the Maverick, who organizes the event every Halloween.
“I’m just here helping out Vanessa,” Howe said after the early Saturday performance. “She teaches the line dancing at the Maverick, and we’ve been getting the ‘Thriller’ flash mob together for the last five years. We always seem to draw some people, so it should be going next year, and however many years after.”
A few days after the Haunted House closed up shop for another year, Solvang Parks and Rec took to Facebook to thank everyone: “THANK YOU for making the 31st Annual Haunted House & Street Fair a TREAT! We had a record-breaking weekend!”
The department credited Fred Lageman for being the “creative genius behind the theme & design,” Jalen, Jenny,Elisa,Candice,TerriandWendy, for the décor at the front of house; and the Parks & Maintenance crew for setup, cleanup and road closures.
The department also gave credit to volunteers like Vivi and Ken Zigler, Anne and Val Nicholas, Kasi Magu- ire, Ryan Metzger, Athena McCan- dlish, Terri Harmon, Claudia Orona (for makeup), Chantel Green of the Solvang Festival Theater, Kevin McConnell (music and sound), the guides “walking five miles a night” and monsters and the street fair vendors for adding to the fun! The department added that funds raised at the event go back into community programs — keeping them affordable for all.
Solvang wasn’t the only community hosting a Halloween event on Saturday, Oct. 24 — the Santa Ynez Chamber of Commerce was holding its own Halloween celebration on Sagunto Street.
While there was no haunted house, there was a street busy with activity as attendees and the still-open businesses on the street greeted trick-or- treaters, took part in a costume contest, and some families sat on hay bales in a viewing area to watch the Disney Pixar movie “Coco” on a big-screen TV.
Linda Small, executive director of the Santa Ynez Chamber of Commerce, said the organization started this event up again as sort of a trial run after the event was interrupted.
“We had this going for a number of years, with bounce houses, petting zoos, a lot of things,” Small said. “Then the pandemic hit and we had to discontinue it. This is our first attempt after the pandemic and we thought a movie, the businesses with the trick-or-treat- ing, the restaurants being open, would draw some people.
“We’re just testing it out now, and we know there are a lot of other things going on tonight. We’ll see how this goes and if we have it again next year, and maybe make it bigger.”
Among the attendees were the Arias family from Lompoc — Ozzie, Melissa, and their toddler daughter Kaia — who were the winners in the family category of the costume contest. Ozzie wore an inflatable dinosaur on his lower half, making it look like he was riding on top of it, while little Kaia wore a dinosaur onesie and Melissa went with a more understated dinosaur decoration.
“We heard about this and thought it would be fun; it’s our daughter’s first year that she’s aware of Halloween, so we thought we’d come out here because it’s a little more low-key,” Ozzie said.
Across the Valley, people had a few more days to vote in the Scarecrow Fest, as businesses’ themed scarecrow display were up for judging, as onlookers were invited to vote for their favorites.
According to the Scarecrow Fest website (syvscarecrows.com), 52 displays were put up all over the Valley, up from 46 in last year’s contest. A list of winners, as well as the winner of the Harvest Award for the most popular will be shown in a future issue.
