Downtown Blowing Rock turned frightful on Saturday for its annual Halloween Festival. The event brought out a crowd of festive locals and visitors eager to celebrate the Halloween season, filling the park and local businesses ahead of the festivities. 

The Halloween Festival event ran from 5:45-7 p.m. and featured the event’s staple “Monster March,” a costume parade featuring hundreds of festival goers dressed in everything from minion suits to shining armor. The march was followed by trick-or-treating at local businesses downtown. 

Director of Blowing Rock Parks and Recreation Jessica Brown said the town was committed to putting on the Halloween Festival despite the damages of Hurricane Helene. 

“It’s one of those things we decided our community and our children were in need of,” Brown said. “But it was also a question of what we and our community could handle, so we decided let’s have it but just on a smaller scale.” 

The Town of Blowing Rock was not alone in its mission to throw the beloved festival. They were contacted by Mars Wrigley, the brand behind international favors like M&Ms and Twix, who were just as eager to ensure the Halloween Festival didn’t lose steam due to recovery complications from Hurricane Helene.

Mars Wrigley partnered with Feeding Charlotte, Second Harvest Food Bank, 828 Strong and FeedNC to donate five pallets of candy to the town as part of their larger relief initiative for Western North Carolina dubbed “Operation Treat.”

Blowing Rock is one of several towns receiving donations from Mars Wrigley and its partnered non-profit organizations. Mars Wrigley and the associated nonprofits have delivered over five million pieces of candy across the state. Feed Charlotte raised upwards of $2,000 to fuel a candy-laden caravan driven by volunteers for upwards of 14 hours across unstable roads to fire stations and food banks to ensure Halloween can still happen in towns like Blowing Rock across 16 towns in Western North Carolina, including Asheville and Boone. 

Blowing Rock’s Halloween Festival has been running for over 20 years and is a staple for the community, having grown considerably in guest turnout since the pandemic. To ensure the event could run, the town had to omit previous activities such as a hayride and craft show, but the turnout was unaffected, and festivities ran well into the night though a sudden rainshower and a roll of fog that followed the close of the final event.

Despite the weather, the lights from the dance floor and the warm glow from business windows still shone brightly on the packed streets, washing over sugar-high children and smiling parents who continued to mill about the decorated downtown.