(Image: CHS)
Capitol Hill is always lively for Halloween but a more than a decade-long trick or treat tradition won’t take place this year. There will be no Hilloween kids carnival on Broadway in 2024.
The event survived a COVID-19 hiatus to return in 2022 but the Broadway Business Improvement Area and director Egan Orion said the time and effort required to raise funding and sponsorship for the annual October family-friendly event just didn’t pencil out this year.
The BBIA started backing the Hilloween carnival in 2019 after the financial implosion of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. The chamber had run the event since 2010 as it grew into a major production filling spaces like Seattle Central’s Mitchell Activity Center, AIDS Memorial Plaza, and Cal Anderson Park before sending hundreds of little goblins onto Broadway for trick or treating at neighborhood businesses and restaurants.
While the Hilloween carnival may be gone, one leader in the neighborhood’s business community is taking on an increased role. CHS reported here on the latest GSBA: Capitol Hill efforts including hopes of growing a sister Business Improvement Area to the Broadway group for the Pike/Pine neighborhood.
In the meantime, Hilloween will never truly die. Last week, the Halloween Pet Parade in Volunteer Park kicked off Capitol Hill’s 2024 season of candy giving with dozens of fur babies in costumes. Other seasonal additions like the Haunted Soiree in E Roy’s DAR Rainier Chapter House have joined Seattle’s annual run of scarehouses and fright fests.
Other new traditions are taking shape.
On Friday November 1st and Saturday the 2nd, E PIne’s El Lugar from the Fogon restaurant family will have fresh Pan de Muerto from Bakescapade and an altar for ofrendas and photos of your loved ones.
Capitol Hill’s kids won’t go without. Here’s what 2023’s action in the Capitol Hill trick or treat hot zone looked like. You can expect similar good times around the neighborhood’s prime candy spots this year.
Meanwhile, the neighborhood’s nightlife districts await the mobs of costumed revelers that haunt Pike/Pine and Broadway every weekend around Halloween Hilloween.
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What exactly does the Broadway BIA do with the funds it collects? We know it’s not street beautification like other neighborhood BIAs.
If I had to guess, it’s used for lobbying the mayor and city council for undue influence…but that’s just a guess.
IDK, but if you wanna kick in for a powerwasher rental and take turns operating it and walking the line of ‘horseplay’ with it…I know one person interested.
Same question. I frequently hear all the cool things the West Seattle BIA does, but that Broadway doesn’t do.
I dunno. The kids might not like the dead looking passed out fentanyl guys in front of the QFC 400 block. Right in front of the door. Wouldn’t take my kids there. Hey Joy Hollingsworth. We have a problem. I voted for you but we have a problem. Happy Halloween? Probably best to can it.
Great question!
Excellent question! The very least the BIA could do is to make Broadway cleaner. They do employ people to (supposedly) do this, but I rarely see anyone out working. Meanwhile, the outdated/tattered posters pile up on utility poles and other structures along the street.
Didn’t get their minimum wage tip credit and now there’s no money for anything apparently lol.
I mean, most of these people do go around complaining how “childish” pro-worker activists are…maybe they think they’re punishing their enemies by withholding fun from actual children?
Big eyeroll on that one. Are you serious?
Absolutely not! Those kids are already exposed to enough on their screens. Now Madison valley is always a great destination for Halloween. But that for me was 30 years ago. Can’t imagine that changing.
Why does the name Egan Orion sound so familiar?
This makes me really, really sad
Aw my kids will be a little disappointed about this. I think they mainly enjoyed seeing other people in costumes and getting to play games. Too bad it won’t continue
You all do understand that these Business Improvement groups are essentially taxing themselves to maintain things the city should be maintaining already with general tax dollars. The whole concept places an additional burden on businesses, often just to keep the sidewalks clean or the general environment hospitable. None of what these groups deliver is free. Suggesting they are spending their money to obtain undue influence over elected officials is ridiculous. The animus expressed by several here betrays a complete lack of understanding about what it is like to try operating a business in Seattle, and especially Capitol Hill.
Doesn’t seem like BIA or city are improving much of anything on Broadway these days….what a dump.
One of the stated key services of Seattle’s BIA program is advocacy, with the last report indicating that every group used funds for advocacy… “Efforts to coordinate and organize support or actions around issues relating to business districts. This includes communications, policy research, and working with key decision-makers.”
Just because you think something doesn’t make it true Glenn… Please stop it with your uneducated and off-the-hip analysis of the neighborhood and city.
https://www.seattle.gov/economic-development/business-districts/business-improvement-areas-
What you have documented does not constitute “obtaining undue influence,” as some here state and I call out. Of course these business associations coordinate with the city to deliver services within their area. A part of their mission is also business and business area advocacy. None of these things constitute obtaining undue influence, unless you think advocacy for one’s views (individually or as a group) to a government or government official constitutes obtaining undue influence. If you do, you have plenty of explaining to do when it comes to groups such as the Cascade Bicycle Club or King County Labor Council, whose donations and zealous advocacy are no secrets.
What I am really pointing out here is the anti-business slant of many of the comments here. We can argue all day about minutiae, but the tenor of those comments is plain to see, and in my opinion, they reflect a prevalent attitude among our local citizenry which makes running a business harder in our city.
And Matt, please keep your comments coming. While I don’t agree with much of what you say, I celebrate your right to dislike to speak your mind in this and other forums.
The Broadway BIA was one of the major players that convinced the city to not have the street car go all the way to north Capitol Hill. I think a lot of residents might have thought differently, but most organizations don’t get the direct access to the city that it seems the city-run BIA program does. I think it’s worth asking what the BIA has done and if their priorities are in line with the neighborhood interests.
It might be not a good place for the kids to be this days, sadly. Yesterday, I was walking by the old Starbucks(future Mexican restaurant) and the guy was standing and peeing openly at the tree, while many people were standing and walking around. Broadway is getting worse with every passing day and no one seems to care.
Peeing? That’s all? Go to E. Harrison and Broadway and you can find an open air fenty free for all. And no, nobody seems to care.