Halloween in Ashland

This Halloween, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce organized the annual Children’s Halloween Celebration to terrifying effect. This year proved especially frightful as residents came together to show off extremely creative costumes from a whole family of Star Wars characters to even a Golden Retriever dressed as Air Bud. These were only two small examples from the nearly 5,000 people who attended the haunting event.

The annual Children’s Halloween Celebration brings together residents with an organized musical march down East Main Street accompanied by the Ashland High School Drumline and the parade band, Samba Like It Hot.  This was all capped off by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival stages with a spectacular performance by Ashland Danceworks to the rhythm of “Thriller,” the pinnacle of Halloween tunes.

Kelsey Frantz is the Projects and Special Events Coordinator, she puts together many of the events that grace the city of Ashland. Kelsey Frantz gave more insight into how Ashland handles these amazing affairs as well as future events students should look forward to.

In regards to how many people plan these events Frantz explained, “The Ashland Chamber of Commerce is a staff of six individuals, and I serve as our Projects and Special Events Coordinator. Many of our events also have a volunteer committee and also a strong board of directors that work with us.”

When asked about any upcoming events SOU students should be aware of Frantz replied, “We would like to have more SOU students get involved and come to our events! Maybe bring their families for the Festival of Lights celebration, which is a parade we do the day after Thanksgiving, so then their families can experience Ashland for the holidays. We have one million lights we turn on that night. Then the Culinary Festival which is November 7th to 10th, which is held at the Ashland Hills Hotel and Suites. That’s a really fun event with a live cooking competition and food sampling throughout the room. We always have a student price for that.”

Students who sadly missed out on the spooky festivities should definitely check out the other events Kelsey Frantz mentioned. If this year’s Halloween celebration was anything to go by the next events will be truly wonderful.

Leave a Reply