Apollo Park hosted events carnival games on Halloween night including a costume contest, and passed out free candy to serve as a safer alternative to trick-or-treating for children in the community.
Candy tampering has been a problem in the past, so parents began to worry about the safety of their children. This festival provides a safer environment and more trustworthy candy distributors. Amanda Garcia, a mother of two trick-or-treaters, liked the festival because of the safer environment.
“You hear about all these stories of kids getting harmful candy and about kids getting kidnapped and it’s scary,” Garcia said. “It’s better here because you can trust the people handing out candy and you can watch your child easier.”
Garcia’s children ran around to the booths to participate in the games. Even if the player didn’t win, they still received a candy just for trying. Children waited in line and were greeted by the volunteers running the games, which gave parents comfort to know that strange people weren’t tending to the children. The only problem for some parents was that there was so much for the children to explore, it was a little difficult to keep them near.
“I really like that they have hot dogs, cotton candy, drinks, and candy,” parent Jerry Rivas said. “I especially like that it’s free!”
Other festivals are available but they have high priced food. Children, teens, and adults alike flocked to the cotton candy station and soda stations to eat snacks that were sweet enough to put them in a festive mood. Plenty of people there hadn’t heard about the free food, but they found out about it by word of mouth. Soon enough, attendees were holding either a hot dog, cotton candy, and some even had two cups of soda at a time. The distribution of sweet products, that weren’t just candy, excited many children, giving them reason to want to come back.
“My kid has apparently already committed me to come to this for the rest of my life, so my guess is that he really enjoyed it,” Anthony Gomez said.
The games and candy created an atmosphere that emitted sounds of laughter and screams of excitable children. Gomez’s child was constantly in line to gather as much candy as he could and gave an occasional whoop if he won a game. Because of the candy for participation rule, participants weren’t seen sulking or sad, and the crowd stayed in high spirits.
The Apollo Park Halloween festival was a less dangerous alternative for kids with parents who were uneasy with the standard trick or treating custom. Coming to this festival showed these kids not only a different Halloween custom, but a safer experience overall.
