Spooktacular fills St. Charles Road with costumes, candy and blue skies

Downtown Lombard is turning out in costume today as the Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce holds its Spooktacular on St. Charles Road from noon to 5 p.m. Under clear blue skies, crowds of families, many of the children dressed for Halloween, are filling the closed street, wandering past rows of vendor tents toward the downtown arch at Park Avenue.

To make room for the festival, the village has closed St. Charles Road between Lincoln Avenue and Main Street from 4:30 a.m. until about 7 p.m., turning the heart of downtown over to the afternoon’s games and booths.

The chamber has planned a full afternoon downtown, with trick-or-treating at downtown businesses, games, a scavenger hunt, bounce houses and live entertainment, and its event plans also call for a pumpkin patch on Park Avenue, a zoo and a music stage. Vendors are set up in tents along the street. The bounce houses and other inflatables are sponsored by the Village of Lombard through its Local Tourism Grant Program, which the chamber thanked for supporting this year’s Spooktacular.

LS Hair Design is sponsoring the costume contest, and sign-up is at the salon’s booth. Costumes compete in five categories: Funniest, Most Creative, Scariest, Cutest and Best Group. Winners will be announced at 4:30 p.m., with trophies for first and second place and ribbons for third, according to the Lombard Lilac Ledger.

Dogs have a contest of their own. Hollywood Hounds is holding its third annual Dog Costume Contest at the festival, according to the chamber, whose announcement also promised merchandise, candy and a chance to learn about local services.

The festival runs until 5 p.m. The Lilac Post will update this story with the costume contest winners once they are announced.

The Halloween season keeps going after today. The Lombard Historical Society’s Witches Night Out, a women-only evening for those 21 and older, runs from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, at 23 W. Maple St. On Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, the village recommends trick-or-treating from 3 to 7 p.m., and a porch light left on means the house is giving out candy.