Kids of all stripes suited up Saturday to celebrate an early Halloween throughout the Wood River Valley.
There was a Halloween Hoopla in Hailey and a Nightmare on Main Street in Ketchum, and there was plenty of revelry in between.
"It was unbelievable this year," said Sarah Hedrick, a member of the South Valley Merchants' Alliance. "From the kids trick-or-treating on the streets to the businesses being prepared with candy."
Hedrick said at least 500 people crowded into the Liberty Theatre in downtown Hailey for a costume contest there, and a total of between 600 and 700 people filled the hall.
"It was an absolute collaboration of community, from businesses, the Police Department, Fire Department, chamber and families," Hedrick said. "Everybody helped make it perfect."
Sunny weather and above-average temperatures didn't hurt, either.
As afternoon and early-evening festivities in Hailey wound down, Ketchum turned over a dusty old Halloween machine of old. In decades past, Halloween in Ketchum was serious business, and this year's event was meant to revive the revelry of old.
"Maybe we're brining back the Halloween days of old," remarked Bronwyn Patterson, public relations manager for the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau.
Costume-clad revelers filled Ketchum's closed-off Main Street and filtered in and out of local watering holes. Music filled the street—and plenty of spooks, too.
"What I have heard from businesses in that area is that it was packed," Patterson said. "The street was filled with people. The band at Whiskey's was great. People were decked out in costumes."
Another costume contest was held at the nexStage Theatre.
Tom Nickel, owner of the Roosevelt Tavern and Sawtooth Club, explained the idea.
"The genesis of the idea came from Ron Parsons, Ketchum city councilman, who remembered the Halloween street parties of the past and offered it as a suggestion to help out the local economy, which is not exactly flourishing," Nickel said.
And it appears to have helped.
"It was a huge success, and we really look forward to a bigger and scarier party next year," Patterson said.
Jeff, Jack and Steve Hanson (in reality the Whiskey Jacques? bartender team of Mark Belanger, Dave Klemer and Sean Buckley) from the Charlestown Chiefs take a moment Saturday to pose in between slinging drinks. The Hanson brothers are featured in the cult 1970s movie ?Slap Shot.? Photo by Willy Cook
