An untraditional Halloween on the "Square"

The event — which is organized by the Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce and the city of Lebanon — was moved due to rain and threats of inclement weather.

Among of the multiple churches and 38 businesses, there were many first-time vendors partaking in the event. With the late move and so many first-timers, many were uncertain as for what to expect.

Typically, vendors set up along the square and in parking lots with candy for trick-or-treaters, games, inflatables and other activities. However, after nearly a week of monitoring the weather forecast for Sunday, the Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce decided that relocation was a must, and, on Friday, decided to move the festivities indoors.

That switched things up for those providing the Halloween fun, for the Mill and the city’s eager trick-or-treaters.

Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Melanie Minter pointed out that the rain and relocation didn’t stop anyone from joining in on the festivities.

“Fortunately, we are growing as a community, and people came from all over,” Minter — who was grateful for all of the parties who were involved — said. “Between 3,000 and 4,000 people are expected, but we had over 4,000 this year.”

Krys Midgett — who is the founder of the Give a Little Christmas toy drive — added, “The crowd here was not anticipated, but I’m not mad about it. I’m sure we will still have some candy left over even with all of these people.”

Midgett dressed as her charity persona, Bubbles the Elf, and gave out candy. Her booth was a mix between Halloween and Christmas, with her “Nightmare Before Christmas” cardboard cutout and spooky-themed Christmas tree.

Midgett wasn’t only giving out candy at her booth. She was also giving information for her local toy drive and helping sign people up to win a guitar provided by Shiloh Music Center.

Every booth had something different. Julie Cook and Jeff Spain at the Profectus Jiu-Jitsu table hosted games and candy. It was their first year as well, and they enjoyed seeing the attendees.

“We have some games like pin the spider web, guess how many pieces of candy corn are in the poison flask, and our ghost toss,” Spain said. “Those who win the games are given a coupon for two free classes at our studio.”

The pair were dressed as Hocus Pocus characters, which resulted in a lot of attraction to their booth.

Two of the churches utilized the layout of the Mill to provide fun. Lebanon’s Launchpoint Church provided bounce houses, trick-or-treat tables and opportunities for prayer requests.

“Being indoors worked out fairly well because of the space we were given,” Jim Kubic with Launch Point Church, another first-time vendor, said. “We were going to have the inflatables in the parking lot, but it was nice to be inside.”

In the upstairs area of the Mill, the Child Evangelism Fellowship hosted face painting and games. Many attendees made note of how it was nice to be able to go from trick-or-treating on the bottom floor to specific activities up top.

Tuesday Willemain with the Loft Beauty Studio mentioned that it was good to see how the layout helped with crowd control. Another first-year vendor, Willemain was shocked with how many people arrived and how the event was pulled off so quickly.

“We had a wedding just last night and were going to start setting up for our Christmas event coming up this weekend today, but we just had to pull this off for the city,” Laura Comer, the sales and event manager at the Mill, said.

Comer enjoyed giving out candy and seeing everyone’s costumes.

“Should it ever rain over Halloween weekend again, we would love to host it here again,” Comer said.

The Mill also provided tables and seating for vendors.

“We are very grateful for the Mill to accommodate us,” Minter said. “We had as much space as we could inside, and we wanted to make sure we could pivot as quickly as possible. It was the right place and had lots of parking.”