Naperville residents say ‘Happening’ is Halloween tradition
They streamed into Naperville’s Riverwalk Grand Pavilion on Sunday — pint-size firemen, superheroes, princesses, pirates, ghosts and witches.
They came for the Naperville Park District’s annual Halloween Happening, a family-oriented mix of games, food and seasonal treats that’s become a tradition for Naperville residents.
“It’s the biggest one-day event we do,” said Fred Gusel, the park district’s superintendent of recreation. “We expect anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 people to come by over the course of the day.”
Four distinct activity areas, all with a theme, greeted visitors to the event on Sunday. Naperville resident Sheila Durham and her 7-year-old son, Nate, tried their hands at the Troll Toss game, which involved throwing a little troll doll through a small hole.
“We usually start our Halloween with this event,” Durham said. “It’s fun, it gets the kids all excited for trick-or-treating. And today we’ve had pretty nice weather.”
Craig Bauer, 9, of Aurora, waited in line for one of the several inflated “bouncy” houses. He was dressed like Bumblebee, one of the Transformers.
“I love wearing my costume,” Bauer said. “I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
The Halloween Happening got started in the early 1980s. It was originally designed as an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating, but now it’s become an anticipated supplement to it, Gusel said.
“People really look forward to it,” he said.
Many of the people who attended the event Sunday came to the pavilion after collecting plenty of sweet goodies in the downtown area, which hosted a special trick-or-treat session from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“After all this stuff today, we might not have the energy to go out again tomorrow,” said Naperville resident Bill Kopecki.