Halloween, the October holiday that has the majority of people walking up and down neighborhoods, knocking on doors and saying, “trick or treat.” After decades of the same tradition, Castaic Lake decided to switch it up while introducing the community to its offerings.
Blue and Steve from “Blue’s Clues,” a taco, an angel and Rapunzel were just a few of the costumes that graced the grass fields at Castaic Lake’s Spooktacular on Saturday.
“It’s a little bit of everything. It’s using your imaginations for kids. It’s being outside. Costumes. The lake,” said Micaela Gonzalez, special events coordinator for Castaic Lake.
Booths from various vendors, games, craft tables, photo ops, a maze, face painters and game booths were some of the special attractions attendees could enjoy as they made their way from booth to booth collecting candy.
“It’s a melting pot,” said parent attendee Ingrid Isaacs. “It’s everybody in one place to know each other, to see each other, more interaction. It’s everything about being present.”
Attendees also had the option to line up for the costume parade and march their way around the area, simultaneously showing off their costumes with hopes to win the “best costume” prize.
Gonzalez has been working for Castaic Lake for over nine years. She felt extremely grateful to see kids present who have been regular attendees at the lake, not only to see their “amazing” costumes, but also to see before her eyes them growing up.
“It’s been great to see them,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez decided to take on this event as she saw Halloween traditions starting to “die out.” She hopes that having a safe and outdoors option, especially near the water, for kids to trick-or-treat, it will bring a new life to the tradition.
“The lake, it doesn’t seem like much to everybody that’s been here every day, but they’ll still walk all the way down, ‘Let me see the water,’” said Gonzalez, “and then they come back up, so that’s an experience in itself. Nature is definitely a great place.”
Isaacs, a Castaic resident, loved that the lake itself was a great connector for her daughter to nature, but also enjoyed the booths available.
Sarah Brewer, regional parks superintendent who oversees Vasquez Rocks, brought animal pelts, replicas of animal skulls and information packets on the local parks.
“It’s been great, people really respond well to nature and nature programming, which is awesome,” said Brewer. “We’ve had a lot of families that we were able to talk to.”
