Elma Fall Festival set for Halloween day

By Allen Leister The Daily World • October 26, 2022 1:30 am
The Children’s Costume Contest will be one of the multiple events prepared for people who attend the Elma Fall Festival on Halloween, in Elma. Winners will be picked from a variety of themes as well as age category if enough participants join.
The Children’s Costume Contest will be one of the multiple events prepared for people who attend the Elma Fall Festival on Halloween, in Elma. Winners will be picked from a variety of themes as well as age category if enough participants join.

With the fall season weather beginning to return to normalcy across the Olympic Peninsula, the brisk mornings, orange-colored leaves and wet conditions couldn’t be a bigger indication that autumn is here. While the weather might be bleak, the anticipation of Halloween continues to build, as is the case for one East County town.

The Elma Fall Festival is set to be held on Halloween. The event, which will be hosted by the Elma Chamber of Commerce, will allow kids to trick or treat at local businesses in Elma while enjoying family-friendly entertainment such as games, music and a live dance performance from Dance House.

Jillana Bickford, the Elma Chamber of Commerce director, said a chunk of downtown will be closed to car traffic and that she expects a big turnout.

“So far, we’re expecting at least 500 kids to come to the festival. Last year, we had around 1,000 people if we’re counting parents as well, but with a lot of other nearby towns holding their trick-or-treating events over the weekend instead of on Halloween day like us, I think this year will be bigger,” Bickford said.

Bickford said businesses and organizations, such as Anytime Fitness, Elma Cub Scouts, East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue and the Elma Police Department among others, will have booths set up with games and to hand out candy to children. There will also be a booth for children and adults to receive an up-to-date COVID-19 vaccination.

During the festival, one local business will be announced as the winner of the Business Scarecrow Contest, which Bickford said people can vote on by liking photos of the businesses’ scarecrow that has been posted on the Elma Chamber of Commerce Facebook page. Another event that will be occurring is a penny scramble game that will be available for children between three and five years old. A second penny scramble will be available for children who are between six and nine years old.

“We put down a big tarp and throw a bunch of straw on it. Then we throw a bunch of candy, stickers and other goodies for the kids to collect in under a minute,” Bickford said. “Plus, we’ll be throwing coins in there too which is why there will be an age limit.”

According to Bickford, the most anticipated part of the festival will be the Children’s Costume Contest. The contest will feature multiple theme winners ranging from best Halloween theme, most creative, most sparkles, most realistic, most scary and most unique.

“The way that we judge those is the (Chamber of Commerce) board decides who will win. I haven’t quite figured out exactly what the awards will be yet. Last year we did $25 gift cards for local places in town,” Bickford said. “Depending on the number of people that want to jump in on it, we’ll probably have it broken down into age categories.”

For people who are interested in attending the Elma Fall Festival, the event will be held Monday, Oct. 31 from 3 to 6 p.m. in the closed-off section of Main Street from 2nd to 4th, in Elma.