Broadway Halloween Parade carries on with spooky marchers, family-friendly floats

DENVER ( KDVR ) — If you’re driving through Denver on Saturday, you may have noticed portions of Broadway Avenue closed off to traffic.

The Broadway Halloween Parade, which started in 2016, brings tens of thousands of onlookers to Broadway from 5th Avenue to Alameda Avenue. The parade will step off at 6 p.m., and some lanes of Broadway were closed to traffic by 2 p.m.

Earlier this year, there were concerns that the parade would be canceled due to a budget shortfall of $26,000 . The event needed pedestrian barricades to help keep parade-goers safe, but the cost was overwhelming.

“We seriously were having a conversation a few months ago about ‘we’re going to have to pull the plug on this on Friday,’ and that was Wednesday,” Tony Hodes, sponsorship coordinator for the Broadway Halloween Parade, told FOX31’s Nate Belt.

But enough people chipped in to help and within days the organization was ready to go with the annual event.

“Last year we had 30,000 people out here and lots of candy on floats,” explained Hodes. “Try to tell me how you’re going to keep kids from rushing into the street to get candy.”

Parade organizers encourage onlookers to join in the festivities by attending in costume, and say that viewing areas are available throughout the nearly 1-mile route.

Ayla Howell told Belt that it was her first time attending the parade on Saturday, but she was impressed with the crowd.

“Here we are, having some fun. An excuse to put on costumes,” she said. “I was surprised to see a lot of people in costume, I didn’t expect to see this many people in costume. But, yeah, it’s filling up quick.”

Hodes said organizers expected around 45,000 people to attend the parade, which is the exact kind of support the parade needed when its future was in doubt.

“It’s the community’s event and they showed us that, so we’re gonna do what we can to keep it,” Hodes told Belt.

To get to the parade, organizers recommend using alternative transportation : Parking near the route is limited. Regional Transportation District lines C, D, E, F and H all stop at the Alameda light rail station, and bus routes 0, 0L, 1, 3, 52 and P all serve the parade area.

Additionally, Broadway will be entirely closed between 5th and Alameda, and between 1st Avenue and Lincoln and metered parking will be unavailable until 10 p.m., which is when event cleanup is slated to end.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.