Halloween on Hillcrest is slowly coming back from the dead, with some residents decorating again after one year off due to COVID. But, street-wide trick-or-treating on Hillcrest Avenue will have to wait for a time when COVID is less frightening.
“Usually we get 4,000 kids just on Halloween night for trick or treating. So it just seems not responsible to try and draw that crowd this year,” said Katie Kubitskey, a six-year resident of Louisville’s most famed street on Halloween. “…Kids can’t be vaccinated yet. I think if they could, it would be a different story.”
In a typical Halloween on Hillcrest year, most of the residents will decorate their homes with elaborate displays for the holiday and open their doors to trick-or-treaters. But, this year, it’s up to individual residents to decide what they want to do, and based on Kubitskey’s read of the neighborhood Facebook group, she expects that only a few — if any — of Hillcrest Avenue’s residents will offer trick or treating. And, about half have expressed an interest in decorating, although only six or seven have decked out their homes so far.
Another, lesser factor putting some residents off of participating this year, in Kubitskey’s opinion, has been sewer work on Frankfort Avenue, which has closed off one entrance to the street.
Kubitskey doesn’t feel comfortable handing out candy this year, but she’s decided to go all-out with the decorations, re-working her 2019 “Hocus Pocus” theme. Kubitskey said that last year was “depressing” with no Halloween on Hillcrest, and that this year — even with not everyone participating — her excitement for the holiday has grown.
“I just really like taking the small wins, you know,” she said. “It’s just fun to be able to be moving in the right direction.”
Kubitskey said she recommends that the public comes out and walks the street in the weeks before Halloween, being mindful of not speeding or driving recklessly.
“I think this could be the safest type of event, you know? It’s not indoors, it’s at people’s leisure,” she said. “And it’s just like a little bit of joy that we can offer ourselves and people, you know, when it’s been so stressful.”
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