Hundreds of people celebrate the Blocktober festival in the Monticello area

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – The fourth annual Halloween Blocktober Fest brought hundreds of people to the Monticello area on October 31st.

The event was started by Councilman Darryl Hurst after he said he realized stunts or door-to-door visits were less safe when not everyone was participating. Councilman Hurst also said it helps bring more people into the community.

“Bringing people here who haven’t been to this part of town in a long time to say, ‘Hey, this is a community I want to be a part of,’” Hurst says. “We have food vendors ranging from hamburgers to gumbo to jambalaya. Community members said they wanted to be involved, so they said we’ll cook, we’ll share, we want people to be fed and have fun.”

Hurst says more than 100 trucks came out to join in the fun and hand out free candy or food.

Even though the forecast was nerve-wracking, families couldn’t miss the big event. Last year more than 2,500 people came here. Many of them, like Jasmine Payne, returned this year.

“It’s so close to home and there’s always a great atmosphere. It’s a peaceful, family-friendly place and I know it’s a safe place for me and my kids to have fun or have fun,” Payne said. “Our favorite holiday is Halloween, so no matter the rain, sleet or snow, we’re going to come here and trick-or-treat. I mean – hunker down with the weather, you know – life gives you lemons and you make lemonade out of them, so we have umbrellas and we’re here to have fun.

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