The L5P Halloween Festival & Parade takes place every October in the historic commercial district of Little 5 Points. But first, a little history…
The arrival of the trolley car in the late 1800s in Atlanta created booming city neighborhoods further from downtown such as Inman Park and Candler Park. As a result, Little 5 Points became one of the first commercial districts outside of downtown Atlanta and attracted businesses such as movie theaters, grocery and drug stores, barbershops, and restaurants.
Despite early success, the Great Depression hit L5P hard, and the community soon suffered from severe urban decay. With a proposed highway coming through, the local citizens (including those in Inman Park) decided they’d had enough. In the early 1970s, they formed coalitions, acquired funding, organized demonstrations, and united for a common cause: to take the neighborhood back. Soon the City of Atlanta began to award L5P community grants and funds for public improvements, and by the 1990s, L5P was booming. The entrepreneurial spirit of community-based businesses helped spur the revitalization of L5P which today is an avant-garde arts and shopping district home to a wide variety of shops, restaurants, bars, services, live music venues and performing arts theaters.
This weekend was the 18th annual Little 5 Points Halloween Festival & Parade. This is the biggest Halloween celebration in the Southeast with tens of thousands of people coming to the L5P commercial district to party and get their spook on.
The two-day festival included an artists market with lots of and lots of booths lining the street, live music, local food trucks, and street buskers. There were also some fun events such as a pet costume contest, pumpkin smashing, and a children’s area where kids could create their own Halloween monster stickers.
Of course, my favorite part of the festival was the parade! It lasted for well over an hour and included elaborate floats, marching bands, local businesses, dance crews, political groups, and others, and there were Halloween costumes aplenty. All in all, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon on a beautiful fall day.
