Known as one of West Chester’s staple events every year, the West Chester Halloween Parade entertains all ages. It celebrates West Chester’s pride in performance with local marching bands, floats from area businesses and the best costumes in the borough.
Keith Kurowski, director of West Chester’s Parks and Recreation Department, expressed his zeal for this local treat. “It’s one of the bigger events that takes place here in town, but it’s not the most difficult event to plan,” he stated. “It’s the support we receive from the public works department, the police department; they’re integral in making this thing happen.”
West Chester Henderson, East, and Bayard Rustin high schools will be performing with their marching bands, cheerleaders, and dance squads, and so will West
Chester University’s famous marching band. It’s difficult to gauge exactly how many people will be in attendance, including the marching bands, organizations, local businesses, and the boy and girl scout troops, but Keith puts the number in the thousands.
No one could forget the year Mini Kiss performed, a children’s band that imitates their namesake. “You see these kids that are maybe two feet tall rocking out to that band’s songs,” Keith recalled. “It was adorable.”
After safety concerns arose last year in regards to children rushing into the street to snag candy, there will be some 
changes at the event this October. “This year, with the support of the police department, we’re having donation stations,” he confirmed. “No one is passing anything out at the parade, but you can still come to the parade and get anything that would have been passed out — you just have to go to one of these stations, and we’ll have a baggie sitting there all ready to go.”
And Keith is confident that it’s going to be a great event. “If I’m not working these events, I’m attending them, no doubt,” he said.
Learn more about the Halloween Parade at the West Chester Parks & Recreation and our October Sweet Tooth issue.
