Anoka celebrates another year as the “Halloween Capital Of The World”

Anoka celebrates another year as the “Halloween Capital Of The World”

For over a century, the city has hosted one of the largest Halloween celebrations in the world.

In Anoka, Minnesota, Halloween reigns supreme.

“Nothing touches Halloween,” said Pete Turok, executive director of the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce.

For over a century, Anoka has drawn tens of thousands of visitors each October with its month-long Halloween celebration. The autumnal tradition is so old, it predates modern trick-or-treating.

First held in 1920, the celebration was aimed at curbing the vandalism and destructive hijinks rampant during the holiday season. Tipping over outhouses and opening cattle gates were popular pranks among teenagers, said Rebecca Ebnet-Desens, executive director of the Anoka County Historical Society.

Although it may seem silly today, Ebnet-Desens said Halloween pranks reached problematic levels before Anokans intervened. She said after mischievous teenagers set cows loose downtown on Halloween in 1919, residents decided to host a celebration to distract youths from engaging in tomfoolery on All Hallow’s Eve.

The celebration was a huge success, ending the terrifying reign of Halloween pranksters, according to Ebnet-Desens. It was so successful that it is still celebrated 124 years later.

“You don’t plan on making a 100-year festival when you set out to do it the first year,” Ebnet-Desens said. “The community just grabbed onto it as their thing.”

In 1937, an act of Congress officially declared Anoka the “Halloween Capital of the World.”

Turok, an Anoka native, said he has been celebrating Halloween his entire life and has nothing but positive memories of the city’s annual festivities.

Today, the celebration includes parades, a 5k run, ghost tours, costume contests and a giant pumpkin exposition. Most of the events and activities are organized by the volunteer-run non-profit Anoka Halloween Inc.

As Anoka Halloween Inc. grows the event every year, Turok said he is still mind-blown by how many people come to celebrate Halloween in Anoka.

Pumpkin growing has brought international attention to Anoka and its strong ties to Halloween. Anoka teacher Travis Gienger has won the prestigious World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California three years in a row.

Gienger’s champion pumpkin this year weighed a whopping 2,471 pounds. In 2023, his pumpkin named Michael Jordan became the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded, weighing in at 2,749 pounds.

The main event of the annual jubilee is the Grande Day Parade, which took place Saturday. Ebnet-Desens said so many people come for the parade, that late-comers sometimes need to park in neighboring cities and walk downtown to witness costumed paraders stroll through the city.

A day before the Grande Day Parade, Anokan school children participate in the Big Parade of Little People.

“As a kid growing up in this town, the parade is a big deal,” Turok said.

Even though Anoka Halloween Inc. is in charge of most of the celebration, Halloween gives local businesses great opportunities to promote themselves and raise money. Turok said Twin Cities residents often discover Anoka by visiting during the Halloween season.

“It’s publicity you can’t buy,” Turok said. “If you could, it would cost a lot of money.”

Ebnet-Desens said ticket sales for historical ghost tours guided by volunteers account for 12% of the historical society’s budgets, its largest yearly fundraising event. Tour tickets sell out almost immediately after they are made available, she said.

“The cost of the ticket is going to literally keep the lights on,” she said.

SOURCE: MINNESOTA DAILY