Despite the ghouls and goblins, the Broadway Halloween Parade will not be a ghost of the past this year.

For the last seven years, thousands of Denverites have poured into the streets to get a glimpse at the detailed and spine-tingling floats in the Broadway Halloween Parade.

This year, the eighth annual parade almost didn’t happen. But myriad businesses along the South Broadway corridor — along with some charitable donors and sponsors — made sure the spooky show will go on Saturday night.

The parade, which started in 2016 and is presented by the Broadway Merchants Association and District 7 City Councilmember Flor Alvidrez, has grown from an initial 5,000 attendees to around 30,000 paradegoers.

The piling of people along the nine-block parade route, filled with eccentric floats hosted by local businesses, is a positive on paper.

“There were no open spaces along the entire route,” Luke Johnson, president of the Broadway Merchants Association and founder of Luke & Company Fine Pet Supply & Outfitter, said of last year’s parade. “We’ve been really fortunate. We’ve got a good community on both sides of us, and we really try to make sure that the participants and floats are memorable.”

But the substantial increase in audience caused the parade to almost be cancelled due to safety concerns.

“Last year, everyone was just pushing into the parade all up and down,” said Will Curtin, co-founder of Banded Oak Brewery — a sponsor of the parade that puts on an afterparty for volunteers every year. “It was an odd year, kind of unruly. You want to be safe and you want the kids to be safe.”

Normally, the parade works off of a budget of around $12,000, all raised by local sponsors. In 2023, the Denver Police Department noted that the parade would need barricades if it continues to grow in attendee size, estimating the cost at around $8,000.

In 2024, after an extremely successful 2023 endeavor, the police department estimated the barricades would cost $26,000, according to Johnson.

The parade committee also had to pay for expenses from the year prior, placing their financial requirements at around $42,000 — a near impossibility with only sponsorships, Johnson said.

“I was going to be devastated,” Tony Fleith, owner of Lil’ Devils bar and restaurant that has been on Broadway for 12 years, said of the potential cancellation. Lil’ Devils has sponsored and been in the parade since its inception.

“First of all, it’s fun,” he said. “Second of all, it brings in a lot of revenue for me.”

“We were really bummed (that it might be canceled),” Curtin said. “It’s a big tradition and closing down Broadway is a big deal.”

Johnson reached out to media outlets to let them know that they at least tried before cancelling the fan-adored parade, announcing that public donations were possible but may not lead to an actual reinstatement of the event. The story gained steam in both local news and social media.

A fundraiser brought in around $7,000 from residents almost immediately. Then, with sponsorships and a “substantial” anonymous donation, the parade raised a little under $70,000 in less than a week.

“We had over $35,000 come in over three phone calls,” Johnson said. “Just like that, it was on.”

“People come out for it, but you never know if people really care or if they just come out because it’s something to do,” Johnson added. “People really put their money where their mouth is and said: ‘We really love this event and we’re going to donate to it’.”

The power of Broadway

The South Broadway area has been known for decades for its small businesses and events.

For example, the three-day Underground Music Showcase has taken place in the area since 2006, bringing more than 30,000 people to streets lined with mostly small, mom-and-pop shops.

In 2023, Denver produced ¡Viva! Streets Denver, a collection of free events in the area over the summer, bringing in an estimated 40,000 people, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership.

The Broadway Halloween Parade brings more business into the area in its small timeframe than those events, according to Johnson.

“We have a lot of businesses that this is their best night of the year from a sales perspective,” Johnson said. “We have people that say their normal Saturday nights are around $2,500 and last year, during the parade, they did $8,000. This is multiple days of sales in one night for a lot of people.”

“It’s our busiest day of the year,” Fleith said. “When it first started out, we had no expectations. We’re an LGBTQ bar, and we do better that night than Pride. The Pride Parade has gotten a little too political, so it’s nice to have no religion and no politics involved. It’s just family fun.”

That influx of traffic to the businesses that make Broadway special has always been the point of the parade, according to Johnson — showing the city what makes the area endearing.

“I call it the adult version of LoDo,” Fleith joked about the neighborhood. “It’s just a community. There are so many restaurants and shops and things to do. I’ve seen a lot of businesses come and go, but we’re a staple.”

“It’s really just a community,” Curtin said. “Everyone is very social and everyone is very happy to give a smile or a wave. Downtown is kind of young, fast-paced. Broadway is a little more chill. Everyone is just there to relax.”

Broadway has experienced challenges in the last five to 10 years, with many long-term businesses leaving the area due to rising rent and crime. For example, Mutiny Information Café, a Broadway staple, recently moved to Englewood and cited the rent and safety as the main reasons.

Fleith noted that drugs are the main problem, often having to kick people out of the parking lot and clean up after drug use.

“Whether it be drug use, fecal matter, or piss on my door — I’m fed up,” Clayton Kelley, owner of the store Vape Loft, where multiple homeless people were passed out in front of the business, told The Denver Gazette back in March.

“It happens every day,” Kelley said.

But things seem to be looking up for the area. There have been more new businesses in the last six months than closed businesses, according to Johnson.

“We’ve been working with the district and neighborhood to clean it up. We’ve seen a lot of improvements in the last six months,” Fleith said. “It goes in waves. It’s one of those things you live with, in a way. There’s only so much, as a business owner, that I can do.”

But that banding together to keep the area alive — like the exponential fundraiser for the parade — is what makes the area both resilient and a mainstay for the city.

“I’m hopeful,” Curtin said of the neighborhood continuing to glow into the positive. “The Broadway community has been really good and everyone has been supporting each other. I do see positive change, for sure.”

“We’ve got good businesses down here. We’ve got good people down here,” Johnson said.

Though this year’s parade is saved, the future is yet to be determined.

All the money brought in this year that isn’t spent on the parade will be saved for 2025, due to the same money challenges forthcoming for the next parade. By 2026, the Broadway Merchants Association hopes to have a Business Improvement District in place, which will allow for allocated funds toward events like the parade, according to Johnson.