Downtown Johnson City prepares to get spooky with Treats in the Streets

Downtown Johnson City is getting ready for some special scary fun with the annual return of its Treats in the Streets event. With Halloween just around the corner, Sara DelBene, special events manager for the City of Johnson City, said the event gives kids and adults the opportunity to visit local businesses and show off their best costumes. "It's just our annual Halloween evening where our downtown businesses open up their doors and get out candy to the little ghosts [and] goblins, little kiddos who are trick-or-treating downtown," she said. For this year, DelBene said the Halloween event was renamed from Downtown Trick-or-Treating to Treats in the Streets because of the West Walnut Street businesses that will be participating. The hope is to encourage participants to explore the entirety of the businesses within the district rather than just remaining on Main Street. DelBene said something new is its pairing with the final concert of Acoustic Autumn, which is the free fall concert series performed in the Founders Park amphitheater and occurs every Thursday in the month of October. Businesses also get to partake in the fun, since it's on a weeknight, rather than the day of Halloween, which is a Saturday. "We wanted to pair it with Acoustic Autumn to have it kind of be a larger event and market it a little bit more fun," DelBene said. "I would say also Thursday evenings are a little bit slower for downtown businesses, so it allows them to be able to participate in a larger capacity than they would, say, on a Friday or Saturday night that Halloween's falling on." Treats in the Streets bringing people downtown also helps businesses receive recognition in the community. DelBene said the event brings more foot traffic to the district and gets more people in the doors to support local shopping. "Once we get them downtown, they're much more likely to eat dinner downtown, spend money downtown, so it's an indirect revenue-making thing for our downtown businesses as well," she said. She added the Halloween festivities' attendance has seen growth in attendance each year. "I think it's a good evening for parents and families because our Main Street corridor, while we don't shut down Main Street, we put out signage and we'll have police officers," DelBene said. "So, it's a safe experience where children are able to walk in a fairly easy distance, get a lot of candy [and] meet downtown merchants… It's a great opportunity for the businesses and the families participating." Treats in the Streets will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29. More information and a full list of the downtown businesses participating in the event can be found at the downtown Johnson City website.