“Plan on Hallowbaloo Not Happening”—But Another Chinatown Bar Crawl Is Coming

If you’ve been wondering about Hallowbaloo, organizer Mark Tarone says don’t plan on it, at least not this year.

October 9, 2024

Mari Taketa,

Photo: Heidi Anderson/Hallowbaloo

Hallowbaloo Music & Arts Festival, Honolulu’s signature Halloween street fest, is looking like a no-go for the second year in a row. The event had been planned for Chinatown on Oct. 26, but “The Hallowbaloo permit is still in flux. That said, people should plan on Hallowbaloo not happening,” organizer Mark Tarone says. “We will advise otherwise if something promising develops.”

The massive party typically took over Chinatown streets from Bishop to Smith, from just above Nimitz Highway to just below Beretania Street. Stages provided live entertainment, 16 bars took part and vendors and a craft beer village set up amid other features. Launched in 2008, Hallowbaloo became a tradition that took place every year except the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The 2022 crowd of around 10,000 was a record, with event-goers parading through the district in elaborate costumes, and the onstage costume contest with its $1,000 grand prize was always a huge draw.

vendor at chinatown honolulu halloween festival

Photo: Heidi Anderson/Hallowbaloo

After failing to resolve differences with the city over the event’s permit application last year, Tarone this year applied early. The problem, he says, is a bill working its way through the Honolulu City Council that would require street festivals to limit the sale and consumption of alcohol to areas “demarcated by barriers or fencing,” like a beer garden.

“It’s important to note that there are not problems with alcohol, the behavior of attendees or cleanup. The City is focused on ensuring free access to street festivals,” says Tarone, adding that verbal reports from Chinatown police immediately following the events have not mentioned these problems. “There are reasonable, reliable and cost-effective ways to guarantee free access without requiring beer gardens.”

Photo: Mike Vidales/Hallowbaloo

The same bill would force Hallowbaloo and other for-profit street festivals to hand over some profits to the Waikīkī Business Improvement District and the Waikīkī Beach Special Improvement District Association. It was the increasing frequency of street closures for events in Waikīkī that prompted Bill 50, which is still going through hearings and has yet to become law.

So what is happening? As she did last year, Proof Social Club owner Jasmine Mancos is stepping up. She’s organizing bars for “Halloween in Chinatown: The Crawl of the Undead” on Saturday, Oct. 26. Proof, NextDoor, The Underground Lounge, The Dragon Upstairs and The Manifest will have live music or deejays and are offering access to all for one cover wristband available online starting today, Mancos says. More bars are expected to sign on.

Wristbands are $20 presale, $30 at the door. Presale wristbands can be picked up at Proof Social Club from 4 p.m. on Oct. 26, “and if anyone has already bought passes from Pubcrawls.com, all of the participating bars have agreed to honor those badges as well, but we really encourage anyone who hasn’t yet to support our local crawl,” Mancos says. “You’re also more than welcome to come check out Black Shamrock, J. Dolan’s, Smith and Kings, EP Bar, Nighthawk, Hank’s Café Honolulu and Skull & Crown Trading Co.,” which will all be open with no entertainment or cover charge.

Photo: Mike Vidales/Hallowbaloo

Last year, NextDoor hosted a midnight costume contest. This year, the event moves to Proof, where the top prize for the midnight costume contest will be $100 plus a $100 gift card.

“It feels like tradition at this point to come celebrate Halloween in Chinatown. We want to keep that going even without the street festival,” Mancos says. “So go big. Go as big as if it were still a street fest. We want to see your costumes, we want to see your holiday spirit, and we want to have a lot of fun.”