Upcoming Fright Fest occasion guarantees enjoyable frights, boo-ze and brews

Event attendees take part in an leisure zone occasion, a metropolis pilot program that enables sanctioned outside ingesting. Photo courtesy of the Downtown Long Beach Alliance

Throw on a dressing up and convey your ID for some Halloween cheer and beer.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, Downtown Long Beach will rework into the primary Fright Fest. Pine Avenue and The Promenade, between Broadway and Third Street, will probably be entangled within the webs of Halloween, opening up a block celebration stuffed with dwell music, distributors and spooky sips. 

Attendees will even get the possibility to take part within the metropolis’s second “EZ Sip” occasion, a part of the City of Long Beach’s one-year pilot Entertainment Zone program that enables open ingesting in permitted areas.

Boasting haunted mazes, pumpkin patches and specialty-themed drinks, the Downtown Long Beach Alliance occasion will run from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Early components of the day will embody pumpkin patches and family-friendly enjoyable. 

Past 6 p.m., anticipate issues to get extra rowdy – that’s when the 21+ actions kick off.

“This was all in an effort to kind of bring business to downtown and urban centers,” James Ahumada, the senior vice chairman and deputy CEO of DTLB Alliance, mentioned. “It’s really a way to make dense areas like ours more fun.”

Traditionally, patrons buying alcohol aren’t allowed to stroll exterior a bar with a drink in hand. EZ Sip occasions change the sport. 

In 2024, Senate Bill 969 was handed to permit cities and counties to have “entertainment zones,” the place open ingesting is permitted inside sure parameters. Long Beach is the third metropolis within the state, behind San Francisco and Santa Monica, to check out this system. 

The pilot kicked off with a launch event in August that Ahumada described as successful.

For the upcoming Saturday occasion, signage will probably be displayed to stipulate the suitable guidelines and conduct for the occasion.

While attendees can take their drinks exterior of companies, they have to keep inside sure parameters and never carry ​them into different companies. Each taking part institution will probably be labeled with color-coded EZ Sip cups that let outside ingesting.

“This basically kind of removes some of those barriers. You still can’t walk in with your own outside drink, but you can go into a business and kind of support them,” Ahumada mentioned.

DTLB Alliance collaborated with Baby Bros Pizza, Horrorville and Halloween Depot to create the occasion. Visitors will discover institutions, together with Alter Society Brewing, Dog Haus, The Ordinarie Tavern, Broken Spirits and extra, all taking part within the enjoyable.

While this new open-drinking expertise will not be an on a regular basis factor, Ahumada and his crew hope to make use of leisure zones for future occasions to advertise traction to native companies.

“So far, it’s [public impression] been very positive,” he mentioned. “And people, I think, just really want to support businesses downtown.”

While Fright Fest is free to enter, all-access tickets can be found for buy on the occasion

Learn extra about Fright Fest on DTLB Alliance’s website.