New, traditional combine for Santa Fe’s Halloween haunts

On Halloween night, the ghosts of old Santa Fe will once again walk Canyon Road.

Sort of.

In the final iteration of this year’s Canyon Road Summer Walks, a group of artists will gather on the storied street to resurrect pieces of Santa Fe through storytelling, projection and performance, said Maggie Fine, one of the organizers of the walks.

So don’t get too spooked if you feel a bygone presence walking the street behind you. That’s by design, Fine said: “We’ll see shadows and projections of other people on Canyon Road as you walk up the road, projected on various buildings.”

The walk is one of many ways Santa Feans will mark Halloween, which this year is slated to combine long-held traditions with newly established ones.

Halloween carnival

In some circles, Steven DeGraeve is known as “Captain Carnival.”

He and Caitlin Brodsky, president of Carlos Gilbert Elementary School’s Parents, Teachers and Kids organization, are among the architects of this year’s Halloween carnival at the downtown school, a tradition dating back to the 1980s.

In its many decades in existence, the event — which will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday — has evolved from the standard fare of cake walks and festival games into an afternoon of food trucks, bounce houses, raffles and fun for all ages. Last year, it raised more than $50,000 for programs for Carlos Gilbert Elementary students and staff.

“It’s really morphed into a true community event, and people come from all over Santa Fe because it’s really a special Halloween carnival,” said Brodsky, the parent of a first and fourth grader at Carlos Gilbert Elementary.

The carnival’s kid-friendly haunted house, located on the school’s second floor, has turned into a kind of rite of passage for Carlos Gilbert Elementary’s sixth graders. The eldest students at the school, they get to serve as the haunted house’s scary staff.

This year, Carlos Gilbert’s Halloween carnival will feature a new — and literary — tradition, said DeGraeve, the parent of a sixth grader at the school. Students from every grade penned scary stories, some of which were selected as fodder for the carnival’s quiet reading room. It’ll double as a quiet space for kids and grown-ups who need a break from the bustle of the busy carnival, Brodsky added.

Weird science

On Tuesday, the Santa Fe Children’s Museum will host another educational event: the Weird Science Halloween Bash. It’s a Halloween party — complete with trick-or-treating — but themed around science, technology, engineering and math, said Hannah Hausman, the museum’s executive director.

As children visit the museum’s more than 20 STEM stations, they also discover something new about science.

“We really try to serve the whole family at this event and make it safe and fun,” Hausman said.

But for some of Santa Fe’s younger residents, the excitement comes Halloween night, when trick or treating begins.

Though Halloween will fall on a Thursday this year, the midweek holiday won’t dampen Brodsky’s excitement.

“I’m old-school. I’ll always take my kids trick-or-treating,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what day it is; we’re trick-or-treaters.”

In particular, Brodsky said her family is partial to visiting homes in Casa Solana — a neighborhood she visited as a trick-or-treater while growing up in Santa Fe. Last year, they visited a subdivision near Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center, which went all-out with decorations and trick or treating.

“There [are] a lot of families in those neighborhoods, and families understand that kids want to go trick-or-treating,” Brodsky said.

Canyon Road

Of course, there’s also Canyon Road, where businesses have long handed out sweets to visiting trick-or-treaters.

The plan for this year, Fine said, is to take the longtime tradition of trick-or-treating on Canyon Road and “heighten it” as the final in a inaugural series of summertime walks.

The road will be blocked off to allow for children to trick-or-treat at some 60 galleries, all while projections create “historic immersion” into the Canyon Road of years gone by, Fine said. Live music, Japanese ghost stories and food available for purchase will also be on hand.

The Canyon Road Halloween Walk also will feature some spooky entertainment for adults, Fine said. Starting at 6:30 p.m., Neptune Event Space will host a haunted house featuring performances by members of Exodus Ensemble — with some historical Santa Fe flair.

“Imagine La Llorona trapped inside the house with Julia Staab,” Fine said, referencing the mythical mother who drowned her children and the ghost said to haunt La Posada de Santa Fe.

The summer of Canyon Road walks has been a “beautiful experience,” Fine said, and organizers are already planning for next year.

“The whole summer was all about figuring out if people resonated with this concept, and they have,” Fine said. “People have really loved the events and getting the food and the music and the immersive feel of Canyon Road back to life.”