Ryan Cormier

The News Journal

After decades together, the Halloween Loop and Trolley Square are breaking up.

As the Wilmington bar crawl prepares for its 35th edition, it will have a distinctly different look on Oct. 31. Not a single Delaware Avenue club in the Trolley Square area will participate, and none of the event's shuttle buses will stop in the city's best-known bar district.

It seems the popular bar hop is a victim of its own success with both Loop organizers and Trolley Square bar managers saying the crowds were just too big last year, making for an unsettling scene of hordes of costumed (and tipsy) revelers swarming Trolley Square and congregating in the streets and on the sidewalks.

"At times, you kind of felt like you were sitting on top of a volcano waiting for it to erupt," says Joe McCoy, owner of Catherine Rooney's, one of the neighborhood's biggest and most popular bars. "It wasn't a good feeling."

A large police presence, including Wilmington police's Mobile Field Force and state police reinforcements, watched as the line to some clubs stretched down Delaware Avenue. There was a 2-hour wait at Kelly's Logan House at one point.

"The demand actually exceeded the supply and we had a lot of people in the street," says Out & About magazine publisher Jerry DuPhily, longtime organizer of the Loop series, which began in 1979. "We're not trying to have a block party. It's supposed to be a bar crawl with people going into the establishments."

With ongoing complaints from some Trolley Square residents about noise from bars, having thousands in the streets became too much. In recent years, Delaware Avenue has been closed from N. Dupont St. to N. Scott St. during the Halloween Loop to allow for the growing crowds.

Even with a mass of people in the area, there were no major incidents, says Wilmington Police Capt. Stephen Misetic. About 30 Wilmington police officers and state troopers were in the Trolley Square area for the event, some of whom were on regular duty with others who were being paid by the bars for security, Misetic adds.

The move by Trolley Square bars to pull out of the Halloween Loop doesn't mean thirsty, costumed bar crawlers are entirely banned from bar-hopping in the area.

Four Trolley Square bars – Logan House, Catherine Rooney's, Satsuma Asian Kitchen & Bar and Añejo Mexican Grill and Tequila Bar – have teamed up to form the Trolley Square Pub Crawl to be held Oct. 25, the Saturday before Halloween. Organizers say they decided to do a smaller-scale Trolley-centric bar crawl for its regular, locally based customers.

The first-time event will cost $5 for a wristband that will allow access to the four bars. The bars are all located within a block of each other, so there will be no shuttle buses.

The Oct. 31 Halloween Loop wristbands will cost $10 and they include unlimited shuttle bus rides and entry to the 13 clubs remaining on this year's Loop circuit. Gallucio's on Lovering Avenue will return to the Loop this year after taking some time off. Newbies like Latin Fusion Restaurant & Lounge on Union Street and The Wicked Vine, the former Blue Parrot at Sixth and Union streets, will host their first Halloween Loops this year.

"We might not even need the Mobile Field Force this year," Misetic says. "I have a feeling that without the buses and having [the bar crawls] on separate nights, things are going to be a lot easier for us."

The Trolley Square bars will remain as participants on the other, less crowded upcoming events in the Loop series, including the Santa Crawl (Dec. 12), the Shamrock Shuttle (March 14) and the Loop for Party Animals (April 10).

Tim Crowley, general manager of landmark Trolley Square-area bar Kelly's Logan House, estimates there were about 3,000 people in the area during last year's Halloween Loop. The Loop drew a total of 8,000 to 10,0000 people, according to DuPhily.

"The bars in Trolley Square can only really handle about 1,000 at the most. It was becoming a bit of burden on the neighborhood and we decided to take a step back," Crowley says. "We just couldn't handle the demand."

Logan House owner Michael P. Kelly adds, "It's just not about the money. This transcends that. We'd take in more money [doing the Halloween Loop.] We want to make sure our patrons always feel safe. We don't want to do anything that puts that at risk."

McCoy, who has hosted the Halloween Loop at Catherine Rooney's every year since opening about a dozen years ago, says there were more people outside waiting to get into clubs than were inside.

"You have people drinking and getting disappointed that they can't get in," he adds. "This wasn't an easy decision. We have a great relationship with the Loop and it's great for the city, but the potential for problems was getting greater than the benefits."

The Halloween Loop began as a downtown-centric pub crawl along Market Street, adding stops in Trolley Square and the Riverfront throughout the years. Before closing, expansive venues like the 3,500-person Kahunaville could handle a large chunk of the revelers. In the years since, the masses have been congregating more in Trolley Square's smaller, close-knit strip of watering holes, causing thick congestion in both the barrooms and the streets.

Last year, FireStone Roasting House took advantage of its size along the Christina River, erecting a tent in its parking lot and offering live entertainment, gaining a bigger crowd than years before. This year, the spot will do the same with Burnt Sienna and DJ Noj teaming up as the entertainment. There will also be a $500 costume contest.

DuPhily hopes rotating this year's crowds among the non-Trolley Square bars will help spread the crowd and make some of the other clubs and restaurants a bigger draw. Both DuPhily and Trolley Square bar owners believe the Halloween Loop could return to Trolley Square with some changes, possibly as soon as next fall.

"Everybody wants the Loop to be successful and continue," DuPhily says. "It's such a big tradition in the city."

-- Ryan Cormier, The News Journal. Facebook: @ryancormier. Twitter: @ryancormier. Instagram: @ryancormier.

IF YOU GO

What: 35th annual Halloween Loop

When: Friday, Oct. 31, 8:30 p.m.

Where: Thirteen participating bars across Wilmington including Badges, Chelsea Tavern, Dead Presidents, Earnest & Scott, Famous Tim's, FireStone Roasting House, Gallucio's, Grotto Pizza, Latin Fusion Restaurant & Lounge, Lavish, Shenanigan's, Timothy's Riverfront, The Wicked Vine (formerly The Blue Parrot).

Specials: Discounted Bud Light and Jägermeister Spice.

Cost: $10

IF YOU GO

What: Trolley Square Pub Crawl

When: Saturday, Oct. 25, 9 p.m.

Where: Four participating Trolley Square-area bars including Añejo Mexican Grill and Tequila Bar, Catherine Rooney's, Kelly's Logan House and Satsuma.

Specials: Discounted Miller Lite and Jim Beam Kentucky Fire.

Cost: $5