Rather than hammering away at new floats for Anaheim’s annual Halloween parade, this year organizers Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily are focused on making the accompanying festival just as much of a draw for residents and visitors.

There will be new parade entries, including a cannon that will blow giant smoke rings, Kidney said. Volunteers have been building those, while Kidney and Daily are busy wrapping up preparations for the Fall Festival, which will include a show by the Los Angeles-based Bob Baker Marionette Theater, fall-themed food with flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg, artists selling Halloween-themed works, costume contests for dogs and people, and old-fashioned family games.

The Anaheim Brewery Oktoberfest giant Bavarian beer-drinker float has become a regular in the annual Halloween Parade in Anaheim. (Register file photo)

The 94th annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade will be held Oct. 28. (Courtesy of the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade)

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A group of parade walkers in 2013 follow a giant haunted house, which was constructed by Disneyland Imagineers for the Anaheim Halloween Parade. The parade was revived by a large group of volunteers to make it one of the biggest events in the city. The parade has been going on since the early 1920’s. (Register file photo)

Many of the floats in the annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade take their style from the ’50s. (Couresty of the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade)

The 94th annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade will be held Oct. 28. (Courtesy of the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade)



An army of volunteers help pull off the annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade. (Courtesy of the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade)

The 94th annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade is Oct. 28. (File photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register)

The 94th annual Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade will be held Oct. 28. The festival fills the Center Street Promenade during the day, followed by the parade at 6 p.m. (Courtesy of the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade)

The parade started in 1924 and reached a peak of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, but the community lost interest by the 1980s and the parade shrunk to just a handful of entries. Then Kidney and Daily got involved, and they started building replicas of classic floats around 2013, which helped inject new life into the long-running tradition.

Now the parade attracts tens of thousands of spectators, and the Travel Channel recently named it one of the country’s top 10 Halloween parades. Several hundred volunteers put the event together, and about 1,000 people participate in the parade, Kidney said.

Instead of screams and gore, visitors to the Anaheim festival and parade will find pumpkins, ghosts and witches, Kidney said, adding, “We’re really making something that celebrates the season, celebrates nostalgia and fun.”

If you go

When: Saturday, Oct. 28; the festival is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the parade begins at 6 p.m.

Where: The festival is held at the Center Street Promenade. The parade begins at Broadway and West Street, passes through the promenade and ends at the Anaheim Packing House.

Cost: Free

Information: anaheimfallfestival.org