WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — MoonFest organizers have opted out of its traditional large-scale party and converted the annual Halloween celebration to a smaller bar crawl again.
It will include seven bars – Subculture Coffee Roasters, Hullabaloo, Kapow, Respectable Street, Lost Weekend, Voltaire and O'Shea's Irish Pub.
Moonfest started in 1993 and grew into a large music festival, shutting down nearly all of Clematis Street from Rosemary Avenue to the waterfront.
"It's something that the neighborhood, the community, everybody knows and loves," organizer spokeswoman Kristen Dagata said. "Everybody looks forward to MoonFest. Everyone doesn't even call it Halloween anymore. They call it MoonFest. 'When is MoonFest happening? What are you going to be for MoonFest?'"
The event would have multiple stages, bands and bars along Clematis Street, but organizers have had to adapt.
"Unfortunately, after COVID, things got a little rocky with doing events and, right now, we're only able to do a miniature version of that," Dagata said.
Dagata said there were hurdles with the city when it came to closing the street.
"So our cost to close down the street has gone up – fencing, generators, basically everything, all prices have gone up," Dagata said.
She said the cost of security requirements by the city also increased.
"We tried to do a smaller version like three blocks instead of all five, but traffic concerns get in the way, so that was kind of a hurdle," Dagata said. "Basically, the city said all five blocks or nothing."
The city has not replied to a request for comment.
Dagata said proceeds from MoonFest goes to a select charity. This year's event will benefit Hospitality Helping Hands, a charity branch from MoonFest that started in March 2020 because of the pandemic.
"In the past, we used to pick two to three charities every year," Dagata said. "We keep enough to put on MoonFest the next year, and then everything else would go to whatever charity we chose that year."
Because of a surge in costs to put the event together, a large-scale MoonFest would only allow organizers to break even, without much left to donate.
"We will try to keep it going," Dagata said. "We're working our way up to get the funds to be able to do the same big MoonFest like we used to."
This is the second year that organizers have converted MoonFest to a bar crawl.
Advanced tickets to MoonFest are $30 but will increase to $40 on the day of the event. The cost includes seven spooky specialty cocktails from each participating bar.
There will also be a costume contest with $2,500 in prizes.
MoonFest begins Saturday at 9 p.m. Participants must be 21 or older, but the block party is free for all ages.
