West Hollywood’s famous Halloween Carnaval is being scrubbed again this year, with city officials quietly voting to skip the wildly popular event that was canceled for the past two years due to the COVID- 19 pandemic.
According to Los Angeles Magazine, city leaders decided in late June to cancel the event, but no formal public announcement was ever made. Instead, a notice was posted on the city’s website announcing the cancellation.
While COVID-19 was specifically cited for the cancellations over the past two years, no specific reasoning was given in the city’s latest announcement, which simply says the Carnaval “will not take place in 2022.”
“The city encourages the community to creatively and safely celebrate Halloween this year,” according to the notice. “As in 2021, the city encourages businesses to celebrate with patrons by producing small-scale events at stores, restaurants, and more, such as costume events or contests; Halloween- themed meals or drinks at restaurants and bars; Halloween-themed trivia or bingo nights; dressing-up locations with Halloween-themed decorations, and the like.”
The notice makes no mention of COVID-19 or of the growing monkeypox outbreak that is affecting primarily gay men and has elevated case numbers in and around West Hollywood.
West Hollywood Councilman John D’Amico told Los Angeles Magazine that the Carnaval — billed as one of the largest Halloween celebrations in the world — may never return, citing issues with public safety, difficulties planning the event and the security costs for the city.
“We canceled it two years in a row. So it sort of doesn’t exist anymore, in some way,” D’Amico said. “Many of us experienced, in some way, a kind of a sense of relief. As much fun as it was, it was incredibly nerve- wracking to make it happen.”
He also suggested that the event — while still attracting thousands of revelers — had been scaled back in recent years, losing its large stages and celebrity participants.
In June, however, the city hosted a return of the WeHo Pride event, which featured three days of activities and a parade with singers Janelle Monae, JoJo Siwa and Cardi B. West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister told LA Magazine that the Pride event, while popular, is small in comparison to the Carnaval.
“The crowd on Halloween in much, much larger and packed shoulder to shoulder on that one night than it is on any given night of Pride,” Meister said.
[…] city decided not to hold its annual Carnaval festivities this year, and thus Santa Monica Blvd. will not be closed to traffic the night of Oct. 31, nor will […]
Thank god. That ghetto trashiness needs to go. And the way things are going these days, someone would probably get shot.
What part of this decision can you people not figure out??? P.O.W.E.R & C.O.N.T.R.O.L. Seriously, you don’t get it…and you never will. Stop over-thinking and let the political correctness go. #Sheeple #Lemmings
LF & NR
I agree with you , and also, this is decision is also as a result of defunding the sheriff. The City Council is garbage. A reaction to the Chinese Virus, nope because why would Cyclavia be permitted? BS.
Well, with the type of gang element that Weho is attracting WITHOUT it being Halloween, it’s probably a wise decision to stop hosting this OR just relocate it to Compton so the criminals don’t have to travel far to rob and beat people.
It will be better without the city organizing and the corporate sponsorship. The best days were in the late 70s/early 80s when it was an organic celebration.
Not satisfied enough with that Weho Pride disaster he created, D’amico has now pioneered cancelling the Halloween Carnival too. Thank God he’s on his way out, time for some fresh blood to save the City.
As a fifteen-year resident of West Hollywood, I can honestly say that my most chilling moment of living here happened at the 2016 Halloween celebration, in which a group of MAGA white supremacist skinhead types were cordoned off on La Cienega and Santa Monica Blvd, surrounded by county sheriffs, but who nevertheless were shouting violent threats to anyone within earshot: “we know where you live and once Trump gets elected, we’re coming for you.” While I made it a point to be sure and attend subsequent Halloween celebrations–rather than cave to my fears of far right violence and extremism–I continue… Read more »
This reply is the typical reply of the mentally ill Left believing in boogeyman when they are actually the baddies.
Are you for real??? What about Pride that just happened? Go stay in your basement.
Weho the creative city!
Halloween will be back. We have a lot of special events staff that who would have to be laid off if the event was permanently cancelled. I wish the City would have been less cryptic in their announcement but it is clear that the community wants to maintain this tradition. This event presents a lot of challenges to insure safety of the participants, which needs to be the first priority. With the closure of 24 Hour Fitness and gay Starbucks along with our downsized Pride Festival, the cancellation of Halloween seems like another assault on the character of the community.
I hope you’re right, Steve! I don’t want WeHo to become as bland as Encino!
This has Cleo Smith written all over it. She has always wanted less work to do.
I’m pretty good at watching city council meetings, and I don’t recall any discussion on this. Was this ever discussed in an open meeting? Was there a Brown Act violation with respect to this topic? The ethics of the current city council are questionable.
If this is a financially based decision, what I don’t understand is how Council can, on the one hand, cancel our decades-long, world-famous Halloween celebration because they’ve let our City’s till run dry while, on the other hand spending over six million dollars on an abandoned, run-down motel to be used as some poorly planned shelter for our homeless? (Not that assisting our homeless population isn’t of paramount importance.) Is it difficult, Mr. D’Amico, to do the job you voluntarily ran for and took on as a Councilmember? Are we tiring you out Mr. D’Amico? Do we have you constantly… Read more »
Good assessment!
Thank you!