Halloween festivities, Thriller dance set for Thursday

Halloween MAIN-ia is back again, with at least one new addition to this year’s festivities.

Halloween MAIN-ia will coincide with Winchester’s trick-or-treating hours of 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in downtown Winchester, Main Street Winchester director Rachel Alexander said.

Main Street will be closed from Lexington Avenue to Washington Street as well as the courthouse square, she said. Dozens of businesses will be handing out candy and other treats for all who come.

“We have 26 businesses signed up so far,” Alexander said Monday. We usually have a handful come in prior to Halloween and want to participate.

This year’s addition will be a Thriller dance around 7:15 p.m. in front of the Clark County Child Development Center.

Business owner Bo Harris said dancers have been practicing for about three weeks to get ready for the dance, as choreographed from Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit video.

At the last practice, Harris said between 30 and 40 dancers were there.

“We wanted something a little different for Halloween,” Harris said. “It might be something we do yearly.”

Several businesses will be giving out non-food treats for those children to have food allergies. Alexander said she started asking businesses to do non-food treats from her experience with a cousin and a friend’s child who both have severe food allergies. This year, about 40 percent of businesses will have non-food treats.

“I know its something a lot of families deal with,” she said.

There is a threat of rain on Thursday, she said, but no decisions will be made until later this week.

“There is rain in the forecast,” she said. “We’ll evaluate in the morning. If it is too much for kids to be out, we’ll move it to Friday.”

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