Thousands of visitors donning masks, costumes and capes streamed into downtown Long Beach Saturday for a city-sanctioned Halloween party with public alcohol consumption.
The crowd for Fright Fest was at least double the size of the city’s first-ever event that allowed public drinking, according to the event’s organizers.
Tony Martinez, co-owner of Baby Bros Pizza, estimated that 8,000 people attended the free festival, which ran from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Pine Avenue and The Promenade between Broadway and Third Street.
At its peak, around 7 p.m., there were approximately 3,500 people spread throughout both streets, enjoying drinks, buying from vendors and listening to live music, Martinez said.
Through Martinez’s other business, Halloween Depot, he hired live scare actors and invited 40 vendors selling handmade Halloween goods.
Despite the large crowds, Martinez said the event went smoothly and the crowd dispersed quickly after the live music ended at 10 p.m.
“It was really good, no incidents, no fights, no nothing,” Martinez said. “Just a good time.”
Officials from the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, the nonprofit business association that organized both public drinking events to date, echoed the event’s success.
“It was incredible to see families, kids, college students, residents, and visitors all enjoying the live entertainment, vendors, and activities in downtown,” DTLB Alliance Senior Vice President James Ahumada said in a statement. (Ahumada is also a board member of the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, the Long Beach Post’s nonprofit parent organization. He and other board members are not involved in news coverage decisions.)
The DTLB Alliance received RSVPs from nearly 4,000 people ahead of the event, Ahumada said.
Saturday’s Halloween-themed entertainment zone was the second held as part of a one-year pilot program made possible by a state law passed in 2024.
While Long Beach has taken a methodical approach to testing and expanding rules related to public drinking, other cities have more rapidly embraced the new rules.
In June, Santa Monica established an entertainment zone on its Third Street Promenade between Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway that allows public alcohol consumption from Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
This year, San Francisco established 15 entertainment zones throughout the city. Some operate on a per-event basis, while others are active every day of the week.
With the success of the first two Long Beach events, more are likely on the way, according to the DTLB Alliance.
Ahumada said the nonprofit’s staff are “working toward several” more events allowing public drinking and will announce details once confirmed.