Jenn's Mindless Musings: Neewollah

I have never been a fan of Halloween nor will I ever be (explanation for another time). However, I have to post about Neewollah (Halloween spelled backwards..on purpose!). Neewollah is a celebration/festival which our small town of Independence hosts every year. For nine days each year, this small town grows to about 60,000 people! People come from all over the state as well as different parts of the USofA to take part in the festival and carnival fun. Independence has been hosting this large festival since 1919 "as an effort to replace typical Halloween pranks with positive activities for the youth in town. The celebration was interrupted by the Great Depression and World War II, but in 1958 a group of four local businessmen revived the celebration, building the foundation for an event that brings out the best in volunteerism and community support". It's such a significant event that the schools shut down for the first day of the festival and all of the county workers (including the sheriff's office, county attorney, etc.) get a half day off just for the kiddie parade (that is one out of the three parades).

About a week and a half before Halloween each year, the carnies come rolling in with all of the rides and game booths. Tons of food and art vendors make an appearance on the main streets, parking gets very limited, and the whole town works together to clean up the streets and storefronts for the masses of people who will soon appear.

Some of the main attractions include a theater performance the first weekend of Neewollah. This year was the Young Frankenstain production which had a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday showing. The weekend usually starts off with a chili cook off in the park where they also give the first clue to the medallion scavenger hunt. This scavenger hunt is a big deal too! They give out a new clue each day and the medallion is somewhere hidden on the city property. The prize is $250 or $500 if you are wearing a specific Neewollah pin to go with the medallion. For over a week I would see people (kids, adults, professionals, etc.) looking in bushes, tress, coming into the police department, looking around city buildings, etc. Not going to lie, it was a little funny to see a business woman all dressed up looking in trees and bushes hoping to be the lucky winner!

Other attractions included three different parades: The doo dah parade--an adult parade on Thursday, a kiddie parade on Friday, and then the huge parade on Saturday morning. I so wished we could have gone to one of the them but I had to work very late on Thursday and the kiddie parade was in the afternoon Friday (when I was working...). I wasn't as fortunate as the county employees who had a half day off work...And of course the huge parade on Saturday was when we were in church. We had to drive towards down town to get to our second church and the place was a zoo! There was no parking within like a mile radius of downtown (and downtown is not very large!). Tons of people walking everywhere, floats, etc.

Neewollah also has a whole bunch of concerts and live music, a Neewollah pageant to crown a new Neelah queen, 5k/10k run and fun run/walk, high school band competitions (bands from schools all over the area come and compete), arts and crafts show, and other events/entertainment at the bandstand. So yea, it's somewhat of a big deal :)

I was able to go two different nights and enjoy the concerts, food, etc. with James, Verena, and friends. Check out some of the pictures!