Carbondale and Halloween go together like peanut butter and jelly. There is a long and complicated history with Carbondale Halloweens. Way back when, thousands of people would flock to the city to celebrate the holiday. At some point, it all got out of hand. When the city decided to revive Halloween in Carbondale, SAL was brought in to help fight the negative stigmas and resurrect Carbondale Halloween as a great celebration once again.
tHE aNNOUNCEMENT
It had been over a decade since the city had officially celebrated Halloween. So its return deserved a bit of attention!
Reaching Students
We understand students because we are students. We know that college students are on a strict budget, so we inspired them to get creative by sharing their Costumes on a Budget.
Reaching Families
The Halloween weekend was refashioned into something much more family friendly than it had ever been in the past. We made sure to promote the new additions on the city social pages to get the word out.
Reaching Alumni
Not only was it important to reach the resident families and students, we also wanted to encourage SIU Alumni to return to Carbondale to relive their glory days in the spookiest of fashions.
Storm Brewing
Just as it seemed as though everything was going to go as planned, two curve balls were thrown at us. A couple days out, the weather forecast was gloomy, but when it came time for the events the clouds parted and the sun shined. The second curveball was the for the first time in 23 years, a sitting President of the United States would be visiting Southern Illinois just minutes away from our events. We had to let everyone know that no matter what, Carbondale Halloween would go on as planned.