An Oak Bay Halloween classic is on hold this year: the Pumpkin Art on the Avenue has been cancelled for 2019.
The family-favourite event saw thousands of pumpkins expertly carved and placed behind the Oak Bay municipal hall. In recent years, a feature artist who helped launch the tradition moved away, and in 2018 high school students helped bring more Pumpkin Art to life. This year, however, just hours after a tweet went up from Oak Bay Tourism reminding people of the event, a second tweet went up announcing it had been cancelled.
CORRECTION: Oak Bay Pumpkin Art has been cancelled this year. Stay tuned for more details as pumpkin art will return in 2020 bigger, better and more spooktacular than ever! pic.twitter.com/DnNfhysH2w
— Oak Bay Tourism (@OakBayTourism) October 24, 2019
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“It’s not cancelled,” insisted Martin Cownden, President of the Oak Bay Business Improvement Association (BIA). “We’ve just hit pause to refresh it.”
Cownden continued to say that in recent years, the grandeur of Halloween decorations has gone up several notches in the neighbourhood, prompting the Oak Bay BIA to reassess what they should be putting into the art show.
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“We felt that the pumpkin art isn’t up to what the trends have become,” he said. “We want to do it in excellence.”
While this year’s Pumpkin Art on the Avenue event is cancelled, the Trick or Treat on the Avenue mainstay is still good to go. This year, Cownden promised, the Halloween Village will be better than ever.
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