Bewitching: Sea Witch haunts Rehoboth
The walking dead brought downtown Rehoboth Beach to back to life, as zombies, ghosts and ghoulish creatures wandered the streets as part of the Sea Witch Festival Oct. 24-26.
Celebrating its silver anniversary, the event has never been more popular, festival founder Carol Everhart said.
“It was a jaw dropper,” said Everhart, the president and CEO of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce. The event typically draws about 175,000 people over its three days, but, Everhart said, indications point to a significant increase this year. She said hotel occupancy rivaled Fourth of July weekend.
Sea Witch weekend's marquee event is the ever-growing costume parade. Set for the middle of the day, the parade draws thousands of people from near and far. Those who participate head east down Rehoboth Avenue to the Bandstand and back, with spectators lining the streets the entire way. One of those spectators at this year's event was Newark resident Paul Albright. The oldest of five siblings has attended the parade with his family the last three years, and despite not participating in parade, he still dresses up in costume – this year as Beetlejuice.
“I love the atmosphere,” he said. “And you get to see a lot of variety in people's costumes. It's a good opportunity for the kids to see a parade and be apart of the whole Halloween atmosphere.”
Creativity is always on display at Sea Witch, with many people building their costumes from scratch. Others, like the Fisher family from Lewes, take it a step farther and build their own float. This year the Fishers constructed a piano and displayed it on a decorated platform for their son, Justin, who sang Elton John tunes the length of the parade route.
“I like playing for all the people, and seeing them enjoy it just makes my day,” said Justin, a student at the Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington.
The family spent about 40 hours building the float, then Justin recorded the drums, bass and backing keys and vocals. At the parade, he sang live.
It was just the latest creation from the Fishers, who in previous years have won awards for their various themes – Blue Man Group, KISS, Yellow Submarine. They won their eighth ribbon for this year's float.
“We don't do it for [the awards], but if we win a trophy it's a plus,” said Nikky Fisher, the matriarch of the family.
Everhart said Saturday saw one of the biggest increases in visitors, with 15,000 to 20,000 more people in town enjoying the parade, children's beach games, a broom-tossing contest and many other activities.
On Sunday, Arden Townsend traveled from Southampton, N.J., with her two dogs Daisy and Precious to compete in the dog parade. She said she often takes her pups to dog-related events in New Jersey, but this is the first time she'd been to Sea Witch. She and her husband decorated a stroller to look like a pirate ship, and named it The Scurvy Dawg.
“It took us a couple hours to get everything totally built,” she said.
Their hard work paid off as they caught the many spectators who lined the Boardwalk from the Henlopen Hotel to the Bandstand. They also impressed the judges and were named one of the parade winners.
Everhart said the event is thriving and continuing to grow. What started out as a eight-hour, $5,000 event in 1989, has grown to a three-day, $100,000 celebration of Halloween. She looks forward to producing a better event next year.
“Our job isn't to make [money] for the chamber; our job is to create something to bring people to town and give back to the community,” she said. “That's our goal, and we hit it this year.”
