From witches to skeletons, Utah Tech’s Tricks & Treats Night united families and students together on Palm Street, fascinating guests with candy, activities and costume contests.
The festivity was sponsored by Utah Tech University, and the University Marketing and Communication department organized the event.
Tricks & Treats Night is an annual celebration dedicated to Halloween. The event took place Oct. 30 near the Burns Arena. People of all ages had an opportunity to visit and entrance was free.
“It is a community engagement event where we love to host our community on our campus, and so that’s the main purpose, [to] bring people together and just engage with them,” Brooke Ulrich, director of university events & promotions, said.
Palm Street turned into a colorful little town, decorated with multiple orange and white pumpkins. The main feature of the event was the live carving of the 1,761-pound pumpkin.
“This is the giant pumpkin, it is almost 1,800 pounds and it is just a fun thing for the community to come in and watch,” Ulrich said. “And then, we are going to light it on fire.”
Abby Prince, a junior ASL English interpreting major from St. George, said the pumpkin was grown in Utah and the members of the University Marketing and Communication department carved it.
The festivity included numerous booths, where visitors and their families could play mini games, take candies and interact with the Utah Tech athletic clubs.
Event booths included athletic teams and organizations:
- Cheer safari — the booth with the cheerleaders
- The Sandlot booth — the booth with Utah Tech’s women’s golf
- Candy handout — Utah Tech’s softball team
- “Toy Story” themed booth — Blaze dance team
- Minions themed booth — alumni ambassadors
Also, Intermountain Health was at the event with information about their day treatment for teens program. Specialists provided visitors with useful information on the topic and gave sweet treats.
The celebration included a Halloween costume contest, where all visitors who wanted to show their costumes and win prizes competed. Some popular costumes at the event were:
- Princess
- Chucky
- T-Rex
- Ghostface
Lilly Johnson, a freshman psychology major from Salt Lake City, said her favorite part of the event was observing the kids participating in the costume contest.
