Trolloween

Trolloween returns to the Fremont Troll on Saturday, October 31, starting at 7 PM. It's the annual birthday party for the neighborhood's most famous resident, and the night is split between two different events. At the sculpture itself, there's live music and a theatrical pageant. From there, the Haunt of Fremont takes over—a costumed procession through the neighborhood that follows one of two routes depending on whether the night stays dry or turns rainy.

The guest of honor is the Troll, a life-sized bronze sculpture built in 1990 by a group of community artists. They started with a rebar skeleton, layered it in wire mesh, and sprayed it with gunite. Maque Davis, former president-for-life of the Fremont Arts Council, was among them and started the birthday party in 1991. The site had been an informal dumping ground under the Aurora Bridge for decades until neighbors used a city Neighborhood Matching Fund grant to plant more than 85 trees there in 1989; the area is now part of Troll's Knoll Park.

The whole thing falls under the Fremont Arts Council's broader mission to engage the community as artists, so it's as much about the people showing up as it is about the sculpture. If you're planning to join in, the procession is the part that asks for a costume. The party kicks off at 7 PM at the Fremont Troll, North 36th Street, Troll Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103, and it's free.