New online map shows which Portsmouth homes are accepting Halloween trick-or-treaters

However, with 2020 arguably being one long real-life horror story, do people still want to mark October 31?

The answer would appear to be a resounding: yes!

As with so many other aspects of our lives now, though, thanks to Covid-19 and the necessity of social distancing, celebrating Halloween will have to be done a little bit differently this year.

But that hasn't stopped some fiendish folk from making sure that there’s still fun to be had.

Kimberley Barrett, of Posbrook Road in Milton has helped set up the Portsmouth Pumpkin Trail.

‘I've got two boys and Halloween is their favourite time of year,’ she explains. ‘They love going out and looking at decorated houses, or trick-or-treating, but we weren't sure whether it was going to be possible this year. After having a bit of a browse around on Facebook, I came across a group called The Big Neighbourhood Pumpkin Trail.’

it was set up by a national company called Art Venturers, which had also created a successful Big Neighbourhood Easter egg hunt.

Kimberley was also behind the Milton Jumble Trail, which has helped people sell their unwanted items from their own front doors in a safe manner. As part of that she had created an online interactive map for people to see which homes were taking part.

‘I thought I would use the map we did for that for the Halloween trail, then people can bring it up on their phone and check exactly where they want to go. They can see on there whether the houses are decorated, or accepting trick-or-treaters, or are part of the pumpkin trail. I thought it would be perfect for people to go out and be safe.’

There are currently more than 120 homes signed up to take part – and it’s spreading.

‘Initially it was just for the Milton areas, because that's where I live, but I've been contacted by people elsewhere and it's slowly spreading out across the city. It’s for anybody across the city, if they want to decorate their house, or do the pumpkin trail, then let me know and I will add them to it.

SEE ALSO: 8 of the most haunted places in Portsmouth to visit this Halloween

‘The pumpkin trail is something nice and easy. You can either colour in a pumpkin and put it in the window, or carve a pumpkin or stick it outside, and it's a good activity for families to walk around with a sheet, which is on the Facebook group, and when they see a pumpkin in the street or in a window, they can colour one in or tick it off.

‘When they get to a certain point, the parents can give their children a treat themselves, so that way they don't have to do the trick-or-treating if they don't want to, and they don't have to interact with anyone outside their family.’

Creative designer and curator Annabel Innes was behind the billboards by local artists which went up on Goldsmith Avenue during lockdown, in a bid to spread a bit of positivity.

In her neighbourhood, she has started the Safe To Be Scared scheme – ‘safe zoning’ Holland Road, Grenville Road, Addison Road and Norland Road, all off Fawcett Road, Southsea.

As a self-confessed Halloween-lover Annabel was wondering how to do something which wouldn't fall foul of shifting government guidelines and rules. This brought her back to trick-or-treating: ‘As an activity it lends itself really well to covid guidelines – you can incorporate masks as part of your costumes, after you knock you can stand two metres away, and you don't have to have any contact with people.

SEE MORE: Here’s where you can pick pumpkins in Hampshire this year

‘If you're giving out sweets, wrap them individually, and there are loads of cool tongs/grabber-hands you can get from supermarkets, so you can pick things up out of the bucket and pass them on without touching them. Or make pre-prepared bags of sweets you can leave on your doorstep, or you can lower them out of your window in a creepy fashion to the kids on the street below. There are lots of ways that actually you can do it while still adhering to the latest government guidelines.

‘I live on Holland Road, and there's four streets that are kind of self-contained, so you can safely and happily walk around there without encountering much traffic, and a lot of the neighbours tend to know each other, it's set back from the main road, so all of this lends it to being a safe environment.

‘For people people who are willing to receive trick-or-treaters we've put them down as Haunted Houses – each Haunted House will be expecting people, and know what they're doing. That removes the stranger element to randomly knocking on people's doors as well.

‘We've got little ghost door hangers, which they can put on their doors or in their windows, which will be an indicator that house is part of the event and it's safe to go and knock.

‘And you don't have to live in one of those four streets to be able to join in, this is open to everyone.’

The artwork for Safe To Be Spooky was designed by Jamie Stubbs, aka, street artist Mimic, who Annabel worked with on a project in The News, providing pages for people to colour in.

‘He very generously gave his time and his skills, and made these fabulous posters,' says Annabel.

Jamie adds: Annabel got in touch and asked if I would get involved, and I was happy to help.

‘I've always had that darker artwork style, and she thought it would work well with this. I had a couple of things I'd already done that I could tweak here and there.

‘This has always been a particularly good time of year for me – I'm a big fan of horror and sci-fi films, and things like that. They’ve always influenced my artwork and me in general.’

Annabel has also convinced Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to donate sweets for the day.

‘I wanted to remove barriers to people to be able to get involved – to not cause them any extra expense. This is a time when some people are out of work, or there's less money in the pot to be able to go and do entertainment stuff.

‘The people who are happy to have their houses haunted by trick-or-treaters, I will distribute some sweets to them, so they don't have to put their hands in their pockets for that.

‘People are very community-minded in Portsmouth and Southsea, I'm finding, and so if people take the initiative to do something like this and it's a cool idea, there is the support there, if you ask nicely!

Safe to Be Spooky runs from 4-8pm on Saturday 31. Go to safetobespooky.com.

Search for ‘The Portsmouth Pumpkin/Halloween Trail’ on facebook.com.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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