After 5: Halloween Revelry

Carrigan was warning them about her annual Halloween party, which is entering its 15th year. Friends, family and colleagues travel from as far away as Philadelphia to attend the party. Recent partygoers have dressed as everything from famous people, such as Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, to famous natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.

“My neighbors have been extremely gracious,” says Carrigan, a production assistant for KY3 Inc. “It’s the one big party I throw every year.”

Carrigan isn’t the only professional who enjoys Allhallows Eve.

“I’m huge into Halloween,” says banker and business owner Aaron Buerge. “Oh yeah, I’m all about it.”

Buerge – senior vice president at First National Bank, co-owner of Trolley’s Downtown Bar & Grille in Springfield and commercial real estate owner – dons elaborate costumes every season.

Sometimes he goes to house parties, but he most enjoys attending downtown’s Halloween pub-crawl, dubbed Neewollah, he says.

Neewollah, scheduled for Oct. 27, will feature about 20 participating bars and restaurants and is estimated to draw thousands of costumed revelers. It’s downtown’s “biggest nightlife event of the year,” according to downtown promotions group It’s All Downtown LLC.

“It’s the ultimate people-watching experience,” says Buerge, who enlists the help of his friend, Mike Strain, a makeup artist for independent films, to turn him into something unrecognizable. In 2005, Strain put Buerge in a fat suit; in 2004, Strain made Buerge look like a very old man.

Ed Barnett, owner of A to Z Party Rental & Mardi Gras Costume, 2323 E. Bennett St., estimates that 20 percent of his Halloween business comes from the white-collar crowd. Some popular costumes currently are pirates, southern belles and renaissance-era garb, Barnett says.

Of course, people don’t have to dress up or throw parties to celebrate Halloween.

Dr. Wade Warren, a sole-practicing dentist, and his wife, Susie, a senior account executive for Clear Channel Communications, adorn their east Springfield house every fall with dozens of Halloween decorations.

Wade Warren says they display everything from fall-colored leaves and pumpkins to spooky trees and a six-foot grim reaper with lights and a fog machine. They decorate indoors and outdoors.

“It kind of gets more extensive as time goes on,” says Warren, who just purchased two life-sized, freestanding mummies for about $150 each.

He now has new favorite pieces.