Chinatown’s long-running Halloween-themed event that’s part spooky pub crawl, part scary costumed affair, and part frightening arts and music fest is experiencing great horrors of its own this year.

The city as well as its lead organizer say the 14th annual Hallowbaloo Music &Arts Festival will not be held on the night of Oct. 28 as planned.

The news comes after both sides failed to find common ground over plans for the street-oriented event, due in part to complaints raised over 2022’s Hallowbaloo. Organizers say Hallowbaloo was founded in 2008 and annually draws about 10,000 people to Chinatown area bars, nightclubs and restaurants located in the vicinity of Nuuanu Avenue and Hotel Street.

Although tickets were offered for sale on Hallowbaloo’s website for what was marketed, in some cases, as VIP access — via wristbands — to area clubs, alcohol and event souvenirs, complaints from some event attendees included reports of unwarranted admissions fees to those who showed up with no tickets at the event’s street entrances and the open consumption of alcohol on city-owned streets.

For Hallowbaloo founder and lead organizer Mark Tarone, those reported issues, and the inability to gain required city permits, boiled down to one haunting outcome.

“The event is canceled for this year,” Tarone told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone. “And we are going to do everything possible to return to Chinatown in 2024, and also approach that in a way that if things don’t work out in Chinatown we will move that event to an alternate venue. But the expectation and the hope is to be back in Chinatown next year.”

He noted the city permitting issue was “100% tied to public right-of-ways.”

“So we weren’t able to obtain our street closure permit from the city this year because of complaints the city received about last year’s festival regarding free public right-of-way access; being able to access the premises at no cost,” he said. “And we met with the city about that after the event last year, and they expressed their concerns.”

He added, “We thought we were in a position to work out a plan to address their concerns and we created a new plan.” That new plan, he noted, included a formal presentation to the nine-member Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board on Sept. 7.

“They were aware of the complaints as well,” Tarone said, “and the board supported the (new) plan and voted in support of the event 8 to 1.”

But it was the city Department of Transportation Services — which issues permits for things like street fairs and street closures — that did not favor Tarone’s plans for 2023’s Hallowbaloo.

“DTS and the event organizers met multiple times to go over the process and review the permit for this year’s event,” DTS spokesperson Travis Ota told the Star-Advertiser via email. “DTS was not amenable to issuing a permit with alcohol sales and consumption on all of the public streets within the multi-block China­town area, as requested by the proponents.”

Ota said DTS “made it clear that the department was willing to issue a street use permit either without alcohol or with alcohol sold and consumed within a restricted ‘beer garden’ area. With these conditions, the organizers did not submit the required documents on time, and we have not issued a permit.”

Those required documents were to be submitted to the city 30 days prior to the event — or by Sept. 28, he added. Ota noted the time period to obtain Hallowbaloo’s permit is “now out of scope.”

Others also had concerns over this event.

Among them, Ernest Caravalho, chair of the Downtown­-Chinatown Neighborhood Board, told the Star-Advertiser that 2022’s Hallowbaloo sparked many community complaints.

“Before the event even started last year I had close to a hundred phone calls; people complaining about the fact that they were told and advised that they would have to pay to get into the event,” he said. “You cannot charge people to come into an event on public sidewalks, on public streets.”

At last year’s Hallowbaloo, Caravalho said event staff had people pay for “wristbands that were supposed to allow people to drink on the streets” and “get into the other clubs, at no charge.”

“I went as an observer,” he added. “I myself tried to get in and they told me I couldn’t get in, that I’d have to pay…so I was upset about that.”

He said he reported his experience to organizer Tarone and “advised him that I was not allowed to come in.”

“And I told the people there that they cannot charge; this is public,” he added.

Still, Caravalho admitted this year’s loss of Hallowbaloo hurts the community overall.

“In defense, this event is vital to Chinatown,” he said. “Because it brings money to businesses in the area.”

And because the event draws 10,000 people to the neighborhood, he said it actually drives down criminal activity in Chinatown.

“What it does is it keeps the drug dealers and the drug addicts off of the street, and away from the streets because there’s too many people,” Caravalho said. “And it goes after the event too; for about two or three days you won’t see anyone dealing drugs or doing drugs on the streets during the day and night. So it is a vital part of it, but it is a vital part for the businesses mainly.”

Robert Armstrong, a Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board member, also favored seeing the Halloween event continue.

“This disagreement comes at a particularly bad time for our neighborhood,” Armstrong said via email. “Hallowbaloo is a very popular, fun event that brings thousands of citizens to our restaurants, shops and bars. We can’t afford to lose that revenue and this vitality now.”

Meanwhile, Tarone said he regrets not being able to hold Hallowbaloo at the end of this month — an event which typically costs about $200,000 to host each year.

“I’m despondent,” he said. “But I know the city has great intent, and I know that their goal is not to shut down the festival, so I’m not blaming the city; I’m disappointed in how this all shook out.”

Tarone added that he saw no reason the city would not grant street-use permits for Hallowbaloo in 2024.

“We paid the heaviest penalty possible for complaints made about last year’s event, along with businesses and the community,” he said, adding he intends to present Hallowbaloo’s future plan to the city by March. “And anyone who looks at that plan will see that it adequately addresses public right-of-ways.”