October 25, 2023 11:00 a.m.
The Neewollah Parade is happening next Tuesday night on Halloween, 90 years after it began.
A City of Roseburg release said the annual parade started on October 31st, 1933. According to local residents, historians and newspaper articles, it has been held every year since, except during World War II and in 2020 and 2021 during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual “parades” and costume contests were held instead. The event rose from its seeming demise last year to help celebrate Roseburg’s 150th birthday, on October 3, 2022.
This year trick-or-treaters will gather at 5:00 p.m. near the corner of Southeast Jackson Street and Southeast Douglas Avenue. They will begin parading south on Jackson at about 5:15 p.m. to gather candy from businesses, according to event organizer Stacey Crowe, a former city councilor.
City staff will give out candy across from City Hall, while Umpqua Community College basketball players will also hand out candy.
Features of the parade will include architect Paul Bentley who will turn into “Captain Jack Sparrow” from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. He will be joined by “pirate wench” wife Terry who will join him on the Black Pearl, a 20-foot wooden ship façade that will boast a plank this year. The Roseburg Area Dancing Witches will be performing a number of dances. Roseburg Fright Club’s haunted house will be inside the Roseburg Elks Lodge at the south end of Jackson