Chapel Hill Halloween fosters costume creativity

About 16,000 people came to downtown Chapel Hill on Wednesday, with costumes including Black Panther, toy soldiers, Wonder Woman, figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, a Bob Ross painting, scarecrows and more.

Nate Bateman and his friend had started watching HBO’s “Game of Thrones” this year, so the two dressed up as Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.

“We binge-watched the entire thing, and we absolutely loved it,” Bateman said. “We’re a little late to the party, but we really fell in love with it, and we’re just excited to be here.”

Robert Humphruys found a portrait of a general with its head cut out at a yard sale 20 years ago.

“I said, ‘You know, I could put a strap on that thing and wear it to Halloween, and it would be a great costume,” he said.

Shajuan Borgus came out with her daughter Ashland, who hopes to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill next year. Borgus will be deploying next year.

“I wanted to make sure that I get the chance to spend this Halloween with her,” she said.

The annual Halloween party in downtown Chapel Hill attracts thousands every year, and this year had a new name: Halloween on Franklin Street, rather than Homegrown Halloween.

Organizers rename, scale down Halloween party on Franklin Street

This will be the fourth year Chapel Hill officials have tried to soften the celebration to make it safer. Although the event is only open to Chapel Hill residents, past years have seen crowds as large as 80,000 people.

The town does not host the event.

To address the crowd issues, officials restrict traffic into downtown, employ about 200 public safety officers and establish alcohol checkpoints.

Chapel Hill police said there were two medical incidents that they believe were alcohol-related. The patients were treated on-scene.