When the Fifolet Halloween Festival comes to Baton Rouge each year, residents expect a haunted ball, costume donations for the city's children and a parade of spookily-decorated floats streaming through downtown.

But organizers fear the 2025 parade, which rolls for its 15th year on Saturday, Oct. 18, might be the last one they can afford to stage.

"We're really concerned," said Kelley Stein, co-founder and chief financial officer of 10/31 Consortium, which hosts the parade. "I mean, we got it covered this year OK, but we just don't know what's going to happen for next year. We are preparing ourselves for this to be our last parade."

The new financial pressure comes from a change in Baton Rouge Police Department policy surrounding event security .

Parades, events to pay for their own

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