Northern Lehigh’s Halloween Parade will be paused until it’s able to resume its traditional Main Street route.

The Northern Lehigh Events Committee posted Friday its disappointing announcement Friday.

“We greatly appreciate those who signed up, but we just don’t have enough participants registered for this year,” the post states.

The post encouraged everyone to see them at Trunk or Treat at Eagles Nest on Oct. 16.

Contacted over the weekend, Tiffany Rehrig-Schaeffer, co-chair of the Northern Lehigh Events Committee, explained how they arrived at the decision.

“We are in the third year of the Walnut Street bridge closure,” Rehrig-Schaeffer said. “The first year we were unable to find an alternative route due to the timing of the closure.

“Last year, we were fortunate to have the support of the Northern Lehigh School District and were able to hold a scaled down Parade on school grounds. We realize that participants and spectators were apprehensive about the smaller event, but we received a lot of positive feedback so we were optimistic that we would have at least as many, if not more, registrations this year.

“Unfortunately, we just have not reached that goal. So, the committee made the decision to pause the parade until we are able to resume out traditional route on Main Street.”

Rehrig-Schaeffer noted they are still sponsoring their annual Haunt Your House decorating contest and registrations have opened for that.

She said the Northern Lehigh Events Committee encourages the community to follow its new website, https://nlhalloweenparade.com, for information on its events and updates on next year’s parade.

The 116th Greater Northern Lehigh Halloween Parade was held last October after a one-year hiatus.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Northern Lehigh School District and Slatington Borough, last year’s parade route included the school campus and surrounding area.

The theme of last year’s parade was circus, and prizes were awarded in individual, walking group and float categories.

In addition, the Judges’ Award, presented in memory of Russell Hallman, Forrest Hallman and Connie Rehrig, was awarded to the parade entry with the highest overall score.

The 2024 parade was canceled due to a lack of PennDOT permit after the Walnut Street bridge was closed in June 2024 for the bridge replacement project. It remains shut down at this time.