Hortonville’s new downtown re-opens with Halloween on Main

HORTONVILLE — After months of detours, orange cones, and heavy equipment along Main Street, downtown Hortonville is officially reopening—and the community is throwing a festival to celebrate.

The Fox West Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Village of Hortonville and local businesses, will host the inaugural “Hortonville’s Halloween on Main” Friday, Oct. 30, from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The festival marks the grand reopening of the downtown strip following an extensive infrastructure rebuild.

“The businesses have dealt with closed traffic flow for three to four months now,” said Jeremy Bellile, Board President of the Fox West Chamber of Commerce. “This grand reopening of downtown is what all the businesses need—for everyone to come down and support local. There’s going to be food trucks, live music, and live performers.”

Street Closure and Layout

Main Street will be completely closed to vehicular traffic during the festival to transform the corridor into a pedestrian-friendly celebration space.

The festivities kick off at 4:00 p.m. at Memorial Square—located across from Hortonville Lanes at the former library site—with an opening ceremony led by the American Legion and an official village ribbon cutting.

The event layout features two main entertainment hubs:

•Music Entertainment Stage: Positioned near the U.S. Post Office.

•Performance Stage: Positioned near Hard Tails.

•Beer Tents: Located on both the east and west entrances of the downtown strip.

In addition to organizing the festival, the Chamber partnered with five downtown liquor license holders and the American Legion. Proceeds from wristband sales will go directly to the American Legion to support their ongoing fundraising campaign to construct a new facility on their land.

Entertainment Schedule

Cloud9 Entertainment initially brought the concept for the street festival to the Chamber, helping build a diverse lineup of family activities and evening entertainment.

The main stage schedule includes:

4:00 p.m.: Opening Ceremony & Ribbon Cutting at Memorial Square

4:15 p.m.: Watt Millians featuring the Cloud Nine Fire Show

5:15 p.m.: Mischief and Magic Show (Magic & Face Painting)

5:45 p.m.: Hortonville Dance Team Performance

6:00 p.m. & 7:15 p.m.: Live Music by The Limns

8:00 p.m.: Empowered Belly Dancing Troupe Performance

8:50 p.m.: Headline Performance by Sly Joe and The Smooth Operators

Cloud Nine Fire Shows: Performing throughout the evening at 4:15, 6:45, 8:20, and 10:20 p.m.

Downtown businesses will offer extended sidewalk shopping and expanded patio seating.

Area youth can participate in a local business scavenger hunt, trick-or-treating, and Jump City inflatables.

Bellile emphasized that the event’s scale was made possible through strong community partnerships.

“The Fox West Chamber couldn’t put this on without all of the local support and sponsors,” Bellile said. “We really want to thank the Village of Hortonville and all of the businesses that are supporting us.”

Following the Friday evening festival, the Village of Hortonville will host its traditional municipal Halloween schedule on Saturday, Oct. 31, with a costume parade from 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., followed by residential trick-or-treating from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.