DUBAI // Some squealed with delight and some with fright at the Madinat Jumeirah Amphitheatre this week.
"I was scared of the black hole," said four-year-old Neo, from Argentina, who came dressed as a ghost to the Jumeirah Group's Halloween Festival 2010.
Neo's mother Deana Medic, who wore a purple wig, said her family "decorated our house, planned a party and we are definitely going trick-or-treating".
Dozens of parents and children turned out on Thursday for the first night of the four-day event.
They had plenty of spooky sweets to try including scary cupcakes, ghoulish gummies and caramel candied apples. The more health-conscious could opt for hobbits pasta salad or pumpkin ginger salad. "Although this is not something we celebrate in our culture, it is interesting to see the children in the different costumes," Umm Fahad, an Emirati, said. "We just stumbled upon the event, but my seven-year-old son is already asking me how he can get into a costume like the other kids."
A red devil on stilts posed for photos, while a group of children painted two-kilogram pumpkins before taking them home.
Between the pumpkin lights decorating the staircase, five-year-old Aaron Gidwani stood clad in black and proclaimed: "I am the king of the vampires."
Ten-month-old Anicka Reyes played in the hay near the food stands, oblivious to the message on her devil costume that read: "Angel in Disguise".
"It is my baby's first Halloween and it has been really good," said her mother, Angeli Anvilla. "I bought her costume from back home in the Philippines."
Another mother, Reem Aloul from Jordan, came with her husband Qais and their three-year-old daughter Tara.
"She wanted to dress up as a bride and she had to have a veil for her dress," she said.
Among the black cats, vampires, witches, ghosts and genies that came to the party, a few received a present for their standout costumes.
Maxim, a four-year-old from Switzerland, won a prize for his black ninja outfit.
"He is so happy to have won," said father Fabrice Vallotton. "He tried his costume on the day before and he was really looking forward to this."
Entrance to the festival is free although there is a charge for some activities. It runs from 5pm to 11pm.
