Introducing: The Spooky Spaces Fund

Greetings, ghouls and goblins, and welcome to our first blog post! We've saved our debut digital diary entry for a very special announcement; we are thrilled to finally launch our annual Spooky Spaces Fund!

But what exactly IS The Spooky Spaces Fund, you ask? Well, it's simple: it's a dedicated fund that we will use to purchase and build more large-scale, public-facing Halloween decor in downtown! One of our four primary goals in attempting to turn the Scruffy City into the Spooky City every October includes making the heart of our city a spook-tacular place to be. Imagine October in Dollywood, or Disney World, or Halloweentown, but here on the banks of the Tennessee River in our own home. That's our dream; for all of Spooky Season, we want downtown festooned with spiders and bats, witches and jack-o-lanterns as far as you can see. We want to expand on what's already there, and bring more unique, terrifying(ly cool) ideas as well. So, you ask, how does it work?

Every year we plan to have a small list of decorations we want to purchase or construct for downtown. This list will be announced here and posted on a page on this site. You or your business can donate to the Fund and once we have enough donations to cover the cost of decor, we buy or build it! As a 501c3, all of your donations are tax-deductible too! This year we are focusing on smaller, more cost effective decor that can take the Spook further. The Downtown Alliance already hangs "Wicked Cool" banners on Market Square, and we wish to fund at least another 1-2 dozen of these to hang on Gay Street and other nearby lamp polls.

Final locations of new banners are TBD and dependent on Downtown Alliance and City approval.

As well, we hope to purchase "clings" for the sidewalk and road with spooky designs. In the future, we hope to build things like photo-op archways and thematic benches. The below images are illustrations of examples of such locations and designs. Designs and locations for these are also to be determined at this stage. We will have more details of all the decor, estimated costs, and sponsorship levels and benefits on our Fund page, but anyone that donates to the Fund will get their names on our site from October 1st, 2026 though September 30th, 2027. Companies that donate will have the option for their logo to appear on our site, in future brochures, and potentially on or near the decor, dependent upon what the decor is.

A potential spooky crosswalk on Wall Avenue at Market Square.

A potential hand-made ghostly archway off of Market Square.

We are excited to start this journey with you all, and if you have any questions for us, shoot us an email or a DM on Instagram! Here's to a spookier Knoxville in 2026!