10/31 Consortium celebrates 15 years of frights in the Capital Region

What started as a petite pumpkin patch of Halloween enthusiasts aiming to host a small parade for the community more than a decade ago has grown to a nonprofit hosting a packed calendar of spooky events for the Capital Region.

Kelley Stein founded the 10/31 Consortium 15 years ago after connecting with co-founders Corey Tullier and Jamie Schexnayder, who shared her love of the holiday.

“The three of us met and started looking into the logistics of throwing a parade and we decided on a nonprofit model,” Stein says. “We weren’t doing this for ourselves—we see this as an avenue of good for the community. We knew it had potential, but we weren’t sure how it would work.”

Since its first parade in 2011, the organization has expanded to host a four-day celebration of ghosts, ghouls, goblins and everything that goes “bump in the night.” In 2016, the group launched the Fifolet Halloween Festival, named after the mischievous spirit of Cajun folklore, an eerie light said to lead people astray in swamps.

“The festival is our main awareness effort, fundraiser and a vital part of our mission,” Stein says. “We wanted to help host a safe place for our community to celebrate Halloween.”

Today, the downtown Baton Rouge festival features six events: a Halloween ball, the zombie pub crawl on Third Street, a 5K race along the Mississippi River levee, an arts market, an awards brunch and the parade.

While south Louisiana is famous for its elaborate Carnival floats, the consortium’s parade is more of a walking parade, with only 10 floats, Stein says, as people like to show off their costumes. Another distinction: Paraders throw candy to the crowd.

“We saw we were littering beads, so we went beadless in 2022,” Stein says.

The parade also carries a community mission. It’s led by a local food bank truck, with volunteers pushing buggies to collect nonperishable food donations from spectators—true to the spirit of a harvest parade.

Stein estimates the effort has brought in more than 12,600 pounds of food for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Outside of the festival, the nonprofit operates like a Halloween-themed Toys for Tots, providing thousands of free costumes to children, assembling goodie bags for patients at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, and partnering with neighborhoods to address Trick-or-Treating challenges.

“We believe no child should leave their own neighborhood for trick-or-treating,” Stein says. “We want to be known as Louisiana’s Halloween charity and premier Halloween festival. We have some work to get there, but we’re up for the challenge.” 1031consortium.com

This article was originally published in the October 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.