Hundreds, if not thousands, of witches, celebrities, bugs, cartoon characters and other ghouls hit the streets of Kent to celebrate Halloween Saturday night, and there were many popular costumes.

Meralie Pocock, owner of Mr. Fun’s Costumes & Magic Emporium, said there wasn’t just one big-selling costume this year, but an array of trendy Halloween attire.

“For the females, it was anything sexy from baseball players to referees, and for the males we sold a lot of Roman costumes, which was probably fueled by the movie 300,” she said. “Each year there are one or two popular costumes that we don’t necessarily plan for to be popular, and this year it was Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.”

There were also many people dressed in original costumes that they put together.

The California Raisins, a group of three roommates, were in full force Saturday night. Equipped with blow-up saxophones and giant sunglasses, the group said they made their purple tops themselves.

“We wanted to go as something creative and classic, but totally different, so we came up with this idea because everyone our age remembers them,” said Ashley Ricketts, senior fashion design major.

A few politically incorrect yet amusing costumes were walking around Kent, such as Michael Vick wearing a bright orange prison jump suit with a stuffed dog dragged around on a leash.

Brent Ardo, head of security at The Loft, said his favorite group costume of the evening was Mario Kart and Friends.

“I’ve seen a lot of different and interesting costumes tonight, but the group that was dressed like Mario Kart was the best. Each character had bikes and go-carts. It was great,” Ardo said.

Getting into the bars was a difficult task Saturday night. Lines wrapped outside and around the corner for The Loft, Glory Days and Ray’s.

Erin Hoffman, an Akron University sophomore and nursing major, said she and a friend waited almost 30 minutes just to get in.

“It’s worth it though because seeing the costumes is entertaining and made the time pass quickly. We came to celebrate in Kent because we know how big it is here every year and we wanted to experience it,” she said.

Many people were downtown just to see everyone dressed up.

“I love celebrating Halloween and I’m so excited because I already have my idea for next year,” said Kayleigh Knight, senior fashion design major.

The perfect ending to the perfect night for Knight was spending the evening with friends at her house after seeing all the costumes downtown.

“Now, all we have to do is hang out, have some drinks and start thinking of creative costumes ideas for next year,” Knight said laughing, “Happy Halloween!”

Contact fashion reporter Sarah Nusinow at [email protected].