While many festivals have struggled to regain their footing in a post-pandemic world where costs are high (and nights at home are more alluring to some), a growing festival that started in Mississauga is expanding its calendar, offering locals a multi-day, Halloween-themed event for the first time. 

The Mississauga Asian Night Market, which first took over Square One’s P6 parking lot in July 2024 with a multi-day celebration of food and entertainment, is hosting its inaugural sBOOky Village at Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga. 

“This year, it’s been 14 events and so many of my friends have said it’s very ambitious, but time flies,” Ruifeng (Ricky) Zhen, the organizer of the Ontario Asian Night Market Series, tells INSAUGA Canada. 

This year’s sBOOky Village event kicks off today (Oct. 29) and runs until Nov. 1 in Square One’s P6 parking lot. 

Zhen says the event, which functions as both a family-friendly Halloween and harvest festival, is the latest offering in the growing Ontario Asian Night Market series. This year alone, the festival hit multiple cities across Ontario, with multi-day food and cultural events in Toronto, Mississauga, London, Windsor, Vaughan, Oakville, Oshawa and Niagara Falls. 

In Windsor and Niagara Falls, Zhen says he and his team estimate that up to 30 percent of visitors came across the border.

The entire year, he says, has been a whirlwind. 

“We had a FIFA World Cup [watch] party and the Asian Night Markets and the mid-autumn and lantern festivals and it was a different approach that provided more Asian cultural elements,” Zhen explains.

The sBOOky Village, which costs $10 to enter, features curated Halloween and harvest scenes that Zhen says capture the essence of the spooky season while keeping the tone–and look–suitable for younger guests who haven’t quite reached haunted house age. 

The four-day event includes a scavenger hunt, a pumpkin-carving station, a Village Square with fall-themed treats, and a late-night Halloween DJ party. 

Guests are encouraged to wear costumes and those who are confident their get-up is award-worthy can register to participate in the event’s contest, which will have prizes for the best adult, child and pet costumes. 

Zhen emphasizes that the festival’s goal was to give families in and around the area something festive to do over the Halloween weekend. 

“It’s not very scary; we tried to make something parents can bring their kids to. It’s perfect; you can go after you’ve done your shopping,” he says. 

“We wanted to create a little village in the centre of the city. You’ll have photo opportunities; we’ll have an arch for the entrance and there are some barns and a ghost forest. Some elements are interactive.” 

Zhen says attendees can also learn how to make a paper lantern and that beyond awards for the best costume, those who wow judges with their pumpkin carvings can also receive a reward. To complement the kid-friendly spooky elements, there will also be a bouncy castle. 

“We’ll have food vendors who will fit into the overall theme and the food is freshly made, so there will be around 20 to 25 vendors,” he says.

As for why he and his team decided to host a Halloween event after a jam-packed season of back-to-back events, Zhen says the newest festival offers residents in the densely packed area a nearby fall event just outside their door.

He also said his team noticed a missing piece in the city’s entertainment landscape after surveying Asian Night Market attendees. 

“We noticed that in downtown Mississauga, the community is very dense, with many high-rises and during Halloween, there isn’t as much happening,” he says.

“We did a survey of our customers in the summer, and we got a lot of feedback that people wanted more fun than just going trick-or-treating. It’s also harvest season, so we’ll have a lot of pumpkins and decorations to recreate a village.”

Tickets can be purchased online here. 


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