Utah Co. Deputies Shut Down Halloween Party Attended By Thousands
Nov 1, 2020, 11:57 PM | Updated: Jul 12, 2023, 5:54 pm
UTAH COUNTY, Utah – A Halloween party attended by thousands of people in Utah County was shut down after organizers failed to get a permit for a mass gathering.
Authorities said anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 people attended the party, held at an area called The Knolls on the west side of Utah Lake.
Utah County Sheriff’s deputies were called out to the party after someone was hurt.
“There was a young woman who was being, not really crowd surfed, but more like crowd tossed,” said Sgt. Spencer Cannon. “The throwing side apparently didn’t coordinate with the receiving side and she fell on her head and sustained a pretty serious laceration.”
After she was taken to the hospital, authorities learned that the organizers didn’t have a permit. Also lacking were bathrooms, security and parking for the thousands of attendees.
Deputies shut the party down around 10 p.m. and said getting people out was not an easy task.
“There were a couple of minor crashes – one car ended up on top of another one somehow, but there were no serious injuries in those,” said Cannon.
Authorities said no one was arrested or cited, but that could still happen, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Video of the Halloween party was seen on the public Instagram page of a group called Utah Tonight.
For a month, the group had advertised it as a “Protest on Halloween.” The group criticized health guidelines and called out government leaders and the media.
Utah Tonight said last week they were cancelling the event, but it turns out they didn’t.
KSL reached out to Utah Tonight for comment, but did not hear back from the group.
An emergency alert went out statewide on Friday, saying social gatherings should be limited to 10 people or fewer.
On Sunday, the Utah County Health Department issued a statement, saying:
“The organizers of the Halloween Protest are encouraging the direct opposite of public health and medical guidance. They claim to want to get life ‘back to normal.’ Their actions and the actions they are encouraging will cause a further increase in COVID-19 cases and push the time of ‘back to normal’ that much further away.
The actions of the organizers and attendees are dangerous to themselves, our communities, our healthcare system and our efforts to combat COVID-19.
We strongly encourage all who attended the event to monitor themselves for symptoms and get tested if symptoms present.”
