Chief Deputy Ron Colvin hands out stickers at the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office booth.

LIVE OAK — With thousands flocking to downtown Live Oak on Halloween night, the annual Candy Carnival was simply “amazing.”

Live Oak Police Chief Buddy Williams, who organizes the event, kept returning to that same word about the 10th annual event.

“It was amazing,” he said. “It’s a great effort. The town really showed up in my opinion and it was just an amazing event.”

In addition to the 5,000-plus attendees that Williams said took part, the Candy Carnival also drew a number of community organizations and other businesses with booths, from the Live Oak Fire Department and the Suwannee County Fire Rescue to the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office to the Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce and many more.

“It was awesome,” Williams said. “The Orchard Church brought a bunch of stuff. The one area near the stage was all the Orchard Church. It was amazing. I just had a great time. It’s a great community event. Everybody participated.

“I don’t have any complaints at all.”

There were plenty for people to do as well. Nada Meeks once again attracted a line of children eager to get their face painted. There were also bounce houses and various games.

But even as good as the Candy Carnival was, Williams said there are already plans to make the event even better next year.

“We’re going to have a meeting later this week to figure out some things that we could do a little differently,” he said, adding that the top priority for all the festivals and events downtown is for improved lighting in the area.

“One of the things I noticed is we have a lot of special needs individuals, so we’re going to try to have a special needs area next year as well.”