Thursday night, Oct. 15, Waldo was downtown. So were a walking pumpkin, two cone heads and other attendees with face coverings for the pandemic, and costumes for Wiscasset’s Scarecrowfest.

Walk Around Wiscasset, conceived for the pandemic, was over for the year and possibly forever last month, organizer Lucia Droby, in the pumpkin costume, recalled. When Parks and Recreation Director Duane Goud asked if she could do one more, for Scarecrowfest Oct. 10-18, it helped her see, Walk Around Wiscasset is so different from Wiscasset Art Walk – off this year due to the pandemic – that Walk Around is really a community gathering that could go with Scarecrowfest or any other celebration.

Why go as Waldo? “I wasn’t like a fanatic,” First Congregational Church of Wiscasset Pastor Josh Fitterling said about the “Where’s Waldo” books. But he likes going places, like the character does.

New Wiscasset residents Alissa Eason and Christopher Hart were minutes into the couple’s first local event. Hart said he had only been seeing people at the grocery store.

They were liking the event and the town. Costumes were not a problem: They have closets of them at home. “We just really like Halloween,” Eason explained. She went with a holidays theme that included a Christmas tree shirt and, on her hands, Santa slippers she said were too slippery to wear on her feet. Hart said he picked out his Mr. Hyde-like suit and top hat, with a skeleton smile on his face mask, about 15 minutes before the event.

Wiscasset’s Bob Bond introduced himself to the couple with an air handshake, in keeping with the event’s precautions.

The cones Terri and Peter Wells wore on their heads were making a repeat appearance on Main Street. Terri Wells said those were two of the cones worn years ago depicting people from away, in a show of support for the state’s downtown project.

Parks and Recreation has canceled Scarecrowfest’s Saturday events due to the rain and wind. This year’s celebration concludes Sunday with a cornhole tournament at Ames True Value Supply, to benefit Toys for Tots. Registration starts at 10 a.m.