The Booth School’s Belgian Halloween Party got spooked this weekend for the first time since its inception in 1992.

The Halloween Party is an annual costume event thrown by the Belgian Business Students (BBS), a student-led group at the Booth School of Business. The sold-out event, postponed until the winter, would have the group’s 19th.

Arjen Mackaay, co-chair of BBS, said that “there were just too many uncertainties” with hosting the party at I-House as was originally planned.

The group was approached by a representative from the school, Mackaay said, and the BBS held an emergency meeting to discuss the party. After consulting with the Booth School’s Academic Services, the BBS decided to cancel the party.

A statement was posted on the party’s Facebook event page: “Even though it was with pain in our hearts that we had to make this decision, we understand that the political rally on Saturday overrides our festivities. It’s hard to compete with the President of the United States of America.”

Mackaay cited transportation as the main reason for the cancellation, along with security concerns. The group will not have to pay for the I-House reservation.

“We started looking into some other locations,” Mackaay said. “We really wanted to have the party on campus and not some place downtown, because it’s tradition. We looked into that, but it wasn’t possible on short notice.”

–Jonathan Lai