Statesboro will be buzzing with humans, zombies and ghouls this Saturday night in the annual Statesboro Scare on the Square.

The event will take place from 4:30-9:30 p.m. throughout downtown Statesboro and the Courthouse Square.

“This is our fourth event this year,” Allen Muldrew, director of downtown Statesboro Development Authority, said. “It got started because there was a desire to do a Thriller dance one year. We just did one and all of a sudden there were like a hundred people down here. We realized we could go somewhere with this.”

The event has grown into a family friendly fall event that attracts Statesboro locals and college students alike.

There will be a costume contest that includes categories for all age groups, ranging from children to people 18 and up.  The contest will begin at 7:30 p.m., and costumes will be judged based on creativity and keeping with a Halloween theme.

“We will have arts, crafts, food vendors all with an activity for everyone to enjoy” said Elena McLendon office manager of Main Street Statesboro

One of the highlights of the event is the giant “Thriller” dance, put on by various people in Statesboro.

“It’s a great partnership that we have with Georgia Southern,” Muldrew said. “It’s done with Brent Wolfe’s recreation class, he’s got students that partner with us for a community service project.”

“I’ve got about 60 students in the class,” Brent Wolfe, the GSU leadership and programming in recreation professor who has partnered with the event, said. “They take on a lion’s share of the work of the experiences that people will have at Scare on the Square.”

Wolfe’s class is in charge of the pumpkin patch, the haunted hayride and the haunted house.

“The haunted house is a pretty major undertaking; we have several groups working on that. They are trying to create a haunted hotel theme,” Wolfe said. “This is going to be a full haunted house designed for college students and adults, it’s designed to literally scare people.”

“Scare on the Square is a big deal for the community,” Zach Anderson, a student in Wolfe’s class and volunteer in the haunted house, said. “A lot of people are looking at us to do well and impress so we have all been working very hard on this haunted house.”