For what age range(s) is this celebration most appropriate?
Elementary School

This Halloween celebration is:
Fun

This celebration can be done:
With the entire neighborhood
At school or other community facility
With/through a specific organization or group

How much time does it take to prepare for this celebration?
It depends on how elaborate you want to make it

How much does this celebration cost?
$1.00 - $25.00

Describe your Halloween celebration idea:
This is among the many fundraising games/activities at the annual Fall Carnival at our school. It is very similar to 'musical chairs', except:

Put numbers on the floor or carpet with masking tape, forming a circle. Maybe 20 of 'em...
Participants hand in their ticket$, choose a number/position, and when all the spots are pretty much filled, you begin. Using a tape recorder or record player, put some be-boppin' bouncy dance music on, and encourage the walkers to move around the circle, in rhythm to the music. After several rounds of this, the Leader stops the music, and everyone claims the spot nearest his/her feet. The leader pulls a number out of a fishbowl (there is a number in the bowl for every number in the circle). That chosen number wins the cake for that round, choosing from alllll the cakes available, which are donated by parents/crafted by families. The others are given some sort of small prize, and a "thank you for coming to our Cake Walk!"...and may, of course, try again.

What steps should be taken to organize this celebration?
Bakers or Buyers of cakes will need advance notification of the event and the need, so you'll be distributing flyers and/or making phone calls. You need a chairperson/Leader to be responsible for set-up, and ideally one or two enthusiastic Helpers to keep it running smoothly. Someone has to be available to Receive the cakes as they are brought in, store them safely, set up, clean up...at our school there is generally also a Bake Sale happening during the carnival, too, so...it's a bit of multi-tasking.

Additional comments:
Our PTA sponsors a Cake Decorating Contest the Friday before the carnival, and that's the primary source of the cakes for CakeWalk. There are prizes or certificates at every grade level (primarily in the form of Tickets that can be used at the carnival) and an adult judging category, too.

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder here, 'cuz it seems the cakes my kids have chosen over the years have been the kind brimming with Gummy Worms, Gummy Rats, you name it, and that seems to predominate the display of Mad Kitchen Scientist creations. ;-)
Box Mix, and Commercial frosting-in-the tub, are generally the order of the day, but there are also a few certificates available (early on) for ice cream cakes, donated by Dairy Queen, one of our faithful supporters.

The youngest ones will sometimes hang in there doggedly until they get their cake. I always thought a Cupcake Walk would be fun for that age group, and just let 'em keep going until Everybody is a winner. That also might ease concerns people naturally have about food safety issues; some groups have made a total switch to Commercial Products Only. It just sort of depends on the situation.

Let me tell ya about my son's Cake Decorating Contest cake this year: the Great Pumpkin. He is based upon pictures I've seen over the years in magazines, but...resembles those pix only slightly ;-)
He is composed of 2 Bundt cakes, flat sides together, pasted together and frosted generously with nearly 3 tubs of orange-tinted vanilla frosting. His 'leaves' encircling the top are lovingly-placed green mini M&M's, in leaf pattern. His nose and mouth are chocolate chips. His stem is 2 Twix bars, back-to-back. His eyes were chocolate chips, but this morning he decided we should (neatly, cleanly) gouge those out, and replace 'em with 2 of those foil-wrapped, 'spooky eyeball' candies, so we did. A pumpkin with a face only a kid (or a mother jack-o-lantern) could luv... ;-)

And I have to boogie to school now, to get him to the contest in time. Jack's debut, as it were...

Happy n' Safe Halloween to ya.