The days grow shorter and the shadows longer, while the nights linger longer still. This can only mean one thing: October 31 approaches. For lovers of all things gothic and ghoulish, there’s no better time of the year.
With beginnings that blend the ancient Celtic harvest festival Samhain and the Christian observance of All Hallow’s Eve — the night before the feast of All Saints’ Day — it’s unsurprising that Halloween transcends cultures.
In fact, it’s never been more popular, with pumpkin patches taking over available park and city spaces and candy corn filling the aisles of every grocery store come September.
That means it’s going to take more for your Halloween event to scare up some attention.
Here at Eventbrite, our community creators are always raising the bar with bigger and better Halloween events. In this guide, we’ll share the Halloween party ideas some of our spookiest event creators are conjuring up this year.
Why choose a Halloween party for your next event?
If you’re looking for a way to supercharge your next big event and better engage with your community, Halloween parties are frighteningly effective.
Why? Halloween-themed events have a broad appeal across a strong, built-in audience.
Surveys show 60% of people actively celebrate Halloween, and over 47% say they go to Halloween parties. Halloween-related event themes engage audiences by creating a spooky ambiance and building a unique experience they can’t find anywhere else — and experiences are what most event attendees are after nowadays.
People want things to do on Halloween. According to the 2022 Halloween InSights Report, 47% of people spend money on Halloween, which is why Halloween consumer spending reached an all-time high of $10.6 billion last year.
Translation: By setting up a Halloween party, you’ll be able to capitalize on existing demand and consumer spending to create a successful themed event experience nobody will forget.
10 Halloween event ideas for your next large-scale event
We’ve all been to a Halloween dance and gone trick-or-treating around the block. But how do you translate backyard traditions and family events into a large-scale Halloween bash? It’s all about choosing the right theme.
A party theme enables creators to build an event around one central idea. Your choice of venue, party decorations, food, drink, and entertainment all revolve around your Halloween party theme.
That’s why we’ve handpicked a few of our favorites that we know are perfect for big Halloween events. We’ve also rated the cost, effort, and spookiness for each party idea one a scale of one to three jack-o-lanterns.
Let’s take a look.
1. Pumpkin patch bash
Spookiness: 🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃
Going to the pumpkin patch is a favorite childhood memory for many people — so why not capitalize on that nostalgia by transforming your next event into a pumpkin patch?
This theme is ideal for an outdoor venue, and your decor should center around the farmyard. Think pumpkins, gourds, hay bales, jack-o’-lanterns, and life-size scarecrows, for starters. But the pumpkin patch party idea also works for an indoor venue. Just bring your pumpkins indoors and use party decorations to transport attendees out onto the patch.
For party activities, go for some spooky music from a live band or DJ — but one idea sure to go down well is a pumpkin carving contest (along with serving some pumpkin pie afterward).
Pro tip: Pumpkin carving is always more fun when there are more people to help design the face and clean out the insides. Set up a community event with a carving station for guests to create their own jack-o’-lanterns.
Provide sheets of paper with designs from which guests may draw inspiration. Then rinse off the seeds and roast them for a timeless treat.
Want to see a unique take on the pumpkin carving concept? Check out event creator Marlin Dive Team Scuba Club and their upcoming 2023 Underwater Pumpkin Carving and Campout. It’s exactly what it sounds like — it also sounds pretty amazing.
2. Halloween costume ball
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃🎃
Halloween is the perfect holiday to set up a huge costume ball. After all, everybody’s looking for a place to go out in their costume, anyway.
But a Halloween ball offers a more formal appeal than a standard Halloween party.
While costumes are a common but not necessarily required part of the festivities, including a dress code can give off a “special occasion” vibe. An appropriately spooky theme adds to the fun.
For example, the Hawthorne Hotel’s “Come Out and Play” ball encourages guests to dress up as a twisted version of their favorite childhood toys.
To make your own Halloween costume ball, you’ll need a ballroom, a large club with a dancefloor, or an industrial space you can decorate in a Gothic or Baroque fashion. Use plenty of cobwebs, cauldrons, greens and oranges, and make sure your staff is dressed to match the theme.
A ball is ideal for staging a Halloween costume contest. Encourage your guests to dress up to match your theme, and then you can finish the night with an on-stage competition to see who has the best, scariest, or funniest Halloween costume.
Pro tip: Dancing the night away is fun, but setting up tables with reserved seating will make things more comfortable and enable your party-goers to take a break and indulge in the catering options at your ball.
Not sure how to set up table arrangements within your venue? Find out how you can create a seating plan in minutes using Eventbrite.
3. Halloween circus
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃
A lot of people fear clowns — so taking your party guests to the circus is a surefire way to get a few screams.
But a circus is more than a bunch of clowns doing pratfalls. Include stilt-walkers, fire-breathers, acrobats, fortune tellers, or illusionists, like the Detroit Social Events’ “Monster’s Ball Detroit 2022.” It also features DJs, a cash bar, and VIP access to the “Vampire Lair” and “Freak Show.”
Consider adding funhouse mirrors, a calliope or steam organ, and popular carnival foods like corn dogs and ice cream.
A Halloween circus is ideal for a large industrial space with vaulted ceilings or an outdoor space where you can set up a huge circus tent. Your decorations could include hay bales, pinstripes, jack-o’-lanterns, a fog machine, and old-fashioned fair stalls. Entertainment can include creepy clowns, fire eaters, food trucks with sweet treats, trapeze performers, party games, and spooky music.
For some lessons in best practices, look no further than event creator The Newport Theater and last year’s spectacular Raks Inferno: A Halloween Circus Cabaret. They incorporated fire spinners, bellydancers, and circus artists to create an immersive and totally unique Halloween circus experience.
Pro tip: A Halloween circus theme is the perfect way to tie in with a Halloween market for vendors. Style each vendor’s table, tent, or food truck as a creepy fair stall and place them at the entrance to where your spooky performers will be strutting their stuff.
Not only will the performers drive traffic to your retailers — your vendors’ decor will also create an immersive experience for the guests.
Make planning and managing your Halloween event easy with Eventbrite.
4. Haunted house
Spookiness: 🎃🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃🎃
Nothing is spookier than a haunted house, and you can take this Halloween party theme in a few different directions.
The ideal venue will likely be an industrial space or a building that can be split into different themed rooms — and when it comes to those event themes, the sky’s the limit. You could create a witch’s cottage, spooky graveyard, vampire’s lair, zombie hospital room, haunted jail, circus, mad scientist’s lab, or anything in between.
Best of all, your entertainment with this theme is built in (although some scary music and performers in costume wouldn’t go amiss).
While haunted warehouses and hayrides are exciting, for a haunted house aimed at a college crowd, you’ll want to amp up the scariness, including some jump scares that’ll have friends clinging to each other in fear.
Make it college-themed with a haunted frat house or zombie-filled library, and feel free to include some fake blood to get their hearts racing.
But a tamer twist on this theme is also perfect for kid-friendly Halloween events.
Pro tip: Turn a bounce house into a haunted house to wear the little monsters out while they enjoy spooky slides (decorated with disembodied arms reaching out over the edges!) and trampolines (place monster masks along the ceiling, so kids bounce up at them).
Provide scary treats like ghost-shaped sugar cookies and that seasonal standby, roasted pumpkin seeds, then feature a screening of a kid-friendly movie like “The Corpse Bride” or “Muppets Haunted Mansion” as a cool-down option.
Need some inspiration? Take a look at event creator The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park and their Friday@Hemingway’s, Haunted Hemingways: Ghost Stories. They’ve taken the concept in a totally different direction by incorporating literature and history to create their haunted house.
5. Halloween film festival
Spookiness: 🎃🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃
Cost: 🎃
There’s a reason so many horror movies focus on Halloween. So, why not turn scary movies into your Halloween party theme?
Choose an event venue with enough space to set up a screen and a projector, and then create your own spooky cinema. Decorate the venue with lots of pumpkins, cobwebs, cauldrons full of sweets, spooky vendor stalls, and even some food trucks for movie snacks.
Your party entertainment is built-in — and you can incorporate gory slasher films for adult-only Halloween movie nights or family classics like “Hocus Pocus” if you’ve got kids coming.
Pro tip: A showing of scary movies may seem like an all-too-common Halloween activity, so curate a collection of movies that tell a bigger story to make your screening stand out.
Maybe it’s a comparison of Japanese (“Ringu”) and Korean (“Train to Busan”) horror, a showing of the complete “Scream” series, or a study of 1950s and ’60s atomic-inspired horror (“Gojira,” “Them!”).
With large-screen TVs so widely available, your venue options are greater than ever.
Want to make things even spookier? Take inspiration from event creator Redford Twp Historical Commission and their Movie in the Cemetery 2023. They’re bringing their scary films into a graveyard for a totally unique experience.
6. Steampunk market
Spookiness: 🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃
The steampunk theme has exploded in popularity in recent years — fusing classic styles with sci-fi to create exotic and immersive experiences for guests from all walks of life. Best of all, steampunk events are perfect for Halloween.
The steampunk aesthetic brings the Victorian Age and the Industrial Revolution to fantasy and science fiction, with Jules Verne and H.G. Wells stories such as “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Time Machine” serving as inspiration.
Instead of a farmers market, set up a Halloween steampunk market, complete with local artists’ wares, musicians, and performers, all featuring a steampunk style. Jeff Mach Events’ 2023 steampunk festival even includes a haunted house.
To set up your own steampunk market, look for an industrial space that’ll naturally fuse with the Victorian-era vibe. Decorate it to the nines with antiques and trinkets, as well as Halloween classics like creepy fair games, pumpkins, and scarecrows.
For your entertainment, consider setting up a steampunk costume contest, pumpkin carving station for kids, candy stations with classic sweeties, or even hire some professional steampunk performers.
Pro tip: Steampunk costumes are usually next-level — but you don’t want to drive people away who haven’t come prepared. That’s why you should partner up with a costume company or specialist outfitter and position a retail stall near your party entrance.
It’ll give visitors the chance to hop on the bandwagon and buy steampunk-inspired apparel to wear on the day without all the pressure of having to spend weeks coming up with the perfect costume at home.
7. Creepy cocktail party
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃
For an adult-oriented evening that doesn’t involve makeup, costumes, or trick-or-treating but still revels in the season’s spooks and haunts, simply mix culture and cocktails.
Explore local legends with tours of nearby sights and invite experts such as college professors or museum docents to recount the gory details. At Washington County Historical Society’s Culture & Cocktails event, author Susan Fair highlighted legends and lore of western Maryland while guests enjoyed a featured cocktail, the Candy Apple — a perfectly autumnal potion.
You could also take inspiration from event creator Chattahoochee Food Works and their SPOOKEASY Halloween Cocktail Bar, which featured immersive cocktails and out-of-this-world decor.
To stage your own Halloween cocktail party, look for a ballroom, quirky bar, or community space where you can build your own immersive experience.
Pro tip: Ring up your favorite mixologist to create dastardly concoctions such as an Ichabod Crane (pumpkin vodka and vanilla ice cream) and a Vampire’s Kiss (hibiscus syrup, mezcal, and lemon juice). Include lessons so your attendees can learn the tricks of the trade, then provide appetizers to soak up the spirits.
8. Witchcraft and wizardry
Spookiness: 🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃
Halloween is a time of year when it’s fun to fantasize about having a bit of magic on our sides — or even getting a belated letter to Hogwarts.
Capitalize on nostalgia by setting up a witchcraft-themed party this Halloween. Look for a historic building you can dress up as a castle and decorate it with cauldrons, broomsticks, potion vials, and Harry Potter-style bric-a-brac.
You could even take it a step further by arranging a quidditch match or setting up a potion-making workshop where you get a professional to show your party guests how to make cocktails or mocktails.
Want to see how this theme is done perfectly with families in mind? Check out event creator The Sensory Center Inc and their Kids Night Out Halloween at Hogwarts! Event. It’ll feature a sorting hat, trivia, magical potions, and a traditional Hogwarts feast.
Pro tip: Magicians and illusionists are crowd-pleasing options that bring a touch of the supernatural.
Put a Halloween spin on a magic show by dressing the magician’s assistant as Vampira or Frankenstein’s monster. Instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, consider pulling out a pet snake or other harmless reptile.
9. Silent disco
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃
Cost: 🎃🎃
At a silent disco, guests wear headphones to listen to a DJ’s beats, a perfect solution when you want to be respectful of your neighborhood. Headphones also enable different channels, so you can offer a variety of vibes for your party-goers to groove to.
To create your Halloween disco, source a large bar, club, or event space with a dance floor. Cover it all in neon paint or powder, glow sticks, and UV lights to create a flashy club experience. From there, all you need is a Halloween DJ — although you could also hire some professional dancers or acrobatic performers to take your silent disco to the next level.
Pro tip: A silent disco puts a fun spin on your classic costume party, and headphones are easy to fit over or under masks and other costume gear. But make sure you communicate that with guests beforehand so they don’t work hard putting together an amazing costume that isn’t compatible with headphones.
If you need inspiration, take a look at event creator Jen S and their Halloween Costume Party And Silent Disco at The Belmont. It’s got everything: three live DJs, free glow-in-the-dark gear, and lots of spooky vibes.
10. Zombie walk
Spookiness: 🎃🎃🎃
Effort: 🎃🎃
Cost: 🎃
A great way to engage with party guests is to transform your event into zombie central. Zombie walks have gotten incredibly popular in recent years, giving guests a chance to go nuts and embrace “The Walking Dead” by dressing up.
For lessons on how a zombie walk is executed properly, just take a look at event creator Robot Pumpkin and their Downtown Lansing Zombie Walk. It’s totally family-friendly — and looks like it’ll be a scream!
To stage your own zombie walk, look for a stretch of urban space leading to a venue or community space where you can throw an afterparty. Make sure to incorporate spooky signage, costumed staff, and refreshment stands along the way — and at the end, heat up the competition by naming the best costumes, getting a live DJ, or even hiring a professional zombie troop.
Pro tip: Want to turn your Halloween party into a force for good? Use your zombie theme as a 5k or charity walk to raise money for an important cause. Just remember that for families with young kids, older people, and others for whom mobility is challenging, a 5K may be impractical as a fundraising event.
A zombie walk for charity can accommodate a broad range of participants. As a zombie, slow walking is encouraged! Like a 5K, participants might ask for sponsorships, or you can include the option to donate to your charity. Be sure to provide plenty of “brains” for the zombies to eat at the finish line!
Kick your Halloween event up a notch
Are you ready to recreate one of these ideas for your own Halloween party?
Here at Eventbrite, we play home to a large community of Halloween-crazy event creators. Take a look at what they’re cooking up in 2023 for inspiration — and once you’re ready, join Eventbrite to start planning your Halloween event.
We can help you set up a custom branded events page, create and sell tickets, build VIP experiences, and promote your event on a range of channels to take your spooky event to the next level.
