The much-anticipated Halloween weekend is here at last! As you'd expect there are countless incredible events taking place all weekend long and into the final days leading to October 31st. You will have more than enough options to celebrate Halloween
your way - whether it be Jack O' Lantern gawking, entering costume contests, soaking up your haunted history, reveling in Salem during Haunted Happenings, or getting in your thrills at local haunts. Good luck narrowing down your agenda but the good news is we're offering up some great Top Picks for your Halloween week.
Turning the Lights Out in New Hampshire
If you ever thought going through a haunted attraction was scary with the scene lights
on, wait until you navigate the creatures and scares with the lights off!
This week, two New Hampshire
haunts will be closing for the year with a big impression: On Sunday, October 29th
Haunted Acres in Candia will host a special
Lights Out Night (all the scares, none of the lights!) to wrap up their season. On Tuesday - Halloween night -
Haunted Overload in Lee will feature its first ever
Lights Out Night for closing night at their haunted trail. Advance online tickets highly recommended for both events.
Spooky Zoo and The Jack O'Lantern Spectacular
Families will want to join the festivities at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI this Saturday and Sunday because
Spooky Zoo is back with daytime outdoor autumn activities for the whole family.
Come trick-or-treat on the Treat Trail by the red wolf exhibit inside the zoo beginning at 10:30am. All Spooky Zoo activities are free with Zoo admission and all children 12-and-under dressed in costume get in for half price. All activities are weather permitting and while supplies last.
It's also the final two weeks to catch the atmospheric and mesmerizing
Jack O'Lantern Spectacular which is open every night through Sunday, November 5th also at the Roger Williams Zoo.
Never too late to pick pumpkins at a local patch!
As you know by now,
Halloween New England makes it so easy to find a local pumpkin patch for carving your jack-o-lanterns in time for Halloween! Add the various community pumpkin carving contests and pumpkin displays to the mix of your pumpkin-buying needs and you will certainly need to stock up on more than a few!
We have state-by-state guides and maps to all your local farms featuring pumpkin patches and PYO pumpkins.
Click on your state for
Halloween New England's
Pumpkin Patch Guides for
Connecticut,
Maine,
Massachusetts,
New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, and
Vermont.
Still Time to Find a Costume for Halloween Events, Costume Parties, and Masquerades!
We have two special New England costume and makeup supply stores we'd like to recommend for your last minute costume needs and final details.
Not every New England state can boast that they have a year-round, brick-and-mortar costume store but New Hampshire can!
Costumania in West Lebanon moved to a new, bigger store to offer even more to their customers. If you can't get there in person, they also feature an online store.
Massachusetts-based
Vampfangs is strictly an online store and they should be your first stop to buy special FX teeth (vampires, zombies, hillbillies, etc), FX contact lenses (blackout, werewolf, zombie, you name it), 3-D prosthetic transfers, conventional prosthetics, quality FX makeup, and even fragrances!
We are always happy to tip people off to how easy
Halloween New England makes it to find your
state's Costume and Halloween stores. We have lists of locally-owned, year-round, as well as many seasonal pop-up stores to make it easy! 
Which 25 Haunted Attractions are Open this Sunday, October 29th?
Which 18 Haunted Attractions are Open on Halloween Night?
It's not a given that New England haunted attractions will be open on Halloween, especially as the 31st lands on a Tuesday this year. There are eighteen attractions that WILL be open including Fright Haven and Creeperum in CT, and Field of Screams in RI. In NH, Haunted Overload rings in Halloween with their first ever Lights Out Night!
New England is packed with Halloween events on the biggest weekend of the season! It's a challenge to whittle down to our Top Picks when there are so many to choose from but we'll narrow it to our Top Picks below. You can always find the complete event listings for each New England state (plus CT and MA have Family-Friendly Event Guides) on our website Halloween New England.
The Bay State will be busy busy busy! On Thursday and Saturday in Salem many will enjoy
Classic Poems for All Hallows Eve and in Walpole it will be the final night for
Afterschool Pumpkin Carving in the Park. Friday is the first of three nights for
Old Spooky Manse in Concord where you can enjoy this historical mansion by candlelight and nosh on a fireside S'More. For more Halloween treats in a historical building, don your costume and snack on cider and donuts at the
Howling Halloween Harvest Bonfire at the Cabot Bradley Estate in Canton. For folks who take their Halloween costumes very seriously, in Northampton on Friday night is the black-tie, formal, masquerade event
Western Mass Witches Ball held in the Union Station Grand Ballroom.
Saturday morning kicks off with the costumed Devil's Chase 6.66 Miler in Salem so you can bank some exercise points before your evening debauchery.
At noon in Faneuil Hall in Boston is the Halloween Pet Parade & Costume Contest. In Walpole again on Saturday night is Pumpkins in the Park: Nocturnal Tales and Treats where you can enjoy a pumpkin-lit nocturnal trail, trick-or-treating, and Jack-o-lantern contests. The pumpkin decorating and games are free!
If you haven't made it to Old Sturbridge Village yet to see this year's run of
The Sleepy Hollow Experience - the theatrical musical interpretation following the fate of dear Ichabod Crane, you're in your final week to see it before closing night on Sunday.
In Salem at the Hawthorne Hotel, Sunday evening is
The Dumb Supper: Dinner with the Dead which is an ancient tradition of honoring the dead at a memorial dinner observed in complete silence.
New Hampshire
Friday welcomes the
Rochester Horribles Parade and Trick or Treat followed by the
Zombie Walk. Friday through Sunday
Haunted Overload in Lee will open up for their
Daytime Haunt where you can see their artistry up close and in the daylight (no actors or scares). On Monday Haunted Overload will offer their final
Fright Night Lite of the season--a full light/sound/fog experience but without actors or scares.
On Saturday and Sunday in Portsmouth, you can find the family-friendly
Ghosts on the Banke festivities held at the historic Strawberry Banke Museum.
It's a busy weekend for
Haunted Acres in Candia - Saturday night October 28th is their annual
Costume Contest complete with cash prizes! For another round of costumed revelry, on Halloween night in Portsmouth, you can celebrate the season at the decidedly adult-focused Halloween Parade.
Rhode Island
Saturday and Sunday welcome the return of
Spooky Zoo for family-friendly seasonal activities and zoo-wide trick or treating at Roger Williams Zoo in Providence.
Friday night at Newport Vineyards in Middletown is the annual
Halloween CarnEvil Costume Party with circus performers, a fortune teller machine, and "Creepy Cocktails".
Terror on the Tracks in Portsmouth, RI puts their unique spin on their haunted experience by inviting you to pedal your way (gently) on low-riding tandem/quad bikes fitted to ride the rails of the railroad tracks--all while ghouls and monsters come out to scare you in the dark! You have your chance to try it every night this week from Thursday through Tuesday, October 31st.
Friday and Saturday are the final two nights to check out the
Mills & Mysteries Paranormal Investigation at Slater Mill in Pawtucket.
Saturday at Bristol's Audobon Center is
The Perfect Pumpkin Party featuring tons of kid-friendly games like pumpkin ring toss, sticker pumpkin patches, and a scavenger hunt for pumpkins hidden in the refuge.
Maine
In Bangor, on Saturday you're invited to don your graveyard attire and join the undead for the
Bangor Zombie Walk. Portland you will find many events happening this Halloween weekend. In Kennebunk on Saturday is the
All Souls Walk featuring midday narrated tours through Hope Cemetery.
Wednesday through Saturday, plus Monday, at the
Wadsworth-Longfellow "Haunted House" in Portland you can check out tours of the historic home based on Longfellow's poem "Haunted Houses" - they'll be providing a
family-friendly version of the tour and a separate
adult tour.
On Saturday in South Berwick, you can listen to Victorian ghostly stories of tales of horror with portrayals of their authors at the hour-long performances of
Victorian Frightful at the Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum.
Vermont
On Monday night at Maple Street Park in Essex Junction, you'll find the pathways lighted by carved Jack o' lanterns of all sizes and shapes at
The Great Pumpkin Walk and all are invited to drop off their own pumpkin earlier in the day if they wish to participate.
Where has Halloween New England been lately?
We spent a wonderful Thursday night at
Haunted Acres (Candia, NH) and Friday night brought us to
Haunted Overload (Lee, NH). Saturday night we headed down to see the
Haunted Hayride at the Century Sportsman Club (Auburn, MA) which was our first visit there. As always, we especially loved meeting some crazy haunt-going fans--including fans who remembered meeting us years ago!-- there who spend their Halloween season much in the way we do!
We've got an ambitious Halloween week lined up and we hope to fit everything in! We've penciled in
Field of Screams (West Greenwich, RI),
The 7-1-5 Haunted House (Canton, MA), a return to
Haunted Overload with out-of-town friends, and maybe
Seven Cedars Haunted Hayride (Smithfield, RI). Fingers crossed that the weather holds out!
We're thrilled to have teamed up again with New England's own uber-talented
The Pixel Perfection: After Dark whose incredibly creepy and inspiring haunt photos populate the guides again this year. As always, we know you
love their photos...just please don't steal their photos! Why not just follow them on
Facebook instead or hire them to capture your Halloween attraction or event?
In Rhode Island, it's the last full week to see the Jack O'Lantern Spectacular at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence. The Spectacular is open every night through Sunday, November 4th.
