Halloween in Boulder
Here’s where to go in Boulder to get your thrills and chills this October. Halloween falls on a Thursday in 2024, so consider staying for a couple of nights to make a weekend of it with the following activities.
Meet the Spirits
Sunday, October 6, 2024, 12-5pm
A beloved tradition in Boulder since 1986, biennially in even-numbered years, “Meet the Spirits” takes place in Columbia Cemetery with reenactments of the pioneering people buried in this historic cemetery.
Spooky Cabaret
Saturday, October 19, 2024, 6 or 8pm
Watch a hauntingly unique performance at Frequent Flyers' Studio where gravity-defying aerialists weave eerie tales in the air. Stick around after the second showing for a costume contest and dance party at 9pm. Learn more and get tickets here.
Halloween Drive-In Movies
Friday, October 18 and Friday, October 25, 2024, 7:30pm
Halloween drive-in movies at the Boulder Reservoir are back! Admission is $10 per carload and each person will receive a goody bag.
The Boulder Ghost Tour
Friday-Saturday, October 25-26 and November 1-2, 2024
Walk around Pearl Street and explore the history and hauntings that shape Boulder. Go into and underneath old buildings you may otherwise never enter. Expert, costumed guides will regale you with stories of the history and hauntings of this eerily spirited area. Learn more.
Wicked Wanderings Theatre Hike
Saturday and Sunday, October 26-27, 2024, 3pm
Arts in the Open is a group that combines hiking and theater, fusing nature with live performance. Their fall production of "Wicked Wanderings," by Patti Murtha, will take place in the historic Chautauqua Park.
Boulder Magic Show
Saturday and Sunday, October 26-27, 2024, 2pm
The Dairy Arts Center hosts a family-friendly event to celebrate the spookiest of seasons in the right way – with a magic show that’s fun for all ages! Get tickets here.
Halloween Costume Party at the Dairy
Sunday, October 27, 2024, 11am
This family-friendly celebration will include art activities, a festive parade and a costume contest. Tickets includes complimentary popcorn, pizza, treats and beverages. Learn more. All proceeds benefit education at the Dairy.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show With Live Shadowcast Performance
Thursday, October 31, 2024, 6:30pm and 9:30pm
A classic film with an audience participation twist at Boulder Theater! A shadow cast is an ensemble of performers that act out the movie while it is playing and serves as the catalysts for the audience cues to participate in callbacks or use their props. Be prepared to dance, yell, sing and more.
Spooky Date Night: Halloween Stained Glass Class
Thursday, October 31, 2024, 5-7pm
Switch up date night and take a Halloween-themed stained glass class at Colorado Glassworks in downtown Boulder.
Downtown's Munchkin Masquerade
Thursday, October 31, 2024, 3-6pm
For scary amounts of cuteness, head to downtown Boulder on Halloween for Munchkin Masquerade. Unicorns, stormtroopers, Batman (er, Batmen?), princesses, monsters, butterflies…they all converge upon Pearl Street for the best trick-or-treating in town, with many businesses filling kiddos' buckets to the brim with candy. Parents tend to go all out, too, and you’ll see some amazing costumes. Free.
Cabaret Diosa with The Maydays
Friday, November 1, 2024, 8pm
Cabaret Diosa will be playing with The Maydays in a Halloween-themed show at Boulder Theater the day after Halloween. Get tickets.
2024 Halloween Food & Drink Specials
Avanti
Día de los Muertos party featuring a DJ, tarot card reader and drink specials on Saturday, November 2 starting at 9pm. The $10 cover includes a welcome shot.
Bellota
Celebrate Día de los Muertos at Bellota on Saturday, November 2 from 4-9pm, with live Mariachi music from 5-8pm, family-friendly sugar skull painting and food/drink specials.
The Colorado Club
The saloon is getting a spooky makeover and drink specials will flow all night long. Aperol and Campari specials start at 7pm followed by Espolon margarita specials starting at 10pm. DJ Balec will be spinning from 10pm-12:30am.
Tour a Historic Cemetery
Located on Ninth Street between College and Pleasant streets, Columbia Cemetery is Boulder's first permanent cemetery and dates back to 1870. It contains the graves of prominent Boulder pioneers and notable figures such as Mary Rippon, one of the first women professors in Western America. Take some time to simply walk among the granite and sandstone gravestones in the shadow of the Flatirons, and read fascinating gravestones commemorating those who died in mining accidents or of more unusual means, such as "a broken heart." Click here for the City of Boulder's guide to some of the more notable cemetery residents.
Photo: Courtesy of City of Boulder
Boulder Farmers Market
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 8am-2pm
Come sample, shop, meet local farmers, enjoy pumpkin-flavored treats, hear live music and eat great food in the harvest season at the Boulder Farmers Market.
Pick a Pumpkin and Walk a Hay Bale Maze
It’s a straight shot on South Boulder Road to 7th Generation Farm in nearby Louisville, about a 25-minute drive. You’ll find rows of pre-picked pumpkins stacked among vintage farm trucks, or you can stroll out into the field to pick your own. A farm store is stocked with all kinds of produce and goodies. Check their site for the latest. Entrance is $15 per person (under 3 is free).
Go for a Haunted Hike
After traipsing the Rattlesnake Gulch Trail in the rock-climbing mecca of Eldorado Canyon State Park for a bit, you’ll encounter a strange sight in the middle of the wilderness: The ruins of an old stone oven, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. These are the final remains of the Crags Hotel, once a popular mountain retreat that visitors could access via an inclined funicular railway. The hotel inexplicably burned to the ground in 1912. Today, the eerie remnants evoke early 20th-century scenes of hotel staff going about their work, preparing meals for their guests — before the hotel's operations screeched to an abrupt halt as a result of the fire. Here's a map to get to this moderate-level hiking trail. State Park entrance fees will apply.
Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/Max and Dee Bernt
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