Halloween in the United States is a month-long celebration filled with thrilling festivals, haunted attractions, and immersive experiences across the country. From historic parades in cities like New York and Chicago to eerie haunted tours in places like Salem and New Orleans, Halloween 2024 promises a wide variety of spooky events for all ages and interests. Whether you’re a fan of elaborate costume parties, historic ghost tours, or fright-filled haunted houses, this year’s lineup of Halloween festivals in the U.S. offers something for everyone. Click each heading to find out more.
Here’s a detailed list of some of the most prominent Halloween festivals across the United States in October 2024:
1. Village Halloween Parade (New York City, NY)
- Date: October 31, 2024
- Location: Manhattan, NY
- Event: The largest Halloween parade in the world, featuring tens of thousands of participants in creative costumes, giant puppets, dancers, and live performances. The parade follows a different theme each year and is open to anyone in costume.
- Highlights: Giant puppets, marching bands, thousands of spectators and participants.
- Cost: Free for spectators, donations suggested for participants.
2. Salem Haunted Happenings (Salem, MA)
- Date: October 1–31, 2024
- Location: Salem, MA
- Event: This month-long festival celebrates Salem’s infamous history with haunted tours, a witch museum, street fairs, and theatrical performances. The festival culminates in a large Halloween parade and fireworks on Halloween night.
- Highlights: Haunted tours, historical witch exhibits, costume balls, and the annual Halloween parade.
- Cost: Varies by event, some free, others ticketed.
3. West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval (West Hollywood, CA)
- Date: October 31, 2024
- Location: Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA
- Event: One of the largest street parties in the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of people attending. This LGBTQ+-friendly event features live music, costume contests, and celebrity appearances.
- Highlights: Massive costume parade, street performers, live music, celebrity appearances.
- Cost: Free.
4. Halloweek (Chicago, IL)
- Date: October 21–31, 2024
- Location: Various locations in Chicago, IL
- Event: Chicago celebrates Halloween with multiple parades, including the famous Arts in the Dark parade, which highlights artistic performances. Upside Down Parade also features performers and costumed attendees.
- Highlights: Arts in the Dark parade, haunted houses, zombie walks, and family-friendly activities.
- Cost: Free to attend parades; individual events may vary.
5. Louisville Jack O’Lantern Spectacular (Louisville, KY)
- Date: October 3–31, 2024
- Location: Iroquois Park, Louisville, KY
- Event: A display of over 5,000 carved and illuminated pumpkins, transforming a walking trail into a breathtaking art installation.
- Highlights: Creative pumpkin carvings ranging from whimsical to spooky, themed light displays.
- Cost: Tickets range from $10–$20.
6. Festival of the Dead (Salem, MA)
- Date: October 1–31, 2024
- Location: Salem, MA
- Event: A spiritual and macabre festival that focuses on the afterlife and mysticism. Events include psychic fairs, witchcraft rituals, and a Witches’ Ball.
- Highlights: Psychic readings, rituals, and a grand Witches’ Ball.
- Cost: Varies by event.
7. New Orleans Krewe of Boo (New Orleans, LA)
- Date: October 19, 2024
- Location: French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
- Event: New Orleans’ official Halloween parade, Krewe of Boo, showcases spooky floats, costumed participants, and live music through the French Quarter, followed by Halloween-themed events throughout the city.
- Highlights: Floats, costume contests, haunted tours, and French Quarter nightlife.
- Cost: Free.
8. Sleepy Hollow Halloween (Sleepy Hollow, NY)
- Date: Various events throughout October
- Location: Sleepy Hollow, NY
- Event: Home to the famous Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the village offers a variety of spooky experiences, including haunted hayrides, cemetery tours, and the popular Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze with thousands of intricately carved pumpkins.
- Highlights: Cemetery tours, haunted hayrides, pumpkin displays, and historical tours.
- Cost: Prices vary by event.
9. Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios, Orlando, FL & Hollywood, CA)
- Date: Select nights in September and October 2024
- Location: Universal Studios, Orlando, FL and Hollywood, CA
- Event: One of the premier Halloween events in the U.S., featuring elaborate haunted houses, scare zones, and live performances based on famous horror movies and TV shows.
- Highlights: Highly detailed haunted houses, scare zones, and live entertainment.
- Cost: Tickets start at around $70.
10. Terror Behind the Walls (Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA)
- Date: September 20–November 11, 2024
- Location: Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA
- Event: This haunted house experience is set in a historic, abandoned prison. It is known for its intense scares and immersive, interactive experiences.
- Highlights: Live actors, prison cells converted into haunted rooms, immersive escape rooms.
- Cost: Tickets range from $35 to $50.
11. HalloWeekends at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)
- Date: Select nights from September through October 2024
- Location: Cedar Point Amusement Park, Sandusky, OH
- Event: Cedar Point, known as “America’s Roller Coast,” transforms into a Halloween wonderland with HalloWeekends. The event features spooky haunted houses, eerie outdoor mazes, themed scare zones, and family-friendly attractions like costume contests and pumpkin decorating.
- Highlights: Roller coasters at night, haunted houses, scare zones, live shows, and trick-or-treating for kids in the Tricks and Treats Fall Fest.
- Cost: Admission prices vary, but HalloWeekends is included with regular park admission tickets.
Conclusion:
With such a wide array of Halloween festivals and events happening across the United States in October 2024, there’s no shortage of ways to embrace the spooky spirit of the season. From the family-friendly pumpkin displays of Louisville to the spine-chilling haunted houses of Philadelphia, each destination offers its own unique take on Halloween. Whether you’re looking for thrills, history, or just a fun costume party, these events provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate the holiday in style. So, grab your costumes and mark your calendars—Halloween 2024 will be a season of unforgettable fright and fun.
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Editor of Halloween Living Magazine, and a Detroit, Michigan native. After earning a B.A. in English at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, Ed pursued opportunities in public relations and management that helped mold him personally and professionally, developing his skills in writing and editing, marketing and advertising, public speaking and media relations. As well as broadening his experience in administrative leadership.
In addition, he pursued film and special effects makeup programs in both Detroit and Los Angeles and worked on set as a special effects make-up artist.
His passion for being a Halloween and horror film “geek” have been a constant throughout his life - cutting his teeth on the extraordinary works of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and the great Shirley Jackson. His youth was spent hustling through haunted houses, and seeing the latest 70’s & 80’s horror films at the midnight drive-ins and local movie houses. He's also an avid horror film and movie memorabilia collector. One could say, he's autumn over summer. Pumpkins over pineapples. Horror over drama; and wearing black over anything else.
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