Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and Boston is going all out. From candlelit castle tours and a Mass Ave bar crawl to the Boston Pops playing Coco live and a 12-hour horror marathon at the Coolidge, here are our 9 favorite ways to celebrate Halloween week, Oct 27 to 31.
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Fall Flicks & Fixins’: Hocus Pocus
Loretta’s Last Call · Boston
You have to be 21 to get into Loretta’s Last Call, and once you’re in they hand you a pumpkin and something to carve it with while Hocus Pocus plays, with the food 20% off so you’re eating through a movie you’ve probably already seen. Doors are at 6:30 on Tuesday, October 27, it runs until 10, and the ticket throws in a welcome drink, listed at $28.52.
Take a kid to Sonsie and paint a pumpkin in the downstairs Wine Room, then stick around and eat because dinner that night is 20% off, which is the fun part of doing this on a Monday. It’s all ages, running October 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with doors at 6, and the ticket includes the pumpkin, the paints, a welcome mocktail, and light bites while you’re down there, listed at $44.52.
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Sonsie
327 Newbury Street, Back Bay
If you’re going to their painting night event, don’t duck out when the paint is done, because dinner that night is 20% off and they’re open late enough that 8:30 still leaves you a real sitting. Sonsie has been at 327 Newbury Street since 1993, with French doors and sidewalk tables, and you can get wood-fired pizza or stay for a fuller dinner, since Mondays they serve from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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Loretta’s Last Call
1 Lansdowne Street, Fenway
Show up for the Hocus Pocus event and eat there too, because the donuts come out at 7 when the movie starts and you can get Nashville hot chicken or smoked brisket without going anywhere else. Loretta’s Last Call has been the country bar at 1 Lansdowne Street since 2014, they open at 4 on Tuesdays, and the bar stays open until 1 a.m., with Kenmore the Green Line stop.
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Halloween on the Hill
Long Hill · Beverly
Thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns, an eerie graveyard and a haunted pirate ship at Long Hill in Beverly. Evenings from 5:30 through Oct 30, timed tickets in advance, $32 adults and $15 kids 3 to 15.
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Spiritualism Tours by Candlelight at Hammond Castle Museum
Hammond Castle Museum · Gloucester
A 55-minute guided tour of Gloucester’s seaside castle, lit only by candlelight. Thursday evenings, $35.
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Coco in Concert with the Boston Pops
Symphony Hall · Boston
Keith Lockhart conducts the score live to the film at Symphony Hall. Fri Oct 30 at 7:30 PM and Sat Oct 31 at 1:30 PM, tickets from $58.
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Trick or Treat Market
Boston Open Market · Boston
Every vendor dresses up and kids in costume trick-or-treat booth to booth on Boylston St at the Public Garden. Sat Oct 31, noon to 5.
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Official Cambridge Halloween Bar Crawl
La Fabrica · Cambridge
One wristband gets you into 10 Mass Ave bars in Central Square with no cover, 1 to 6 PM, then an after-party at Althea until 8. Check in by 3 PM at La Fábrica or Naco Taco. 21+. Use code SecreteBoston on Eventbrite for 100% off your ticket.
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Symphony Hall · Boston
Brett Miller plays the 1920 silent horror classic live on Symphony Hall’s Aeolian-Skinner organ. Sat Oct 31 at 9 PM.
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Trixie’s Halloween
Royale · Boston
Trixie Mattel DJs and hosts a $1,000 costume contest. Sat Oct 31, 9 PM to 2 AM, 21+.
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Coolidge Corner Theatre’s 25th Halloween Horror Marathon
Coolidge Corner Theatre · Brookline
The Coolidge’s 25th Halloween Horror Marathon starts at 11:30 PM and runs all night, opening with Boris Karloff in The Mummy (1932) and a rare 35mm print of The Mummy’s Shroud. The rest of the lineup stays a secret.