The days grow shorter, the shadows longer, and 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 Hallows’ Eve — the night before the feast of All Saints’ Day — it’s unsurprising that Halloween transcends cultures.
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 will take more for your Halloween event to scare up some attention.
At Eventbrite, our event community always raises 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, including some scrumptious Halloween party food ideas.
Halloween party ideas your attendees will die for
Halloween party ideas to sell tickets scary-fast
Why choose a Halloween party for your next event?
Halloween parties are frighteningly effective if you’re looking for a way to supercharge your next big event and better engage with your community.
Why? Halloween-themed events appeal to people from all walks of life.
Surveys show that 73% of Americans in 2023 celebrated Halloween — resulting in $12.2 billion in holiday spending last year.
Why? People want things to do on Halloween.
Halloween parties engage audiences by creating a spooky ambiance and building a unique experience they can’t find anywhere else — and experiences are what attendees look for nowadays.
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 party ideas to electrify your party theme
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 each Halloween party idea’s cost, effort, and spookiness.
Let’s take a look.
1. Pumpkin patch
Spookiness: 👻
Effort: 🧛🧛
Cost: 🎃🎃
Hands up if you loved visiting a pumpkin patch as a child. 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. Bring your pumpkins indoors and add party decorations like fake eyeballs and skeleton hands to transport attendees onto the patch.
For party activities, consider 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 carving stations for guests to create jack-o’-lanterns. You can even split guests into teams and distribute awards for the most inspiring jack-o-lanterns.
Need inspiration? Check out Granite Coast Brewing Company’s upcoming Family-Friendly Pumpkin Carving event. Each ticket includes a pumpkin, carving tools, stencils, and a craft beer (or a juice box for kids).
2. Halloween costume ball
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🧛🧛
Cost: 🎃🎃🎃
Halloween is the perfect holiday for a huge costume ball. After all, everybody’s looking for a place to go out in their costumes anyway.
But a Halloween ball offers a more formal appeal than a standard Halloween party.
While costumes are a standard but not necessarily required part of the festivities, including a dress code like a masquerade ball can give off a “special occasion” vibe. An appropriately spooky theme adds to the fun.
For example, the Hawthorne Hotel’s 2024 Halloween Ball encourages guests to dress up as a character from their favorite Stephen King novel or movie. There’s even a prize for best costume — and organizers have considered health and safety by banning fake weapons as part of a costume.
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, and green-and-orange-themed decorations, and make sure your staff dresses to match the theme.
A ball is ideal for staging a Halloween costume contest. Send guests costume ideas ahead of time so they can 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.
3. Halloween circus
Spookiness: 🎃🎃
Effort: 🧛🧛🧛
Cost: 🎃🎃
Many people fear clowns, so you need to carefully navigate the characters you include in your circus-themed Halloween party.
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 2024 Halloween-themed party. It also features DJs, a cash bar, stilt walkers, acrobats, and illusionists over multiple floors.
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 consist of creepy clowns, fire eaters, food trucks with sweet treats, trapeze performers, party games, and spooky music.
💡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 — but your vendors’ decor will also create an immersive experience for the guests.
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 spooky graveyard, a witch’s cottage, a mad scientist’s lab, a vampire’s castle, a haunted hospital 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).
Haunted warehouses and hayrides are exciting, but you’ll want to amp up the scariness for a haunted house aimed at college students. Try 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).
Afterward, feature a screening of a kid-friendly movie like “The Corpse Bride” or “Muppets Haunted Mansion” as a cool-down option.
Want to see how it’s done?
Take a look at Spring Grove Storytelling and their upcoming Ghost Stories event. They’ve taken the concept in a different direction by incorporating literature and history to create their haunted atmosphere in the middle of a giant corn maze.
5. Halloween movie night
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?
Set up a dedicated space in your venue, rent a big screen and projector, and create your spooky cinema. Decorate the venue with many pumpkins, cobwebs, cauldrons full of sweets, spooky vendor stalls, and even some food trucks for movie snacks.
Your party entertainment is built-in, and depending on your audience’s age, you can incorporate gory slasher films or family classics like Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family, or Purple People Eater.
💡Pro tip: Showing 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 (like “Gojira” or “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 2024 event. They’re bringing their scary films into a graveyard for a unique experience.
6. Steampunk market
Spookiness: 🎃
Effort: 🧛🧛
Cost: 🎃
The steampunk theme has exploded in popularity in recent years. By fusing classic styles with sci-fi to create exotic and immersive experiences for guests from all walks of life, 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 as inspiration.
Instead of a farmers market, set up a Halloween steampunk market, complete with local artists’ wares, musicians, and performers in a steampunk style. That’s what Jeff Mach Events does for its annual The Halloween City Vendor & Oddities Market IV—and we’re totally here for it.
To set up your own steampunk market like the Halloween City Vendor & Oddities Market, look for an industrial space that’ll naturally fuse with the Victorian-era vibe. Decorate it to the nines with antiques, trinkets, and Halloween classics like creepy fair games, pumpkins, and scarecrows.
For your entertainment, consider setting up a steampunk costume contest, a pumpkin carving station for kids, candy stations with classic sweets, or even hiring 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. You should partner 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 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 a grown-up Halloween party idea 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 series, local authors and guides showcase local legends and stories while guests enjoy a featured cocktail.
You could also turn your cocktail party into a masterclass, like Andersons Distillery’s upcoming Cocktails with the Distiller Halloween event.
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: 🎃🎃
Many of us still fantasize about getting a belated letter from Hogwarts, and Halloween is the perfect time to tap into that nostalgia and connect people of all ages with a little bit of magic.
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 with mystic potions, broomsticks, witch’s hats, and anything else that screams “Harry Potter.”
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 give your night a grown-up spin? That’s what Republic NOLA did for their recent Harry Potter Rave. To encourage guests to dress up like witches and wizards, they gave free entry to everybody in costume — and the night’s best costume won free drinks all night.
We’ll cheer to that!
💡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-themed silent disco, source a large bar, club, or event space with a dance floor. You could even dress up your venue as a haunted house or a creepy dark room to add spooky Halloween vibes to the dance party.
From there, all you need is a Halloween DJ, although you could also hire 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 a fantastic costume that isn’t compatible with headphones.
If you need inspiration, look at event organizer Single and the City and their Halloween Costume Party and Silent Disco. It has three live DJs, free glow-in-the-dark gear with an LED setting so other attendees know what channel you’re listening to, and a stunning skyline view.
10. Zombie walk
Spookiness: 🎃🎃🎃
Effort: 🧛🧛
Cost: 🎃
The Walking Dead has dragged zombies into the mainstream — so why not host a zombie walk and give everybody an excuse to get creative with their costumes and makeup?
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 family-friendly — and looks like it’ll be a scream!
To stage your 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. 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!
Ready to start planning your Halloween event?
Halloween party food ideas
It doesn’t matter how big your Halloween party is or what type of guests you invite — people will expect delicious party food and drinks.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can affordably cater your Halloween party to build upon your party theme and inject loads of fun and nostalgia into the crowd.
We’ve included four of our favorite Halloween party ideas to cover your bar and catering.
11. Candy stations
Candy is essential if you’re looking for a Halloween party food idea that won’t break the bank.
It’s an affordable and low-maintenance way to feed guests, but it’s also the essence of Halloween.
You should grab a few cauldrons full of classics like candy corn and candy eyeballs. But if you want your catering team to get creative, you could create some zombie gingerbread men, “poison” candy apples, or monster cupcakes.
From there, just set up a self-service station in the middle of your Halloween party, and you’re done!
12. Pumpkin spice
Research shows that 62% of Americans love pumpkin spice, so this one is practically a sure thing when it comes to Halloween party food ideas.
You can integrate pumpkin spice into a range of food items. For example, you could set up dessert boards with pumpkin cheesecake, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin blondies, or mini pumpkin pies.
Or, if you want to inject a bit of autumn into your drinks, stock up your bar with pumpkin ale or create a unique pumpkin cocktail. Looking for an alcohol-free option? Plenty of bars offer tea and coffee services, so chat with your venue about setting up a pumpkin spice latte station.
13. Halloween dinner party
Planning something a bit more formal? A sit-down Halloween feast is the perfect Halloween party idea.
This is an excellent opportunity to collaborate with local restaurants or caterers to create themed dishes built around your party theme and decor.
For example, you could create a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with fresh blooms and quirky courses like marshmallow teacups, white rabbit ravioli, or red rose-infused tea.
Alternatively, you could recreate the Pale Man’s iconic and diabolical feast in Pan’s Labyrinth. Deck your table out with loads of pumpkins, tarts, and a showstopping roast in the center — surrounded by candelabras and spooky lighting to set the mood.
14. Halloween hog roast
Looking for a showstopper Halloween party food idea to feed your guests? Go for a hog roast.
First and foremost, a hog roast is an easy and affordable way to feed many people. But it also adds great aesthetics to your spooky Halloween party by splaying an entire hog on top of a table.
Roast pork tastes great with autumnal staples like apple, maple, and sage — so you can get creative with sides and starters while keeping things seasonal.
Halloween party ideas to sell tickets scary-fast
Theme and catering are integral components of party planning — but a Halloween bash is only as good as the crowd you can attract.
That’s why you have to promote your event to your target audience. These three pro tips will help you start selling tickets so you can pack the house fast.
15. Offer an early-bird discount
Early-bird discounts are an amazing way to build excitement around your event, kick-start sales, and increase ticket sales.
By creating an early-bird discount code and promoting it to your followers, you can get your Halloween party on the radar of your target audience earlier. It also incentivizes purchases by allowing prospective guests to save money by buying early.
Remember to set a cutoff date on your discount to create a sense of urgency and FOMO (fear of missing out) around your ticket sales.
Partnering with Eventbrite? Creating and promoting discount codes is fast and simple using our intuitive dashboard. Here’s how it’s done:
16. Stage some spooky social media contests
Setting up a social media contest or giveaway ahead of your party is the perfect way to expand your organic reach.
You could leverage user-generated content (UGC) by asking followers to post their favorite party pics from previous events or invite followers to comment on your posts and tag a friend to enter the contest. That’ll drastically increase your shareability, too.
In terms of prizes, you can offer free tickets, a discount code, or VIP upgrades at the event.
For lessons in best practice, take a look at Halloween Bash Miami. To promote their annual Halloween parties, they regularly hold ticket giveaways on Instagram to generate buzz and build last-minute excitement.
When staging your contest, incorporate Eventbrite’s marketing tools and boost it with a paid ad campaign. This helps you spread the word faster and drastically increase your social reach while benefiting from Eventbrite’s advanced reporting, which tells you how people engage with your posts.
17. Work with influencers
Teaming up with influencers can help you dramatically grow your community by leveraging the reach of big names in the industry.
You could create an agreement with an influencer and give them access to your social media accounts as part of a social media takeover, or you could ask an influencer to post about your Halloween party and tag your account.
To see how this is done the right way, take a look at Blacc Fire Hospitality’s Rollingween: 4th Annual Halloween Party.
They always do a brilliant job teaming up with influencers in the local area to boost their posts and tag them on social to promote upcoming parties:
Kick your Halloween event up a notch
Are you ready to recreate one of these Halloween party ideas for your own event?
At Eventbrite, we play home to a large community of Halloween-crazy event creators. If you need support planning the above Halloween party ideas, we can help you plan and promote 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 various channels to take your spooky event to the next level.
