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People dressed up as Ghostbusters in the Halloween parade.
Photograph: By Iri Greco & Jim Fryer / BrakeThrough Media

The best Halloween events for 2023 in NYC

Check out the creepiest and coolest Halloween events NYC has ever seen including parties, parades, and haunted houses.

Written by
Christina Izzo
&
Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Contributor
Anna Rahmanan
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We're throwing the spookiness into high gear with events for Halloween in NYC. October is filled with costumed parties, jump scares at haunted houses, corn mazes, parades and even dog parades — and we're so ready! Don't bother breaking out your sewing kit, New York's greatest Halloween stores have plenty of options to make you look really spooky. Make sure to check out our NYC events in October too for even more activities to finish off the month in killer spirits. 

Bookmark this link because we'll be updating this guide all autumn long.

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Halloween in NYC

NYC Halloween events 2023

  • Things to do
  • Festivals

The Village Halloween Parade—NYC’s creative and spooky procession—is one of the best Halloween events in Greenwich Village and it's coming back this year on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31. Each year, more than 50,000 zombies, ghouls, witches, monsters, robots, Jedis, giant puppets and more things that go bump in the night take to the streets for a night of costumed revelry that you won't want to miss. 

Whether you march or watch from the sidelines, don't miss this iconic Halloween event, which is celebrating 50 years in 2023!

  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze is set to return this September in two New York locations, along with a full slate of Sleepy Hollow-themed events.

The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze will be back in the Hudson Valley at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson for the 19th year, from September 15 through November 19, as well as Old Bethpage Village Restoration in Old Bethpage, Long Island for the fourth year, from September 22 through November 5.

Both experiences will feature thousands of hand-carved jack o'lanterns set up in elaborate displays: along with annual favorites like the Statue of Liberty and the Pumpkin Planetarium, you'll find a circus sideshow, a jack o’lantern tribute to the Day of the Dead, and the country's first-ever pumpkin Ferris wheel in Hudson Valley, while Long Island attendees can be wowed by an under-the-sea installation, including a giant pumpkin octopus and a Montauk mermaid. 

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  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

If you want your spooky celebrations to be more festive and less frightening, Halloween House is serving up a fear-free All Hallows Eve attraction at The Oculus this fall.

Kicking off on Friday, September 29, and running through Wednesday, November 1, Halloween House—which welcomed 100,000 visitors across its various locations last year—will take over the transportation and shopping hub at 185 Greenwich Street with an array of immersive, intricately designed themed rooms: a Glow in the Dark space, a mysterious Vampires' Lair, a Horror Movie Graveyard and an indoor pumpkin patch, among others. 

Unlike traditional haunted houses, the all-ages Halloween House "sets itself apart by delivering entertainment through meticulously detailed environments, devoid of actors, jump scares, and strobe lights," reads a press release. In terms of decorations, expect more ghouls and graveyards, not gross-out gore or ghastly characters.

You can get tickets at the Halloween House website; adult entry costs $40, while tickets for kids and under are set at $35. 

  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

Grab your garlic because a vampire masquerade is making its debut in NYC this fall, and it's going to be truly immersive. "Dreams of Dracula: An Immersive Masquerade Experience" will recreate the classic Dracula universe as a brand new vampire theatrical adventure.

The production opens on October 4 and runs through November 11 at Musica NYC in Hell's Kitchen; previews begin September 22. Gothic and Victorian costumes are "very much encouraged," event organizers say. Tickets start at $69 and are available for purchase here.

Putting a new spin on the Bram Stoker classic, this choose-your-own-adventure evening whisks visitors through two floors and six rooms across 25,000 square feet for a heady mix of immersive theater, dance and decadent masquerade.

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  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

The fall festival at the Bronx Zoo will showcase more than 5,000 carved, animal-themed pumpkins in a jack-o’-lantern trail stretching over half a mile. Live pumpkin carving demonstrations, games, festive fall treats and food trucks will also take place at the all-ages Pumpkin Nights.

Pumpkin Nights will debut on Thursday, September 28 and run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sunday, October 29 from 6pm to 10pm.

Tickets for Pumpkin Nights range from $26.95-$36.95 for adults; kids' tickets range from $24.95-$26.95 for kids. 

In addition to the new Pumpkin Nights, the Bronx Zoo will continue the tradition of Boo at the Zoo, which will return on Saturdays and Sundays, September 30 through October 29, plus Monday, October 9. 

  • Movies
  • Movies

Rooftop Cinema Club is screening rooftop movies this fall with a packed slate of films running all the way through October 31. 

Sip wine and eat vegan popcorn while watching classics like When Harry Met Sally, The Addams Family, Hocus Pocus and lots more this autumn. Tickets are on sale here.

October's lineup include scary screenings such as Rosemary’s Baby, Paranormal, The Exorcist, The Shining, American Psycho and other cult classics as well as family favorites like Coco and Monsters, Inc. That all leads up to All Hallow's Eve's screenings of Hocus Pocus and Halloween.

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  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

Back for its annual celebration of all things pumpkin (and your best opportunity to take a selfie with a scarecrow in NYC), New York Botanical Garden's Fall-O-Ween officially opens on Saturday, September 16. 

The event includes hundreds of pumpkins and gourds on display, hands-on activities like mini pumpkin decorating, 3D pumpkin carving, food and beverage talks, tastings and more. Two family-friendly Spooky Garden Nights (Saturday, October 21 and Saturday, October 28) will also offer Halloween-themed entertainment including dancing skeletons, decorating trick-or-treat bags, live shadow puppets, plant potting ad more. 

Master pumpkin carver Adam Bierton will return to NYBG on select weekends to create his intricate and nature-inspired pumpkin carvings, and to host a master carver competition. At the “pumpkin patch” at NYBG Shop, guests can pick and purchase the perfect pumpkin.

  • Restaurants
  • Drinking

Join an elite group this Halloween season: The League of Inebriation Technology (L.I.T.), a storied institution dedicated to studying the celebratory effects of alcohol. Get in on the fun at The Drunken Laboratory, a bar in Brooklyn where you’ll wear lab coats and goggles for a night of sipping drinks and doing science. 

The bar's Haunted Laboratory experience includes a ghostly drink menu, haunted decor and scare actors for a truly immersive experience. Tickets are on sale now starting at $45; the experience begins on September 22 in Bed-Stuy with dates running through the finale on Halloween night. 

During the event, guests will try to free the laboratory from the clutches of the supernatural. Plus, you’ll get to compete against each other—from performing exothermic reaction experiments that send heat erupting into the air, to competing in ghoulish trivia quizzes—for the chance to win free themed shots, merch or hangover kits. 

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  • Things to do
  • City Life

Governors Island will host a family-friendly pumpkin patch with 10,000 gourds within its historic Nolan Park.

The patch will be open the weekends of October 21-22 and October 28-29 and is free—though there is a suggested donation—and open from 10am to 5pm. 

While you might go for the pumpkins, you should stick around for a range of activities such as pumpkin painting, trick-or-treating and performances from the Brooklyn Magic Shop as well as the interactive bubble show Bubbledad. You will also get a chance to trick or treat at Nolan Park’s houses and pick up books from a fall book corner it’s setting up with the non-profit Brooklyn Book Bodega on Sunday, October 29.

  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

Prepare to scream in horror. Blood Manor is confirmed to return to New York City this fall from September 29-November 4, marking the haunted house's 20th season in the city. 

To celebrate two decades of terrifying New Yorkers, Blood Manor will present yet another theater-quality production. The space in Soho at 359 Broadway will include three new rooms, and brand-new costumes by designers from Abracadabra, Manhattan's iconic Halloween store. The multiroom immersive experience employs professional actors, set designers and makeup artists, and promises to leave visitors more afraid than ever in 2023. 

Blood Manor’s most infamous attractions will return for repeat visitors looking to relive their self-induced terrors, and the space will be revamped, and amplified to intensify the fear factor. Visitors will journey through dark, sinister corridors filled with twisted characters and jumpscares at every turn.

Other things to do for Halloween

  • Things to do

It’s the freakiest time of year, and we couldn’t be more excited to scream our guts out at the scariest haunted houses NYC has to offer. Haunted houses may bring plenty of frights, but if you’re looking to get shaken to your core this season, check out these immersive experiences that will bring out your darkest, deepest fears from killer clowns to claustrophobic.

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Don’t miss the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze!

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