The best Halloween events for 2026 in NYC

Carving a jack-o'-lantern may be a time-honored American tradition for many, but nobody—and we mean nobody—does pumpkin carving quite like Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.

Every fall, pumpkins aplenty decorate this festive, family-friendly attraction. This year promises thousands of intricately carved jack-o'-lanterns in mesmerizing displays, plus dazzling new experiences.

Blaze: Hudson Valley runs at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County from September 18 through November 8. Get tickets here.

The only thing better than the Bronx Zoo is the Bronx Zoo during a celebration. The famed zoo's annual family-friendly daytime celebration is back and at its best. 

Every Saturday and Sunday from September 26 until November 1, families are invited to hear from animal experts, run through a new hay bale adventure course and play carnival-themed inflatable games. There's also wildlife-themed theater, magic and mind-reading shows, spooky storytime, a costume parade and more.

The best part? It's all free with admission!

Frigid New York gives you the chills in a festival inspired by Mexico's dead-lifting Día de los Muertos. The lineup features spooky variety shows, short horror plays, Edgar Allan Poe works, a traditional ofrenda, psychic mediums, a tiny interactive matchbox theatre, a murder ballad musical, necromancer burlesque and other tales of the macabre that all come together in a celebration of independent theatre and performance.

Visit the festival's website for a schedule and a full list of offerings for shows running October 16 through November 1. 

There’s no spookier way to welcome the Halloween season than to visit BloodManor, the popular 10,000-square-foot haunted house that’s actually deemed too scary for children under 14.

Visitors will confront their deepest fears as they journey through dark, sinister corridors filled with twisted characters and scares at every turn. Incorporating state-of-the-art special effects, BloodManor brings unparalleled realism to the haunting experience thanks to a terrifyingly talented team of trained actors, set designers, makeup artists and more. Expect an unprecedented level of horror and excitement that lasts 30 minutes—or, more likely, 20 minutes as you run screaming. 

BloodManor is open every weekend and some weekdays from October 2 to November 7 at 359 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. General admission starts at $50 per ticket. You can purchase tickets for a timed entry here.

When it was founded in 1899, the BCM was the country’s first museum specifically made for children. Today it’s one of the most comprehensive, with a permanent collection of 30,000 objects, including musical instruments, masks, dolls and fossils. Check out the museum's Halloween programming on its website, including trick-or-treating, costume showcases, "creepy crawly" critters, storytime and more.

For the past 50 years, the Queens County Farm Museum has served as a rural oasis within the New York City limits. And what better way to celebrate an anniversary than by creating a complex corn maze for New Yorkers to get delightfully lost in?

The Amazing Maize Maze is back this fall with a sunburst design celebrating five decades of the museum's existence. Expect plenty of twists, turns and tricks inside this three-acre living labyrinth. The Amazing Maize Maze is open on Saturdays and Sundays through November 1, with an additional open date on Monday, October 12 at 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Floral Park. Tickets cost $17 for adults and $10 for kids aged 3 to 11; kids under 3 are free. 

If you're convinced of your super-solving skills, check out Maze by Moonlight where you'll have all the fun of the laborious labyrinth with the added feat of darkness. Stroll through the interactive maze under the starry skies for a spooky experience made for brave souls. We'd recommend bringing a headlamp for some extra light. That's only happening for two nights in October, so we recommend calling to find out when it's on.

It's time to give your Instagram feed an autumnal glow-up, and there's a picture-perfect backdrop opening in the Seaport to help you do just that. The annual Pumpkin Arch returns to Pier 17 from October 22 to November 16, offering a charming seasonal photo spot. 

The arch is crafted from hundreds of pumpkins and draped in vibrant fall leaves, but it's not just about the decor. The views of the glittering Lower Manhattan skyline and the stately Brooklyn Bridge take this photo spot to the next level. 

Find the Pumpkin Arch on the Heineken Riverdeck, that's the north side of Pier 17 at 89 South Street. Trust us, you can't miss it. Though it's on view 24/7, we recommend visiting at golden hour (that's right after sunrise or just before sunset) for the dreamiest lighting. That's when the illuminated arch will start twinkling, but you'll still have enough natural light to keep your subject's face visible. 

Rooftop Cinema Club takes movie-going to a whole new level—literally. This rooftop film series at a midtown skyscraper offers stunning views and an impressive lineup of films. 

In addition to the movie magic, the venue also offers movie snacks, a full bar and cute photo opps. This season's lineup features classics like Practical Magic and Scream, plus plenty of Halloween fun to make the most of fall 2026.

As for seating, you'll get to choose a standard high-back lounge chair or a premium lounge chair that comes with extra cushions. You'll book your ticket type, then get to pick your exact seat on-site, first-come, first-served. Ticket prices range from $25 to $30 per person depending on your seating preference and movie time.

Perhaps you're more into L-O-L than B-O-O. Upright Citizens Brigade in the East Village has got you covered with a variety of seasonal comedy shows, including UCB Presents: Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Stepfathers, Halloween Edition. Think less jump scare and more fall out of your chair laughing. Find the rest of UCB's spooky-adjacent events on its calendar.

Bid adieu to Halloween with a smashing good time at Hudson River Park's Pumpkin Smash. Bring your own jack-o-lantern or pumpkin, along with some safety goggles, and smush your gourd into compostable bits. 

You’ll get to choose a bat, hammer or shovel, then stick around to learn how composting works. Park staff will convert the gooey bits into nutrient-rich compost to nourish the park's plants. In past years, more than 6,000 pounds of pumpkin scraps were collected and used for compost (and kept out of the landfill!). 

It's all happening at Pier 84 on Saturday, November 7 from 11am to 3pm.

New York’s streets are about to get a little more haunted. Trick-or-Streets is returning for its biggest edition yet, with 160 car-free Open Streets and plazas across all five boroughs hosting free Halloween and fall celebrations throughout October.

That’s a record for the city’s seasonal program, which gives New Yorkers room to trick-or-treat, play games and show off costumes without dodging traffic. Cultural organizations, community groups and schools will organize festivities, with face painting, live entertainment and other activities on the agenda. NYC DOT is also supplying 75,000 pieces of candy.

Cemeteries are, of course, always good places to remember lost loved ones. But this season, Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery is taking that to new heights with Reposo y Recuerdo (Rest and Remember), an expansive Día de Muertos ofrenda by acclaimed artist Laura Anderson Barbata.

All are welcome to bring photos, flowers or keepsakes to the community altar, creating "a collective gesture of remembrance and care." The installation—which features handwoven hammocks, colorful papel picado and cascades of paper marigolds—will be on view daily in Green-Wood's historic chapel from October 9 through November 15. 

If you think there weren't great quality, white-knuckle worthy haunted houses in Brooklyn-slash-Queens, you're wrong: The Ridgewood Asylum and Haunted House has been a local crowd favorite for years. It's back again this Halloween season for its seventh year of interactive haunted house thrills with escape room elements.

What we love about this haunted house is that it isn't just about jump scares, either: It's always meticulously thought out, with storylines and plots and details you won't usually get from more commericial haunted houses in the city. The Ridgewood Asylum is open until November 1. 

Autumn is the time to pick two of the season’s most emblematic fruits: apples and pumpkins. Fortunately there are some fantastic farms where you can go apple and pumpkin picking near NYC. These farms and orchards will get you into that fuzzy fall feeling in no time.

There’s nothing quite like taking a bite out of a crisp apple straight from the tree (even better, taking home a basketful for making pie), and your Halloween pumpkin will be that much more special when you pick it right off the vine. You’ll find a wide variety of apples and pumpkins at these farms, plus fun activities like hayrides, corn mazes and petting zoos. Don’t miss hot apple cider and other fresh-made treats at the farmstand. 

From pumpkin kegs to molecular mixology, these bars go all out for the season. Halloween bars have got plenty of range this Halloween season: heavy-metal horror, adorable witchiness, a creaky tavern that serves pot pie with a side of horrifying lore. Want Zombies? We got ‘em. Ghosts? Yup. Vampires? Covered.

If your Halloween 2026 ambitions extend beyond buying plastic fangs, Blood Manor has an extracurricular activity for you. The Manhattan haunted house is letting visitors join its scare team.

This season, the attraction at 359 Broadway is offering a Scare Actor Academy experience that turns paying guests into the people responsible for everyone else’s nightmares. For $350, plus a booking fee, participants get makeup and a costume, learn the art of haunting and become part of the crew frightening visitors inside. The experience includes instruction in developing a terrifying character and scaring patrons. The ticket is listed as the “Scare Actor Experience Ticket” and tells participants to arrive 90 minutes head of the event start time to get ready.

Halloween-themed drag brunches are coming to Stella 34 Trattoria all month long. Each event will combine high-energy drag performances with a full brunch menu for the perfect blend of brunch plus spooky season entertainment. Costumes are encouraged. You can view the whole drag brunch menu here. 

Here's the lineup with ticket links: 

— Sunday, October 25: Hocus Pocus Drag Brunch

— Sunday, November 1: Rocky Horror Picture Show

From a kid-friendly (and free!) concert to a boozy pumpkin-carving sesh, there are plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween your way at Brooklyn's Time Out Market.

Remember dearly departed dogs at AKC Museum of the Dog's Dia de Muertos ofrenda from now through November 8. The community altar will a collection of photos of dogs who have passed on, and you're welcome to contribute a photo of your own. The ofrenda will be on display until November 8. 

Día de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a celebration to honor and commemorate the lives of the deceased and welcome the return of their spirits. Come to the museum to learn more about this meaningful day and celebration of loved ones, as well as its historical connection to dogs.

The trolley tour that's outfitted to look like a Victorian funeral parlor—think chandeliers and velvet curtains—and takes you on a trip through the shadows of historic Brooklyn is back. The tour visits the secret location where Murder, Inc. disposed of bodies, alien abduction sites along the Brooklyn Bridge, a brothel and more spooky sites spanning 400 years of Brooklyn history. 

Even if you're a supernatural skeptic, it's fascinating to see hidden cemeteries, mobster dumping grounds, and an EPA Superfund site. Plus, get the chance win prizes with spooky trivia.