The best Halloween events in Sydney for 2025

Kicking off on October 30, Ghost Festival 2025 will take over The Rocks for four terrifying nights – transforming the entire historic precinct into a spine-chilling phantom’s playground for four days of haunted feasts, spooky storytelling and supernatural experiences. Though the event will play into fantastical Halloween tropes – with “zombies” roaming the streets and tentacles protruding from buildings – it will also lean on the eerie history of The Rocks, with interactive experiences taking inspiration from the precinct’s history.

Expect an immersive Halloween market, a spooky parade and a Haunted Woods dining area waiting to host your scariest dinner to date (with food from Messina, Gong Cha and other Sydney faves). It's spine-chillingly good. 

For one freaky night only, the ghosts over at Dendy Cinema Newtown are throwing a haunted horror movie marathon on All Hallows Eve itself, aka, October 31. This horror movie takeover will be going down across all 11 of the cinema's theatres, and will include a chilling mix of cult classics and modern must-sees. Costumes are strongly encouraged for this freaky film fest (and will get you a free popcorn). 

From Friday October 24 to Sunday November 2, two of The Rocks' most atmospheric (and potentially haunted) bars are slinging $10 'Trick or Treat' theatrical cocktails that are bound to get your spirits soaring. 

Frank Mac's and the Doss House will be pouring six, Halloween-themed cocktails over the spooky period for the spine-tingling price of $10-a-pop. You'll get the choice between three 'Trick' or three 'Treat' creations, from a Blood Moon Sour to a Smokehead, Guinness and blackberry cordial concoction inspired by the Celtic origins of Halloween, you know you're in for a scary good time. 

Do you want a history tour with a seriously ghoulish theme? Of course you do! Introducing Murders Most Foul, a walk through Surry Hills' most notorious and spooOOooky haunts. This highly educational, massively entertaining, and downright grisly walk is dotted with part history lesson, part bar crawl and will have you squirming. Content warning for this one – you are on a murder tour and few details are spared. How horrifyingly good is that?

The Rocks is arguably one of Sydney's most haunted precincts, which makes it the perfect place for all things Halloween. Dubbing it "Christmas for the dead", The Rocks Ghost Tours company reckon October 31 is the perfect time of year to uncover all that there is to be spooked by in this historic pocket of Sydney.

If you're over all these Celtic-adjacent spooky times, you're going to want to check out this three day Mexican Casamigos festival at the Woollahra Hotel. Leading from Friday October 31 to Sunday November 2, Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), this fiesta will bring an abundance of tequila, tacos and tradition to Sydney's East. Expect a marachi band on Friday night, all-night DJ sets, street-side hibachi grilled tacos, epic tequila-spiked Casamigo cocktails and a whole bunch of kid-friendly activities during the day, all set within an immersive, Halloween space. 

From October 27 through to November 2, a bunch of spooky parties, food deals and DJ sets will be thudding across Sydney's collection of Solotel venues. This includes: The Albion in Parramatta, The Bank and Marly in Newtown, Public House in Petersham, The Erko (in Erskenville, duh), Goros in Surry Hills, Golden Sheaf in Double Bay, and The Strand in Darlinghurst. 

Each of these venues are being taken over by a special series of Halloween activations. From haunted trivia, to all-night dress up parties, to Drag sing-a-longs — to kids being able to eat for free on October 31 at select venues (Bridgeview Hotel, Camelia Grove Hotel, The Courthouse Hotel, The Erko, Public House Petersham, Sackville Hotel, THe Woodstock and The Golden Sheaf), you're in for a week of scary good surprises. 

With open minds and willing spirits, we invite you to explore Sydney’s most haunted sites. These former insane asylums, abandoned roads, converted gaols and chilly tunnels may not appear to be the stuff of nightmares in the sensical light of day, but one too many shadowy coincidences coupled with gruesome histories have inspired us to get our ghost-hunting gear together and investigate.

From unexplainable sensations to terrifying sightings, visitors on these ghost tours will experience the spookier side of our city’s history. We’ve contacted the tour operators to find out whose tours are the scariest, which ghost stories are the most horrifying and if anything strange has taken place on one of their outings.

Escape rooms have taken Sydney by storm. The concept is simple: solve puzzles placed in and around the room before your allotted time runs out. Each room has a different theme and stimulates all senses, demanding a variety of problem-solving skills. For the freakiest thrill, we recommend taking on Mr Pepper's Toy Shop by the Cipher Room team. Set in an abandoned toy shop that has seemingly succumbed to demonic possession, it's the scariest in town (possibly, the world) by far. 

We’re not being dramatic when we say that basically everything in Sydney used to be a cemetery. Train station? Cemetery. Government building? Cemetery. Your favourite park? Cemetery. Those who were buried in those locations probably assumed their eternal resting place was, well, eternal. How wrong they were.