Chicago has a lot to offer during Halloween. There are bar crawls, ballroom costume parties, and family-friendly events all over the city. You can even do a haunted dinner cruise if you want to.
Halloween festivities begin early October, and last through Halloween weekend. I’ve gathered a few of my favorite Chicago Halloween events below:
1. Arts in the Dark Parade – October 20, 2018
This is the fourth year for this artsy parade. This year, there is a new parade route. Starting at State and Lake, the parade will continue south down State Street to Van Buren. The parade runs from 6p-8p, and there will be an after party at Millennium Park! The after party takes place by the Bean from 7:30p-9:30p. There will be DJ’s, stilt walkers, characters, fortune tellers, and a kids’ station. From 8p-10p, you can take your kids to Maggie Daley park for Trick-or-Treating, watch the movie Beetlejuice and play mini golf ($11 per person). Check out their Facebook Event here.
2. Lincoln Park Zoo Fall Fest – Weekends Sept 28-Oct 28
Reading the description for this event, they had me at “corn pool”. This is a family-friendly festival being held at Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s free to get into, and there are numerous paid attractions (like said “corn pool”). There’s a pumpkin patch, professional pumpkin carvers, a corn maze, a “hay mountain”, and a ferris wheel! You can find more information on their website here. I made it over to the Fall Fest this weekend and there was a band, giant pumpkins carved into faces and a bunch of kids rides! Highly recommend.
3. Night of 1,000 Jack-O-Lanterns at the Chicago Botanic Gardens – Wednesday – Sunday, October 24 – 28, 2018, 6:30 – 10:30 p.m.
This ticketed event is made up of over 1,000 hand-carved pumpkins (according to their website, some are 150lbs!). They’ll be serving cider to get you through the path of pumpkins, which took up to 15 hours each to carve. You can also take your family on the “ghostly train rides”! Non-member adults are $16, kids 3+ are $13, and you can grab your tickets here.
4a. Chicago Philharmonic Does “Nightmare Before Christmas” – Oct 31 and Nov 1
Chicago Philharmonic will being playing the music along with the Tim Burton film, Nightmare Before Christmas. They have a few events surrounding this film as well, including: Trick-or-Treating, Costume Contests, College Night ($25 tickets for college students), and a Young Professionals Networking event. The networking event is for patrons 21-45 years old, and the price of admission includes 2 drink tickets. You can read more here.
4b. CSO Does “Bride of Frankenstein” – Oct 26
In a similar fashion, CSO is playing the music to the 1935 film: The Bride of Frankenstein, with a bonus showing of Young Frankenstein. You can grab $30, BOGO free tickets through Travel Zoo here! PS you can earn 3% cash back on Travel Zoo with Ebates! Use my link to get $10: https://www.ebates.com/r/BARRYM490?eeid=28187
5. Jack’s Pumpkin Pop-Up – Hours vary
Jack’s is a pop-up Halloween experience, located outdoors on 2 acres in Chicago’s Goose Island. You’ll find a corn maze, carnival games, 3 full bars and nightly entertainment. They tout that they have the “largest corn maze in Chicago”, which they very well might be the only corn maze in Chicago. The party is going rain or shine and only for the month of October, so grab your tickets now! PS here’s a Groupon! PPS You can get 6% cash back on Groupon with Ebates! Use my link to get $10 when you sign up for Ebates: https://www.ebates.com/r/BARRYM490?eeid=28187
Looking for more Halloween fun? Check out these 3 Haunted Places in New Orleans!
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