Yes, it’s that time of year already! The nights are drawing in and the ghouls are coming out… and if you’re looking for an alternative Halloween this year, then look no further, as we bring you the best of the UK’s events…
Visit a rooftop witch market in London
Head to a craft market with a witchy twist! The Queen of Hoxton’s rooftop wigwam will be hosting a (Witch) Craft Market where guests can spend the afternoon foraging for seasonal gifts to treat their magical, mystical self. There’ll be everything from Yoni Wands to crystals, smudge sticks and jewellery.
Visitors to the rooftop can finish their witch themed afternoon with an Emerald City cocktail. The market has free admission and takes place on Saturday 2nd November.
Take the Psycho Path trail
Murderous madmen, killer clowns and chainsaw-wielding characters are all lined-up for interactive scare experience Psycho Path, which will take place at Lintz Hall Farm, Burnopfield, this month.
A ‘Fearground’ will include a clown maze and scary freak show, where visitors will need to survive the horrors and crazy characters thrown at them. An Anarchy Arcade will offer a range of entertainment, including aerial artists, magicians, and fire breathers, along with fairground rides and a range of street food and drinks.
Guests can then take the Psycho Path trail, where they will be bundled into blacked out vans for a bumpy ride across the site to a woodland area, and met with abandoned shipping containers, burning barrels and a whole host of menacing inhabitants. Tickets for Psycho Path start from £25.
Head to a Festival of the Dead
Can’t wait for Halloween? Then perhaps the Festival of the Dead, on Saturday 19th October at London’s Troxy, will be up your street.
The event promises an evening party like no other; fusing elements of carnival, circus and clubbing into a night of debauchery, all in the name of the Day of The Dead celebration. Tickets from £29.59.
Or a Day of the Dead celebration
Guests are invited to take part in a Day of the Dead party at The Mesmerist in Brighton.
The Mesmerist, along with Cazcabel Tequila, will be hosting a La Loteria (Mexican bingo) event, featuring a special cocktail menu and lots of fun themed prizes. The best dressed guest will win a bottle of tequila!
There’ll be live music from The Black Kat Boppers, a grooving four piece group, followed by a DJ set from Soul Casserole bringing a spicy range of funky beats. There will also be candy skull face painting from the DMFA makeup academy, a Wheel of Fortune and midnight shows.
Enjoy Halloween in a Sky Garden
All goblins, witches and ghouls are encouraged to mount their broomsticks and fly sky-high this year to celebrate Halloween with a bewitching series of live music sessions at Sky Garden.
A ticket includes all-night access to the freakishly eerie Sky Pod Bar and surrounding gardens for an evening of hair-raising tunes and spooktacular tracks courtesy of ALR music, and a devilishly good cocktail or glass of rosé champagne on arrival.
Follow a Halloween tour and sip cocktails
Spitalfields cocktail bar, Discount Suit Company, are partnering with the award-winning London’s Walks, proprietors of The Jack The Ripper Tour, for a spine-tingling tour and Halloween cocktail special on Thursday 31st October.
A former suit tailor’s workshop on Wentworth Street, is now home to Discount Suit Company, an intimate drinking den. The Halloween walks will start at the drinking den, where guests can enjoy a complimentary hot punch to warm the cockles before beginning a tour of the backstreets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields. Guests will learn of both, Jack’s exploits and the bungled investigations that followed.
The tour will then conclude back at the bar, where guests can steady their nerves and digest the details over a gin-soaked Saucy Jack cocktail. Tickets cost £20, which includes two cocktails and the walking tour (lasting an hour and a half).
Experience an immersive War of the Worlds event
And for something completely different, try The End of the World Brexit Party: The War of the Worlds Immersive Experience beginning on Thursday 31st October.
The apocalyptic celebrations will begin with a guest appearance from Boris (the real deal will probably be busy that night, but they promise the next best thing), followed by a weekend of Apocalypse After-parties. Live DJs, themed cocktails and a few extra scares will bring a party vibe to outlive the impending doom.
Whilst you’re there, complete the experience by walking, crawling and travelling through the 1898 Martian Invasion with a host of characters. Guests taking part will be thrust into the heart of the War of the Worlds story from the moment they step inside the 22,000-square foot multi-level site in The City of London. Tickets are priced from £49.50.