Halloween in Manchester

What’s on this Halloween in Manchester? Explore spooktacular events across the city and don’t forget to share your experience #HalloweenMCR

Halloween experiences not to miss

Manchester, are you feeling spooky? Here’s our top guide to the best events in the city for Halloween 2024.

Get ready to experience a spine-tingling Halloween like never before as Manchester transforms into a haunted city and playground of ghoulish delights! 

Whether you’re looking for family-friendly fun or thrilling nights of horror, the city has you covered with a lineup of scarily good events this spooky season. 

From haunted forests at The Trafford Centre to a fright-filled movie marathon at CULTPLEX, from spellbinding costume parties to immersive pumpkin patches, there’s something to send shivers down everyone’s spine.

For little monsters, there are witches, wizards, and magical trails, while daring thrill-seekers can dive into the eerie world of haunted attractions. 

With interactive activities, silent discos, crafting workshops, and even encounters with life-sized dinosaurs, Halloween 2024 in Manchester promises unforgettable moments for all ages.

Check out the best Halloween events in Manchester this year and start planning your spooky adventures now—if you dare!

22 Oct - 2 Nov 2024

FilmFear, created and curated by Film4 and HOME, returns with a selection of strange, scary and provocative films that highlight the many unexpected ways horror can take shape on-screen.

The Halloween highlight is a double-bill celebrating a classic horror icon, while other nights showcase new voices finding fresh and imaginative ways to use horror and fantasy to explore psychological states. And, as always, there are cult favourites for those who prefer to stay in their discomfort zone.

Some screenings across the season include Q&As with writers & directors of select films.

11 Oct - 3 Nov 2024

A spooky spectacle is coming this Halloween! Spookfest returns complete with, ghastly ghost train, haunted house and lots of tasty treats (and tricks!) for little ghouls.

Enjoy traditional fairground rides and don’t miss the towering Pumpkin Tower, over five metres tall and adorned with 250 pumpkins—the ultimate spooky selfie spot.

Entry tickets to the fun fair and rides area are priced at £3.00 per person. All rides and attractions operate on a token system.

31 Oct - 1 Nov 2024

Grab your broom sticks and join Edy Hurst on a wyrd and wonderfull journey of self-discoverie through the realms of the Lancashire Witch Trials, Neurodivergence and the Vengaboys!

Following successful previews at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself premieres at The Lowry, Salford for two performances this Halloween before embarking on a UK tour.

  • Live at The Lowry 31st October to 1st November 2024

31 Oct 2024

A free Halloween party at Wilson’s Social in collaboration with Beavertown.

Will include –

  • £5 Beavertown pints all night
  • Merch giveaways for first 50 people through the door
  • Free cans of Beavertown for anyone in fancy dress
  • DJ spinning all the Halloween hits
  • Spooky food specials

Starts from 6pm!

Through October

From 4th October until 31st December, step into a world of bold flavours and captivating presentation with Smoky Cocktails at Manchester235.

Each cocktail is not only a treat for your taste buds but also a visual delight, served in a bell jar and filled with aromatic smoke to enhance the experience.

Through October

Get ready to grab your pumpkins and broomsticks with The Lowry Hotel’s limited edition Halloween Afternoon Tea.

Including Pumpkin & Feta Filo Tartlet, Spiced Pumpkin Mousse, Espresso Crème Brûlée Tart, and Hazelnut Financier to name a few.

  • Available until the end of the month

From 26 Oct 2024

Step into the enchanting realm of cinema with The Lost Worlds of Ray Harryhausen: Creatures, Martians and Myths.

For the first time in the North West, this free exhibition pays homage to the legendary Ray Harryhausen, renowned for his pioneering work in special effects and stop-motion animation.

Inspired by John Walsh’s book Ray Harryhausen: The Lost Movies, this exclusive showcase features rare pre-production artwork, sketches, and prototype models from Harryhausen’s classic films.

17 Oct - 3 Nov 2024

Dare you take the Halloween Trail at Wilderspook Woods?

This immersive, spooky experience promises to be a must-visit for families and thrill-seekers alike.

Step into Wilderspool Woods and explore a magical trail filled with over 100,000 lights, captivating installations, and interactive activities like pumpkin carving, marshmallow roasting, and a quirky skeleton petting zoo. Keep an eye out for the skeleton funfair, Haunted Hotel, and enjoy food from Freight Island.

Tickets start at £8 per child and £10 per adult. Family tickets from £32.

Get closer to dinosaurs than ever before this Halloween at Jurassic World: The Exhibition!

Based on one of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history, the exhibition will immerse audiences of all ages in scenes from the beloved movies.

Guests will be able to imagine what it would have been like to roam amongst these breathtaking creatures and interact with baby dinosaurs

  • Jurassic World: The Exhibition at the Trafford Centre Manchester, Peel 7 car park, opposite John Lewis.

26 Oct 2024

The iconic day party ‘Rise’ returns with a special Halloween one-off brunch from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday 26th October.

Then as evening falls, a ritual of immersive global house music begins with DJ Filippos in the Nest Bar from 7pm until late.

26 Oct 2024

Tattu’s contemporary Chinese fusion dining experience is transforming for five days of Skullduggery.

A specially crafted selection of exclusive dishes awaits during the spectral celebrations, as well as a special Skullduggery Brunch on Saturday 26th October 2024.

26-27 Oct 2024

  • Halloween Spooktaculars are back this year again at Freight Island

They will see all the usual spooky fun for all ages to enjoy. The bars and food will be open as they take over the whole space at “Fright” Island.

You can expect Queens of Disco DJ Helen, face-painting, 2 channel silent disco, Adventure Babies, Conker Crew forest school fun, Bricklands Lego, Hula Hula Circus skills, Yan Tan Thethera story telling, School of Wizards Halloween trail, bubbles, snow and more!

  • Get 20% off all tickets using code SPOOK20*

*26th & 27th October 2024, booking required

26-27 Oct 2024

Get in the Halloween Spirit with Electric Shuffle’s Spooky Brunch Special

Electric Shuffle is adding an eerie-sistible twist to its bottomless brunch this Halloween with a two-hour Spooky Brunch Special, available on 26th and 27th October.

Expect some Halloween-themed tunes from the resident DJ, a devilish cocktail on arrival followed by a bottle of prosecco for every guest, frighteningly good bottomless pizza paddles and an hour at the shuffleboard table. Come dressed up and be in with a chance to bag some treats!

  • Book tickets from £30 per person

What's on this Halloween in Manchester?

Halloween in the City

Halloween in the City offers a massive monster party across the city’s streets. There’s a giant rooftop monster invasion, a monster parade, a mad scientist’s exploded castle and pop-up lab, fairground fun at the Carnival of Monsters, and a monstrous photo trail you can take part in across the city centre.

Trick or treat yourself to a weekend to remember. Even if it scares the life out of you.

Call it Americanised or commercialised, it doesn’t matter, Manchester loves Halloween more and more each year.

According to new research, Manchester is in the top five most haunted locations in the UK. The study identified the most haunted places in the UK by analysing a range of spooky factors, including the number of paranormal occurrences, spooky sightings, haunting manifestations and cryptozoology, as well as tales of UFOs, mythic legends, fairies, vampires and poltergeists.

Across the world, Halloween is celebrated every year on 31st October. But the origins of the spooky festival date back thousands of years.

The Pre-Christian Celtic year was determined by the changing seasons. The ancient festival of Samhain marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the colder, dark winter – and symbolised the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

As Christian teaching grew, All Hallows’ Day, also known as All Saints Day, became a time to remember those who had died for their beliefs. Sometime in the 8th century, Pope Gregory had the date of the All Hallows’ feast moved to 1st November, and the evening of Samhain became known as All-hallows-even, then Hallow Eve, then Hallowe’en and, of course, Halloween.

These days, there are plenty of spooktacular events to mark Halloween – and Manchester is no exception, with a weekend of ghoulishly good goings-on for adults and children alike.