Where to get your freak on this Halloween
All those lessons on stranger danger back in primary school have warned us off trick or treating for life, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit at home this Halloween. Check out our top picks for what to do and where to go this weekend.
Wrench on your creepiest outfits and head underground to the Greaser dungeon this Friday October 31 for a full-blown Rockabilly Zombie Halloween Party. Sink your fangs in to Greaser’s famous chow, take advantage of free zombie face painting and battle it out for best-dressed prizes. The festivities will kick off at 5:00 pm and entry is free.
You may have envisaged a relaxing, romantic evening on the grass at the Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas, but the setting will be anything but tranquil come Friday October 31. The South Bank venue will be hosting two special Aperol Spritz Sunset Sessions, with What We Do in The Shadows showing from 6:15 pm and Dracula Untold from 8:30 pm.
Fortitude Valley venue The Brightside will be flipped on its head this weekend as it morphs into The Frightside Horror-Fest from 5:00 pm on Friday. The carpark will be opened to increase capacity and accommodate a giant jumping castle, while inside you’ll need to push past the ghoulish decorations to check out the burlesque dancers and go-go girls, get your face painted and score a scary balloon creation. Expect 12 hours of calamity from 5:00 pm to 5:00 am, including a KISS cover band to bring the tunes.
Across the river at the State Library of Queensland’s The Edge, an all-ages Monsters Ball will be revealing a high-tech haunted house made by local creatives and designs from QUT’s fashion students.
The Valley’s Biggest Halloween Party will spread across RG’s, Brunswick And Ann and Ric’s Bar this Friday night with eight bars, five dance floors, themed Halloween cocktails, giveaways and live music from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am Saturday morning.
The usually sweet confines of Southside Team Room will be transformed into a nasty neck of the woods for the venue’s Black Summer Metal Camp from 6:00 pm on Friday. Expect black snacks, cheap beer, smoke machines, giveaways and best-dressed prizes. Corpse paint can be applied at home or lathered on at the door.
Shake Halloween up a bit with a tiki edge at West End’s Jungle, where you’ll find themed cocktails, lucky door prizes and burlesque dancers from 7:00 pm Friday.
As part of the three-week G20 Cultural celebrations, Brunswick Street’s New Globe Theatre will be hosting its own Halloween celebration, which will see a mash-up of rock music, burlesque dancers and horror films playing non-stop in the attached cinema.
After a month-long break, Cheated Hearts will be relaunching with a second birthday Halloween Rave at Woolly Mammoth Alehouse in Fortitude Valley from 9:00 pm this Friday. Party tunes will be provided by resident DJs and headliner Astrix, as partygoers shake their best Halloween costumes all over the dancefloor.
Families can take their little ghouls along to the Manly Harbour Village Halloween Street Party this weekend, which will bring innocent fun to the suburb from Friday through to Sunday. Enjoy movies in the park, live entertainment and a Ferris wheel on Friday night, before a free street party from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm on Saturday. Check out the Manly Creative Markets, watch the IGA Manly Pumpkin Carving Competition, join the Spooky Street Parade at dusk and admire the fireworks Saturday night. The Manly Creative Markets will return on Sunday with food, kids’ amusements and a Ferris Wheel from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.
To find out more about what’s on in Brisbane, head to our Event Guide.