4 Howling Halloween Festivals to Get Your Spook On
Photo below by Mario Tama/ Getty
If you are a little too old to go trick-or-treating, tired of visiting the same ol’ haunted houses, or too bored to go to yet another in a line of similar Halloween parties, then you have found yourself in the awkward middle stage of freedom between being acting like a candy monster and having a little monster of your own. Solution: celebrate this spookiest of days by traveling to these four fearsome festivals, parades and eerie events.
Cheaptickets has found the most menacing, innovative and thrilling Halloween festivities that are worth the scare.
Full disclosure: CheapTickets doesn’t pay for this content. We cover these suggestions based on an editorial desire to bring solid content to readers about Halloween destinations. Regardless, reporting good deals to travelers is part of our mission. Please enjoy.
The Village Halloween Parade
Photo by Jemal Countess / Getty
The Village Halloween Parade is celebrating its 43rd annual parade with everyone from Medusa, the mad hatter, and even Hey Arnold attending. The free procession through Greenwich Village included hundreds of giant puppets created throughout the summer and fall by artists and technicians. Last year a giant spider and squid could be seen making their way through the parade. Along with the giant operating puppets, more than 50 bands of various styles, dancers, artists and thousands of New Yorkers, and non-locals march the streets in their creative costumes. Lose yourself with your imagination as you think of your must-have costume. With this year’s theme being Reverie, it would be the perfect place to find inspiration for the best costume.
When: October 31 at 7 p.m.
Where: On 6th Avenue North of Spring Street to 16th Street, New York City
Sample round trip airfare from Los Angeles to New York: $267
Travel Dates: October 29 – November 1
Krewe of Boo Parade & Other Festivals
Do you do Voodoo? Whether you do or not, the Krewe Boo Parade welcomes you to the Voodoo capital of America. While New Orleans offers gnarly ghost tours in the French Quarter, Garden District and Uptown year-round, they are especially uncanny near Halloween. Since 2007, the annual Krewe Boo parade has offered hellacious 3-dimensional papier-mâché or fiberglass sculptures and props have been welcoming the spirit world along with elaborately designed floats. Instead of the traditional beads, floats throw treats or local collectible objects.
Last year, Doubloons, PJs Coffee Frac Packs and Pralinettes from Aunt Sally’s were some of the items thrown to parade watchers. The parade usually begins at Elysian Fields and travel through the French Quarter going through N. Peters and Decatur Streets, to Jackson Square and then to the Warehouse District and all the way to the Convention Center. The party doesn’t stop there with the after party being at the Howlin Wolf. Make sure you wear a costume, or you’ll defiantly be out of place. The French Quarter erupts with parties on Halloween with the most popular being in the Faubourg Marigny.