Halloween & Spooky Season in Asheville & the Blue Ridge

Jump to this season's halloween events ↓

For the kids

The City of Asheville's parks department runs a Festival of Frights through October at its community centers: toddler crafts, a candy climb on the Montford center's rock wall, a Día de Muertos afternoon at Stephens-Lee, and a free trunk-or-treat on Halloween night. Most of it is free or a few dollars. The Haunted Trail at the Adventure Center of Asheville opens on October weekend nights: live-actor scenes along a lit trail, no gore and no grabbing, pitched at kids from about three to twelve. The last weekend before Halloween sells out first. Eliada's Corn Maze in West Asheville fills the daylight hours Friday through Sunday.

Down every Main Street

• Brevard's Halloweenfest, the Saturday before Halloween. Heart of Brevard fills downtown with trick-or-treating at the shops, a costume contest and vendors, and the Flight of the Vampire races usually run the same week. Expect a few white-squirrel costumes.
• Hendersonville's Treat Street Carnival, Halloween afternoon. Main Street trick-or-treating from Allen Street to Sixth Avenue, and a costume contest at the courthouse with age groups from babies up, a family category and one for pets. Henderson County Parks & Recreation and the Friends of Downtown Hendersonville run it.
• Asheville, Waynesville, Black Mountain, Weaverville and Sylva each do a downtown trick-or-treat or block party on or near the 31st. When Halloween lands on a weeknight, some towns move theirs to the Saturday before. The cards below say which day.

For grown-ups

Downtown Asheville has ghost tours all year, and October is when they're busiest. Haunted Asheville runs two-hour walking tours, the Gray Line trolley does a haunted-history ride, LaZoom's comedy bus has a ghost-tour show, and the Asheville Museum of History publishes a self-guided haunted driving trail. After that come the costume parties. The South Slope breweries and the music rooms on our live music page hold theirs on the weekend nearest Halloween. There's a costume 5K on the South Slope on Halloween itself, and Día de Muertos has its own celebrations around town.

Practical

• Halloween comes at the tail of leaf season, so Asheville's own trees are usually peaking that week. Evening traffic is lighter than on the Parkway weekends, but the Grove Park and South Slope lots still fill up.
• Nights at 2,000 feet run in the 40s by late October. Plan a costume that fits over a jacket.
• Downtown trick-or-treat hours are daylight hours: most wind down by five or six.
• Haunted trails and ticketed parties sell out on the final weekend. Buy early, or go the weekend before.

Below: this October's Halloween events from our calendar, each linking to whoever runs it. The ones that come back every year are at the bottom, and the fall festivals page covers the harvest fairs.