Halloween is a holiday that is fun, exciting and mysterious all at the same time. All throughout the United States, people celebrate Halloween with various events like parades and festivals. If you want to do a little traveling during the holiday, check out some of the best Halloween events in the U.S. for families.
Related: How Halloween is Celebrated Around the World
Best Halloween Events in the U.S. for Families
Greenwich Village Halloween Parade
This parade takes place in Greenwich Village, New York each year on Halloween night. The event sees around 2 million visitors each year and is known as the world’s largest Halloween event. The half parade, half party features bands, floats and circus performers. The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade is the only Halloween parade held at night in the United States.
West Hollywood Halloween Festival
Held annually in the heart of Los Angeles, the West Hollywood Halloween Festival is known as the largest Halloween street party in the world. The festival is held on Santa Monica Boulevard and features approximately 500,000 participants.
Festival of the Dead
The Festival of the Dead takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, Massachusetts is most famous for its Salem Witch Trials of the 1600’s. Salem sees close to 500,000 visitors annually for the 31 day event, lasting the month of October. One of the popular events of the festival is the Annual Psychic Fair and Witchcraft Expo, held each day of the festival. This provides visitors the opportunity to interact with mediums and psychics. Another popular event is the Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball that is held at the Hawthorne Hotel. During this ball, hundreds of folks gather to summon the Halloween spirits.
If you can’t make it to this particular event (it gets booked up quickly), Salem has tons of great festivities all throughout the fall! It’s such a neat place to visit. I definitely recommend taking a stroll past the famous House of Seven Gables, regardless of when you go!
Related: Best Family Travel Destinations for History Lovers
The Louisville Zoo Halloween Party
The Louisville Zoo Halloween Party is considered to be the largest Halloween party in the world. The zoo is magically transformed into a Halloween extravaganza for the annual party. Thousands of families flock to the zoo each year to take part in trick-or-treating events among the zoo animals like the giraffes, bears and zebras. Photo opportunities are also available with the characters from The Wizard of Oz, Frozen and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Sleepy Hollow
The story of the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow has been a Halloween staple long before Ichabod landed in the 21st century and met Lt. Abigail on the hit Fox TV show! The town hosts numerous Halloween events starting in September and all throughout October. Check out their calendar and book early, many of the events sell out! No worries, though, if you can’t do one of the main events, just visiting the town is a Halloween treat!
I’m missing out on so much Halloween fun. I’d love to check out the West Hollywood Festival one year.
I think I went to the Halloween night at Phillipse Manor but never made it to Sleepy Hollow or Greenwich Village on Halloween-I have been to both places numerous times having grown up near all these places!!
Halloween is so much fun! I’d love to add in something like this to make the holiday more special.
Those all sound like so much fun. I prefer candy consumption over anything too spooky, but once the kids are older things will change.
I love Halloween and I love going to haunted houses and different displays. The Festival of the Dead looks really fun.