BEST AUCKLAND · SEASONAL · HALLOWEEN
Halloween in Auckland 2026: pick your scare
Photo: Ainsley DS Photography
What’s on for Halloween across the city, from the Lights Out party at Lake House on Saturday 24 October to Day of the Dead on Sunday 1 November, with who each one suits and what it costs, checked on 16 October.
THE WEEK AT A GLANCE
Sat 24 Oct
Thu 29 Oct
Fri 30 Oct
Sat 31 Oct
Halloween
Sun 1 Nov
I’ve pulled together everything I could find on for Halloween across Tāmaki Makaurau, for kids and families and for the grown-ups, so it’s all in one place. I won’t have found it all, so if you know of something I’ve missed, send it to me on Instagram. I’ll add my own photos and notes as I go to things. Prices are what the organisers published, and most early-bird prices end before the night.
Halloween is Saturday 31 October, which means the kids’ events are in daylight on a Saturday afternoon and the grown-up ones run into the night without a work day after. It also means the city is full. The BNZ Auckland Diwali Festival runs in Aotea Square both days, and on Sunday morning the marathon closes roads around the course and two southbound lanes on the Harbour Bridge. If you’re heading into town on Saturday night, take the train. Te Waihorotiu Station is three minutes from Aotea Square and ten from K Road.
Freak Out on Karangahape Road. Photo: Ainsley DS Photography
For kids and families
Freak Out, Karangahape Road
The big one. K Road closes for the evening and the family part runs from 4.30pm to 6.30pm: a trick-or-treat trail along the shops taking part (the map is on the K Road Instagram), face painting and a makeover station, pop-up performances, creepy art installations and markets along the street. Small Rave runs the free kids’ party at 235 K Road, on the corner of Pitt Street, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, with a DJ, an entertainer, games and crafts, and you can pop in and out; the Mini Monsters costume awards are there at 5.30pm.
Freak Out on Karangahape Road. Photo: Ainsley DS Photography
The Halloween dog parade and dog costume competition are hosted and judged by Chris Parker and Suzanne Paul, which tells you the tone.
From 6.30pm it turns over to the adults, with projections along the street, DJs, markets and a graveyard tour for anyone brave enough.
Go early if you’ve got small kids. The 4.30pm start is when the street is calmest and the trick-or-treat bags are full.
Spooks and Sparks at The Trusts Arena. Image: The Trusts Arena
Spooks and Sparks, The Trusts Arena
Saturday 31 October, gates 5pm, running about five hours. 65 to 67 Central Park Drive, Henderson. Adult $36.50, child (3 to 15) $17.50, under-3s free, family of two adults and three children $80.50, plus booking fee, on iTicket. Rain date Sunday 1 November; tickets carry over and aren’t refunded, so check you can do both days.
The big West Auckland one, and the only Halloween event in the city with a fireworks finale set to music. Carnival rides and bouncy castles, face painting, roaming Halloween characters, food trucks, an outdoor screening of Hotel Transylvania, a silent disco dome, and Scribe on stage. It draws thousands, so if you want the rides without the queues, go early.
Halloween at Howick Historical Village. Photo: Lee Lowden
Halloween at Howick Historical Village
Saturday 31 October, 5pm to 9pm. 75 Bells Road, Pakuranga. $25 adult, $15 child online; $27 and $17 at the door if any are left. Book at historicalvillage.org.nz.
A trick-or-treat trail around the village’s old cottages, with characters in the lanes, a vintage sweet shop, a costume competition and food trucks. Picnics are welcome. Under-14s need an adult, and the village says it may be scary for little ones, which I’d take at face value: the graveyard at the church is real.
Pre-book. Door sales are limited and last year it sold out.
Fright Night at Howick Historical Village. Photo: Andrew Hales
Fright Night, Howick Historical Village
Friday 30 October, 5pm to 9pm. Same prices as above.
The scarier night, for older kids and adults: a haunted house, creepy cottages and the church graveyard after dark. All ages on paper, discretion advised in practice. If you’ve got one child who wants frightening and one who doesn’t, Friday is for the first and Saturday for the second.
Lights Out Family Party, Lake House Arts
The Shore’s one, the Saturday before Halloween. Paranormal NZ are back with their ghost-hunting talk, there’s a dance-off and costume parade with prizes, apple bobbing with a lolly haul from Lolly Shop, a ghost disco room, and creepy corners with animatronics around the old house. Market stalls outside, moving indoors if it rains.
Over 800 families came last year, so book online rather than queue at the door. Strobe lighting, small spaces and animatronics, so it’s one for kids who like being a bit scared.
Poster: Lake House Arts
Haunted Wheels, Tīramarama Way
A Halloween street party on the laneway in Wynyard Quarter, put on by the Quarter’s transport association with Auckland Council, Northride, the Electric Bike Team and Bike Hub. Come in costume, and on a bike if you have one: the first 50 to arrive on two wheels get a coffee voucher. There’s a $200 restaurant voucher for the best-dressed group and $50 each for the two best individuals, food from The Rolling Pin, music, e-bike trials, free bike checks from a mechanic and free activities for kids. It wraps at 6pm, so it’s an after-school one, and the Silo Park playground is close by. Updates are on the Silo Park Facebook page.
Illustration: Val Márquez
Halloween in Mt Eden Village
The village’s Halloween, run by the Mt Eden Village Business Association: come in costume, activities and entertainment for the kids, prizes and treats. It’s on at lunchtime, which makes it the one to do before Freak Out if you want a full day of it. If it rains it moves into the Village Hall foyer; updates are on the Mt Eden Village Facebook page.
Auckland Irish Club Halloween Party
A Friday afternoon one for families, with Kingsland Social: a haunted house, kids’ entertainment, food trucks, live music and fancy dress. No price was published when I checked, so take it as free to come along with food to buy.
Halloween Spooky Disco, Buckland Hall
A community disco with a skeleton dungeon and a witch’s cavern. It’s a drive from the city, so this one is for the south.
The Vic, Devonport, and Hollywood Avondale
Halloween at the cinema
Three local cinemas have Halloween screenings over the weekend, from family films in the afternoon to horror at night, and they make a good wet-weather backup.
The Vic, Devonport
A fundraiser for Devonport Community House, with the money going to a new AV system. Tickets are $30 and include a drink or a treat. Come dressed up, there are prizes. 48 Victoria Road, tickets on Humanitix.
The Bridgeway, Northcote Point
122 Queen Street, tickets at bridgeway.co.nz.
Hollywood Avondale
Alien (1979) in 4D on Saturday 31 October at 8pm, its Halloween event, rated M, doors at 7pm. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) on Sunday 1 November at 4pm, rated PG, doors at 3pm and a pre-show at 3.30pm; come dressed up, there are spot prizes. The Lost Boys (1987) on Sunday at 6.30pm, rated M, doors at 5.30pm and a pre-show at 6pm. Tickets and prices at hollywoodavondale.nz. The Sunday afternoon film is at the same time as Day of the Dead, which is across the harbour in Takapuna, so you’ll need to pick one.
Freak Out on Karangahape Road. Photo: Ainsley DS Photography
After dark
Freak Out after 6.30pm
From 6.30pm Freak Out turns into the grown-up version. The street lights up with projections, and there are DJs, music and markets until late, plus a Graveyard Tour for anyone brave enough to go into the darker corners of K Road. It’s free, and if you want to keep going, Propaganda starts at 10pm at Studio The Venue on K Road.
Freak Out on Karangahape Road. Photo: Ainsley DS Photography
Propaganda Halloween
The party night of the Auckland Rainbow Games, and the biggest LGBTQIA+ Halloween party in the city. It’s on K Road, so it’s a natural end to Freak Out.
The Fright Crawl
A hosted bar crawl in costume: one wristband, no cover charge at any of the bars, DJs along the way. Thursday 29 runs 7.30pm to 2am from The Birdcage Tavern to Chancery Bistro by way of Rocketman, Mr Murdoch’s, Cassette Nine and La Zeppa. Friday 30 is the same hours from Revelry in Ponsonby to The Whiskey Bar, through Freeman & Grey, Northern Line, Bedford Soda & Liquor and Longroom & Longshot. Saturday has two: a day crawl from 1pm to 8pm with wristbands collected by 3pm, and the big one at night, 7.30pm to 2am, Revelry to Bedford Soda & Liquor to Longroom & Longshot to The Whiskey Bar, wristbands by 10pm. The Saturday night is also sold on Eventbrite as the Haunted Hop; same crawl, same route. VIP is $40 to $50 and a weekend pass for all four is $65, at frightcrawl.com. The day crawl is the one to do before Freak Out.
Haunted House Party on Ice, Paradice
Both rinks turn into a haunted house for the night: a haunted maze to walk, house music, trick or treat on the ice, and skating. It’s the one in this guide for teenagers, or for anyone who’d rather be on skates than in a bar. An early-bird code was running on their Instagram when I checked.
Lake House After Dark, Takapuna
The grown-up version of the Lake House Halloween, in its third year. A drink on arrival, nibbles and a cash bar, costume prizes, and then the lights go down for a torch-only ghost hunt through the old house in total darkness. If you want a Halloween that isn’t a club night, this is the Shore’s answer. Note that they film and photograph the night and post it.
Poster: Lake House Arts
Spookers
The old Kingseat hospital turned haunted attraction, and the only one of its kind in the country. Halloween week sessions sell out early, so book before you drive.
Cookies & Scream macarons. Photo: Luke Morreau
Treats
J’aime’s Cookies & Scream collection: pumpkin, mummy and blood-splatter macarons, $31.70 for a box of six, and there’s a box of 12 too. Both sizes were sold out online when I checked on 24 October, so try the Commercial Bay store. The nicest-looking Halloween thing in the city, and the one I’d take to a party.
Devonport Chocolates has a Halloween range: tequila skulls (six for $29.90), a box of three bloodshot eyeballs ($14.90), and gift bags in orange or black with a ghost and a witch on sticks plus the eyeballs ($25). Made in Devonport, sold online and at their shops.
Most bakery and café specials are announced in the last week, so I’ll update this section nearer the day.
Día de Muertos at Lake House Arts. Image: Latin Kiwi
Also on that weekend
The BNZ Auckland Diwali Festival is in Aotea Square on Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, 12pm to 9pm, free, with fireworks each evening. Our Diwali guide has the full programme.
Day of the Dead at Lake House Arts is Sunday 1 November, 4pm to 8.30pm, free, with a koha for Lake House. Latin Kiwi’s altar exhibition, made by members of Auckland’s Mexican community for the people they’ve lost, opens at 4.30pm, with a piñata for the kids at 5pm, Grupo La Bamba dancing from about 5.15pm and Acústica Latina playing from 5.30pm.
Día de Muertos at Lake House Arts. Image: Latin Kiwi
Go for dinner. There’s a whole line-up of Mexican food trucks and stalls in one place, from El Patio, Ay Caramba, Mama Yoyas and Cornelio to Kokoli’s pan de muerto, Delissa’s aguas frescas and margaritas from Besos Margarita. Take cash, some of the stalls don’t have EFTPOS, and parking is tight so go by bus or share a car. Registration on Humanitix is optional, and it goes ahead in light rain.
The Auckland Marathon is Sunday 1 November. Roads around the course close from early morning and two southbound lanes on the Harbour Bridge are shut, so plan a late start.
