So, where do you propose to be this Halloween? At home? With your friends? Partying in a club? Why not try something new? After all, with the number of Halloween attractions and haunted houses in New York why would you want to do the same old thing this year? Check out some of the more interesting alternatives available to you in and around New York City.
Bayville Scream Park
Everyone is screaming their heads off. Why? Why? That’s because Bayville Scream Park has been voted the scariest and best Haunted House for the 2010 season. That calls for loud calls of cheers considering they’ve done these 5 years in a row! The Bayville Scream Park in Long Island will be open from October 11 through October 31 and from November 5th to 7th. Go explore their 3 crowd-pulling attractions – Uncle Needles Fun House of Fear in 3D (with the Mystery Mirror Maze), the Bloodworth Manor, and the Temple of Terror.
Blood Manor
No need to go too far from home when you can spend a day of ghoulish fun at New York City’s best haunted attraction – the Blood Manor. Spread over 5000 square feet, the manor is your worst nightmare come true, that too in 3D! The Manor is designed as a ghostly labyrinth with twenty themed rooms, each of which has adequate amounts of blood and gore and chills. The experience can be quite intense and therefore, it is not recommended for kids under 14 years of age.
- Where: 542 West 27th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues
- Phone: 212-290-2825.
- When: October 1-3, 7-10, 14-17, 21-24, 26-31, and November 5-6
- Hours: 7:30PM-Midnight on Thursdays, 7:30PM-2AM on Fridays and Saturdays, 6PM-11PM on Sundays, 7:30PM-1AM on October 27-30, and 6PM-2AM on Halloween Night
- Admission: General Admission E-tickets: $30 and At the Door $35; R.I.P. Express Entry E-tickets: $45 from October 1-10, $50 (+ $3.50 handling) from October 14-November 6
Nightmare: Superstitions
It’s been seven years and this haunted house downtown is still as popular as ever. And this year, for the price of one ticket, you get to enjoy two experiences. The first one is Nightmare: Superstition which is set in an insane asylum. The visitors are forced to break a superstition in one room and get punished for this act in the next room. The second attraction is Fun House, where the inmates of the asylum have a twisted carnival style of running the place. Nightmare is not meant for children under 7 years while kids under 12 have to be accompanied by an adult.
Awww kiddies, no need to feel left out! Oct 23 and Oct 30 is the day for you. From 10AM to 3PM there will be a highly kid-friendly extravaganza for you to enjoy complete with candies and balloons, and all things nice and not-terrifying.
- Where: NOHO Event Center, 623 Broadway at Houston Street (enter on Mercer Street)
- When: September 24-26 and 30; October 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, 20-24, and 26-31; November 4-6.
- Admission: $30 in advance, $35 at the door; Express entry for $60; The Super VIP ticket: $100 includes Express entry, 2 drinks, a backstage tour with the director, a t-shirt, and a gift bag.
Village Halloween Parade
The Village Halloween Parade, now in its 38th year is considered to be the “most outrageous Halloween event in the world.” Not only is it the largest public Halloween celebration in the nation, it also happens to be its only major night parade. It is attended by more than 2 million people while a little over a million watch it on television. It has also been listed as one of the 100 Things to do before you do.
Now, that is a lot of tall praise for an event that began as a walk from house to house organized by a mask maker and puppeteer for his children and their friends in Greenwich Village in 1973. After the third year, Theater for the New City decided to organize the event on a larger scale. That year, the parade attracted more participants and it journeyed down many more streets in the Village.
By the 8th year, the crowd swelled to 100,000 and that’s when Jeanne Fleming, Celebration Artist and Producer and a long-time participant in the Parade, took over the event. It is thanks to her efforts and her work with the residents, local Community Board, schools, merchants, and the Police, today the Parade has more than 60,000 costumed participants, making it the largest celebration of its kind on this planet. It has also been picked by Festivals International as “The Best Event in the World.”
From a tiny article in the New York Times to national and worldwide media coverage, the journey of the Village Halloween Parade has been long, fruitful, and quite exciting. Typified by gigantic puppets made of paper-mâché, the parade also includes jugglers, stilt-walkers, and break dancers. The theme is different every year and that dictates the style of costumes and dresses of the participants. It’s a no holds barred events and it is not uncommon to come across costumes that vary from strange to eccentric to downright bizarre.
If you do not see yourself as a participant in the Parade you could also choose to a volunteer. Volunteers are given various different tasks, ranging from acting as a puppeteer to raising money, to marshaling and lining up the event. You can be attired in a simple black outfit or a costume that allows you to move freely. That’s all it takes to be part of a historic event!
- When: 31 Oct (annual)
- Where: Parade starts off from 6th Ave. South of Spring St., Manhattan
- Cost: Free
- Time: 7 pm marchers need to assemble south of Spring Street between 6pm and 7 pm