HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES
Frightful Festivals, Haunted Pub Crawls Spooky Street Scenes & Creepy Costume Parties: The Best Halloween Festivities in Los Angeles
The Greater Los Angeles Area offers many ways to enjoy Halloween besides walking through scary mazes. There is also a wide range of Halloween Festivities that appeal to everyone from youngsters to teens to parents. This page lists events that that are geared for adults, though some may be suitable for the whole family; we have a separate page for Kid-Friendly Halloween Fun, including neighborhoods noted for trick-or-treating opportunities thanks to their marvelous multitudes of decorated houses.
Family-friendly events listed here include block parties and similar Halloween festivals. Some business areas block off traffic, allowing costumed revelers to take over the streets. Some of these Halloween events are fund-raisers, organized by community centers to benefit local causes.
The more mature Halloween Festivities include music festivals that appeal to teens and young adults and also haunted pub crawls, which offer a night of drunken debauchery. In some cases, immersive events provide devilish entertainment in the guise of dinner parties, with sinister costumed characters creating an adults-only experience. (If these events have an actual plot, we file them under Halloween Theatre.)
Not all Los Angeles Halloween Festivities are officially organized events; some are informal, such as the Hollywood Halloween Street Fair, which consists of people showing up in costume on Halloween Night for a sort of spontaneous sidewalk parade. The city does not endorse the event, and the police no longer block automobile traffic on Hollywood Boulevard; crowds show up anyway.
Halloween Festivities Updates
Read more about our favorite Halloween Festivals & Fun
Best Halloween Festivities
For those who prefer not to scroll through the entire list, here are the Halloween Festivals and Fun we most highly recommend.
Dia De Los Muertos Festival
Haunted Little Tokyo
Nights of the Jack: A Halloween Jack O’Lantern Experience
West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval
Los Angeles Halloween Festivities: A List
Below is a list of long-running annual Halloween Festivals and Fun.
Cemetery Lane Trick R Treat
Dia De Los Muertos Festival
Ghost Walk Riverside
Haunt O’ Ween L.A.
Haunted Little Tokyo
Hollywood Halloween Street Fair
Insomniac’s Escape Halloween
Nights of the Jack: A Halloween Jack O’Lantern Experience
Shoreline Village Halloween Festivities
West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval
Other Halloween Festivities
Our page lists the more notable Halloween Festivities in Los Angeles, including some community-oriented events judged worthy of attention even if you do not live nearby. However, most of these Halloween activities fly under our radar because they are intended to serve the local residents, not attract outsiders. If you are looking for something in your area, check out this 2014 list from the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which offers haunts at numerous community centers and parks around the city.
Below are Halloween festivities that have yet to be added to our list above. Any that become established perennials will find a place among our permanent listings.
Carved
Descanso Gardens
1418 Descanso Drive
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
(818) 949-4200
Website: descanso.org
2023 Dates: 6–10pm from October 6 to 29, rain or shine.
Tickets: $25 for children and $35 for adults on weeknights; $30 for children and $45 for adults on weekends. Descanso Garden members get $5 off.
Carved offers a family-friendly Halloween fun for all ages, featuring hundreds of carved pumpkins in the Camellia Forest. Halloween 2022 promises to expand with new activities. Guests can watch artists sculpting pumpkins or visit the pumpkin house, hay maze, a UV “black light” experiences, and a Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) installation at the Amphitheater. Holiday-themed food and beverages will be available.
