The Spookiest Events Happening in Brisbane to Celebrate Halloween
From eerie shipping containers and scary movies to onstage witches and trick-or-treat trails, here's where to get into the Halloween spirit in Brisbane.
The Spookiest Events Happening in Brisbane to Celebrate Halloween
From eerie shipping containers and scary movies to onstage witches and trick-or-treat trails, here's where to get into the Halloween spirit in Brisbane.
Maybe you adore frights and scares. Perhaps bumps and jumps aren't for you. Don't worry, Halloween still caters for everyone. Between the nauseating amounts of lollies, flexing your arts and crafts skills to fashion yourself a costume, and the themed cocktails, plus the all-round excuse to party, there's something on the agenda no matter how deeply you embrace horror.
Trick or treating isn't as big here as it is in the US, but we'll be damned if we won't use Halloween as an excuse for a spooky time. And, thankfully, there are plenty of eerie events and horror-centric nights happening around town for you to dive into.
Here's a list of some of the best things going on in and around Brisbane for Halloween this year, ranging from the not-so scary (catching a blockbuster musical or a spooky-themed game of mini golf) to the truly unsettling (an old favourite: eerie movies) — and including the wild (partying on a yacht in costume) and wonderful (drinks to fit the date), too.
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Like beer? Like monsters? Like your brews named after creepy critters, with bottle, can and label artwork to match? Horror-loving drinkers, there’s never been a better time to pair your beverages with your fondness for all things scary — but from 12pm on Saturday, October 19 will be even better than usual thanks to Netherworld’s Monster Menagerie Beer Festival.
The returning event, this year named Monster Menagerie VII: Mystery Menagerie, will bring together nine yeasty tipples, strange creatures and stellar collaborations, all for a day of boozing fun. Taking part: Aether Brewing, Archer Brewing, Hip Hops Brewers, Wayward Brewing Co, Common People Brewing Co, Seeker Brewing, Slipstream Brewing Co and Buddy Brewing — and the delightfully named Hohly Water is back as well. Tickets cost $35, which include a tasting paddle featuring 150 millilitres of each and every one of these nine beers, as well as a limited edition enamel pin and five game tokens.
Image: Cole Bennetts.
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Donning a costume, going door to door and chirping “trick or treat” is a tried-and-tested way to celebrate Halloween. Watching spooky movies is another. Tucking into themed bites to eat while sipping cocktails to match is one more method of getting into the spirit of the occasion. And then there’s simply putting pumpkins all over the place.
In one manner or another, all of the above are part of Trick or Treat Little Stanley Street, the Halloween event that turns a stretch of South Bank into one of Brisbane’s go-to spots to mark October 31. This year’s event runs across Friday, October 25–Saturday, October 26, from 5–9pm on both days, so you can begin your Halloween shenanigans before the eeriest date on the annual calendar. There’s a trick-or-treat trail for kids — this is a family-friendly fest — but also plenty for adults, including hitting the precinct’s eateries. Attendees of all ages will want to hit up the Little Stanley Street South Lawn, where a big screen will be playing Scooby-Doo, Monster Family, The Addams Family and Casper.
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Brisbane’s busy market scene loves an occasion. Mother’s Day markets, winter markets, Christmas in July markets, spring markets, festive markets — this city has seen them all, including in 2024, and will continue to do so. Accordingly, it should come as zero surprise that Halloween markets are also on the list. Redcliffe Markets Festival of Frights is one of them. Only this spooky event will take you trick-or-treating by the Redcliffe jetty.
Fancy an eerie theme and a killer waterside location? That’s on offer from 4–9pm on Saturday, October 26. Also on the bill: fireworks, a scavenger hunts, Halloween-appropriate decorations all over the place, and music and live entertainment to fit the mood — including roving pirate entertainers. And, a heap of food stalls serving up bites to eat, and drinks, also likely with a theme. Entry is free, but you’ll want your wallet for all that browsing and buying — there’ll be more than 200 stalls to peruse. And yes, dressing up is welcome for this wander along Redcliffe Parade till 9pm.
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Southeast Queensland’s penchant for a party boat has a long history, from The Island to Seadeck and now Yot Club. Haven’t had the joy of revelling on the water on Halloween? Give it a try while cruising around the Gold Coast on Saturday, October 26.
Yot Club is setting off from Arm C, Mariners Cove, Main Beach for its Halloween bash, boarding at 6pm for a 6.30pm departure. On offer: spooky-themed cocktails, a photo booth to snap all those costumes and prizes for best dressed as well. Yes, you do need to don something to suit the occasion to hop onboard; “only guests in full costume can board this ghost ship of a party,” the venue advises. Prices vary, starting at entry from $49.95 with drinks and food purchased separately, and also including a $99.95 option with a sip upon arrival.
Image:Yot Club.
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Different people are scared by different things. Different folks can handle different levels of heat in their food, too. Do you get spooked by spice — but in a good way? If so, the Briz Chilli and Beer Fest is clearly for you.
Obviously, things will be getting hot in Salisbury at this returning fest — which isn’t officially a Halloween festival, too, as it has been in past years, but is still taking place just before the most frightening day of the year in 2024. From 12–7pm on Sunday, October 27, everything will be tongue-tinglingly hot. Face-meltingly hot. Homer Simpson running, screaming and waving his hands around hot. That’s what happens when you spice up your weekend with a chilli festival, after all. Adding some zest to Ballistic Brewery, there’ll be plenty of stalls offering plenty of chilli — and not just in food form.
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If you’re going to watch a horror movie this Halloween, you may as well do so while you’re splashing around in a pool. That’s what’s on the bill at Brisbane’s returning outdoor cinema pop-up, with Float-In Cinema back with a Halloween 2024 edition. Returning to W Brisbane, it’s taking over the riverside hotel’s WET Deck for three nights in October, pairing swim-in movies with food and cocktails.
Screening across Monday, October 28–Wednesday, October 30, this excuse to see a horror-themed flick in a pool while downing drinks costs $130 per person, which includes a floating bed, a snack box, unlimited popcorn, and your choice of either a glass of bubbles or a cocktail upon arrival. You’ll have to buy the rest of your beverages on top, but they will be delivered to you on floating trays. As for what you’ll be watching, get ready to get spooked out by Hocus Pocus, the 2020 version of The Witches and the 90s big-screen take on The Addams Family.
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Halloween is here for 2024 — and if you’d like to celebrate with music trivia, Not On Your Rider has the night for you. The event runs regularly throughout the year, but it themes up its October session. The date: Thursday, October 31, of course, from 6.30pm at The Triffid.
If you like music and you like trivia, then TV shows such as Spicks and Specks and Never Mind the Buzzcocks likely sit high on your favourites list, with both combining tunes, musicians and questions about them. But in Brisbane, you don’t have to confine your music trivia fix to staring at a screen. One of the city’s most reliably entertaining evenings out comes in the form of this IRL quiz show that’s also filled with well-known faces — but staged live in the River City, with Brisbanites invited not only to watch but to also play along.
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When you’re a bar that nods to all things spooky in your name, and you boast more than a couple of monster-themed pinball and arcade machines, then you’re going to like the end of October. Netherworld does, of course. Indeed, the Valley pub celebrates Halloween in the expected style each and every year.
So, what’s on the agenda, other than a few pumpkins around the place? The venue’s themed beer fest is back, and so is its annual A Netherworld Halloween party. The latter hits on Thursday, October 31, getting into the spirit of the occasion on the appropriate date. Expect a ghoulish night of scary fun, complete with those horror-centric pinball tables. Yes, you can call it a monster mash if you like.
Image: Sarah Ward.
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Six movies, one night, two cinemas, nothing but classics: welcome to Dendy Portside and Coorparoo‘s Halloween House of Horror lineup for 2024. On Thursday, October 31 — when else? — the two picture palaces are dedicating their screens to scary movies. You can catch all six at Coorparoo, and just a couple at Portside. Wherever you hit, however, you’ll be in horror heaven.
On the lineup everywhere: a date with Leatherface courtesy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, plus Shaun of the Dead‘s horror-comedy fun. Just at Coorparoo, the program also features Takashi Miike’s (Lumberjack the Monster) Audition, the OG 1922 version of Nosferatu before the new remake drops, Sissy Spacek (Night Sky) getting bloody in 1976’s Carrie and Kurt Russell (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) trying to survive in 1982’s The Thing. Also, if you dress up in an October 31-appropriate costume and buy a ticket to any of the Halloween House of Horror sessions, you’ll score a free small popcorn.
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Before mini-golf bars started popping up around Brisbane — Fortitude Valley, the Wintergarden, Chermside, Mt Gravatt and South Bank all have them, just to name a few spots — the Victoria Park Putt Putt Course provided a trusty place to get tap, tap, tapping. Don’t go thinking that it doesn’t like to theme its courses, just like its fellow golfing havens.
Head by as Halloween approaches, in fact, and you’ll see just how much it loves making over its turf. Until Sunday, November 3, the venue’s greens have gotten a horror-themed makeover again — and, no, missing a hole in one won’t be the most terrifying thing about your stint on the course. As it did in 2022 and 2023, the mini-golf spot is busting out something that’s haunted one of Stephen King’s best-known horror novels, the movies based on them, and just life in general: clowns being creepy, chilling and downright terrifying.
Image: Stephanie Adams Photography.
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When 2023 arrived, it marked two decades since composer Stephen Schwartz and playwright Winnie Holzman took a book inspired by The Wizard of Oz, put it to music and turned it into one of Broadway’s biggest hits of the 21st century. In 2024, Brisbane musical theatre fans have their latest chance to see that very show right here at home — because Wicked has flown into the Queensland capital, playing until Sunday, November 24.
Even if you haven’t seen the stage blockbuster before, including on its past Aussie run from 2008–11, then you’ve likely heard of it. Following the Land of Oz’s witches — telling their untold true tale is the musical’s whole angle, in fact — Wicked has notched up more awards than you can fit in a hefty cauldron over the years. That includes three Tonys from ten nominations, a Grammy, an Olivier Award and six Drama Desk Awards. Also huge: its worldwide footprint, playing in 16 countries around the globe since its 2003 debut.
Image: Jeff Busby.
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For the past few years, the unnerving Séance installation has been popping up around southeast Queensland and spooking the region out. Until Sunday, December 8, 2024, it’s back again — because when better than before, on and after Halloween?
This time around, it has setting up its big, white container at South Bank’s Maritime Museum alongside fellow pop-ups Maho Magic Bar and Flight. Unlike most shipping containers around the place, this one isn’t being used to transport furniture. And, given that the word ‘séance’ is written on the side in black, it’s definitely more than a little ominous. Participants will be able to take a seat inside, and then put on a headset. You’ll next be told to put both hands on the table. The lights go out, leaving the place in absolute darkness — and, for 20 uneasy minutes, you’ll be taken on an immersive journey led only by touch and sounds.
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Not content with terrifying southeast Queenslanders with their unsettling shipping container installations just once, the folks at Realscape Productions keep bringing back their disquieting Darkfield experiences again and again. The latest chance to set your nerves on edge? The fact that it’s called Flight says plenty.
This immersive favourite involves stepping inside a 40-foot steel box, sitting in pitch darkness and listening to a particularly heightened soundscape while the production plays with your sense of reality. For those who aren’t fond of flying or don’t cope well with the possibility of things going awry in the air, you might want to stay away. If your stomach can handle all of the above, step onboard. You won’t actually be jetting anywhere, of course; however you will be strapping yourself into a section of a real commercial airliner, then pondering the many possible outcomes if the cabin suddenly happened to lose pressure, all at South Bank’s Maritime Museum.
Image: Mihaela Bodlovic.
Top image: Joel Deveraux.
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