It’s Halloween weekend, but before you head out trick-or-treating, be sure to hit up some of the fun and spooky events taking place all around the Garden State. From (not so) scary movies to trunk or treats in your neighborhood to a yummy pumpkin pancake breakfast event there’s just so much fun stuff for you and the kids to do.
ALL WEEKEND
Haunted Wild West City Fest
50 Lackawanna Dr., Stanhope
Saturday – Sunday
The Haunted Wild West Fest is back for both day and night events. Hit the trail to the ghost town, enjoy nonstop western entertainment all day Saturday and Sunday in October with a Halloween Twist. Take part in a fun and spooky interactive western experience like none other for kids of all ages. Children can participate in the Wild West Fest costume contest and win fun prizes.
Nickelodeon Boo-niverse
American Dream, 1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford
All weekend, various hours
This spooky season, Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park transforms into Boo-niverse with 
TreEscape Aerial Adventure Halloween Climb
414 County Rd. 517, Verona
Saturday – Sunday
Celebrate Halloween in the treetops! Families are invited to wear their best climb-friendly Halloween costume to be entered into a photo contest for a chance to receive tickets for a future climb. Prizes will be awarded for the best individual costume and team contest. Popular times sell out, so it is recommended to make a reservation as soon as possible to claim a preferred time slot.
Family Fall Fun at Argos Farm
Argos Farm, Forked River
Friday – Sunday
Activities for all ages including the hay mountain, cow train, double hay slide and pedal carts. Enjoy a scenic ride on a tractor drawn wagons or test your navigational skills in the 2-acre corn maze.
Halloween Light Show
Demarest Farms, Hillsdale
Friday – Sunday
Take your vehicle on a guided tour through 32 acres of brilliant Halloween light displays, warm up by the fire pit and enjoy hot cocoa and treats in the retail farm market. This experience is appropriate for all ages.
Harvest Moon Nights
Alstede Farms, Chester
Friday – Saturday
This event offers something for everyone, from delightful harvest moon hayrides to nighttime corn maze fun. Pick your own pumpkin, enjoy live entertainment, sip fresh-pressed cider, all while creating the perfect family memories around a campfire.
Great Pumpkin Festival 2021
Heaven Hill Farm, Vernon
Thursday – Sunday
This event dubs itself the “Largest Fall Festival in Northern New Jersey,” and has over 40 different activities each day. Kids will love the hay crawl, pig races, pedal carts and more. Heaven Hill Farm also offers seven different food stands.
Diggerfest
Diggerland, West Berlin
Saturday – Sunday
It’s the time of year all of the pumpkins sprout up to drive, ride and operate all of the amazing machines. Enjoy live music, specialty food, hayrides and plenty of fun and games at this fun fall festival.
Jack-O-Lantern Experience
Skylands Stadium, Augusta
Friday – Sunday
Skylands Stadium is transformed with over 6,000 Jack-O-Lanterns throughout the stadium, and surrounding cornfields. Sussex County’s Family Entertainment Destination will be set ablaze with spectacular visuals and a thrilling Fall Festival.
Fall Family Fun Weekends
Terhune Orchards, Princeton
Saturday – Sunday
Visit the barnyard of animals, adventure barn, hay bale & corn mazes, pony rides, pumpkin picking & painting, pedal tractors and enjoy fresh, open air. Have fun at the hippity-hop corral and duck races. Explore the hands-on fun in our discovery barn, little tots farm store and junior mechanics shop.
Brick-or-Treat
Legoland Discovery Center, East Rutherford
Friday- Sunday
Celebrate the scariest time of the year at LEGOLAND Discovery Center. Brick-or-Treat Activities include spooky scenes in the MINILAND scavenger hunt, Spooktacular Costume Contest held on Sunday, October 31 at 1 pm and Halloween-themed Creative Workshop builds.
FRIDAY
Laurita Halloween Party
Laurita Winery, New Egypt
Laurita will host an evening of Halloween fun with live music and a chance to walk away with cash cards prizes totaling over $1,000. There will be four Halloween costume contests: Best Overall Costume (Age 12 +) $500, Best Child Costume (Under 12) $200, Scariest Costume $200, Classiest Costume $200. There will be live music and an acoustic performance by Angelina Bella and Kyle & Kay. Jersey Jam will perform songs from the 1960s to today.
Spooktacular Halloween Celebration
Main St., Somerville
Enjoy music, activities, and entertainment at Division Street, Main Street, Borough Hall and the Courthouse Lawn. Collect Candy at Trunk or Treat and at participating merchants. There’s free parking in lots 1, 2, and 4 as a treat for parents. At 7 pm, head to the Courthouse Lawn for a free screening of Hocus Pocus. Rain or shine.
New Players Company Presents Trunk or Treat
Little Theatre and RHS Parking Lot, Ridgewood
Meet up at Ridgewood High School for Trunk or Treat featuring a performance and candy. Kids are encouraged to wear costumes and masks will be worn by everyone. Rain or shine. This event will be held in the Campus Center in case of rain.
Hometown Halloween Parade
Palmer Square Green, Princeton
Head to Palmer Square at 5:15pm before the parade starts promptly at 5:45pm and revelers make their way through Downtown Princeton. The parade will culminate at the Princeton Family YMCA where the festivities continue with music, trunk or treat and more!
Spooky Stories Read-a-Thon
Put on your best costume, grab a mug of hot chocolate and curl up under your favorite blanket and listen to ghouls, ghosts, witches and things that go bump in the night. It’s time for Tempest Productions’ free 6-hour Virtual Read-A-Thon, a night full of spooky stories from Click, Clack, Boo and It’s Skeleton Time to the The Tell-Tale Heart and some truly terrifying horror-tales. Register here.
SATURDAY
Zombie Apocalypse Bike Ride
Big Bear Gear, Lambertville
Join on Saturday, October 30 for a Zombie Apocalypse Bike Ride, starting at Fireman’s Field at Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park. Participants will bike approximately 3.2 miles round trip to Lambertville and back. Zombie attire and/or makeup strictly required. Bring your own bike or rent from Big Bear Gear (must reserve any rental bike in advance at BigBearGearNJ.com).
Fall-O-Ween Festival
600 Bloomfield Ave., Verona
This event is an expansion of last year’s Pumpkin Fest and will include pumpkin painting, entertainment by Polka Dot!, candy apples, goodie bags, inflatables, a petting zoo and a costume parade. The festivities will run from 10 am-12 pm in the Town Square and the downtown trick-or-treating event will follow directly after from 12 pm-2 pm.
The Last Hurrah Halloween Hullabaloo Auto & Motorcycle Show
Texas Roadhouse, Holmdel
The show is a charitable event which benefits the club’s vision, hearing and health initiatives including free vision screenings for children throughout Monmouth County, free eye exams and eyeglasses for those with financial need and the free hearing aid program. All years, makes, models and classes of autos and motorcycles are welcome. Live music will be provided by Walter Cooper of Soundz Unlimited.
Day of the Dead Workshop
Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton
Receive a tour of the vibrant El Día de los Muertos gallery installation and learn the customs of this colorful, art-filled holiday! Then join an instructor for creating your own nichos, papel picados, calaveras or paper flowers. These projects will certainly become treasured family heirlooms for many Day of the Dead celebrations to come. This workshop is designed for a child and a parent or caregiver to complete projects together.
The Witches
Hopewell Theater, Hopewell
Anjelica Huston stars in this fantasy based on a Roald Dahl book about a little boy and his kindly grandmother thwarting a coven of witches who want to rid Britain of children by turning them into mice. Jim Henson devised the creature effects in his last film.
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 In Concert
NJPAC, Newark
The Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in Concert, the second to last film in the Harry Potter series. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will perform Alexandre Desplat’s incredible score live from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 while the entire film plays in high-definition on a 40-foot screen.
All Hallow’s Eve Concert at Historic New Bridge Landing
1201 Main St., River Edge
The Bergen County Historical Society presents All Hallows’ Eve: Songs of Love, Death, and the Supernatural from 2 pm- 3:30 pm. Balladeers Ridley and Anne Enslow, performing on the fiddle and hammered dulcimer, will present a 60-minute outdoor concert at the Campbell-Christie House, an 18th century Jersey-Dutch sandstone house. The concert will trace the legends, beliefs, and superstitions about Halloween beginning in medieval times through the 18th century and beyond. Bring your own chairs and or blankets.
Beetlejuice
Hopewell Theater, Hopewell
Michael Keaton, Academy Award-winner Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Winona Ryder star in director Tim Burton’s comic twist on supernatural horror tales – Beetlejuice. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Toms River Halloween Parade
Main St., Toms River
Toms River Vol. Fire Co. No 1 presents the 82nd annual Halloween Parade. Meet at the Parade Steps at 7pm sharp on Main Street at Highland Parkway. Marchers proceed down Main St. and turn on to Washington Street. This year’s Grand Marshall is “The American Patriot.”
SUNDAY
New Jersey State Museum Halloween Spooktacular
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton
Get “Lost in Space” at our annual Halloween Spooktacular on Sunday, Oct. 31! Join the Spooktacular Parade and show off your costume, plus enter to win one of 12 giveaway packages. Parade participants ages 12 and under will also receive one free ticket to experience a Planetarium show. Other spooky space offerings on Sunday include take-and-make alien crafts, DIY laser blasters, and trick-or-treat goodies.
Farm to Table Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast
Alstede Farms, Chester
Indulge in a hearty farm-to-table pumpkin pancake breakfast complete with delicious homemade pumpkin pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, country sausage, breakfast potatoes, coffee and drinks. You and your guests will be greeted with a scenic wagon ride around the farm which will ultimately make its stop at Harvest Hall where the breakfast buffet will be served. Following breakfast, you can continue your day on the farm picking apples or pumpkins.
Laurie Berkner’s Halloween Party
Virtual
Beloved children’s musician Laurie Berkner invites families to stop in for a spell at two special “Halloween Party” LIVE Virtual Family Concerts at 12 pm and 5 pm Eastern Time on Laurie’s concert website. For double the fun, a family ticket grants admission to both livestreams. Fans of all ages should plan to grab their superhero capes, their instruments (or noisemakers), their dancin’ shoes, and a stuffed animal (for their heads)!
Coco
State Theater New Jersey, New Brunswick
Come along with Miguel, an aspiring young musician, as he embarks on an extraordinary journey to the magical land of his ancestors. He finds an unexpected friend in the charming trickster Hector, who helps Miguel uncover the mysteries behind his family’s stories and traditions. Inspired by Mexico’s Día de Los Muertos, this Oscar-winning animated film is full of music, color and fun.
