The world's best Halloween parties
1st Jan 2015 Travel
Around the world, Halloween is always an excuse for a huge party. Here are 10 of the best bashes for ghouls, ghost-seekers and gore-lovers.
Derry, Northern Ireland
Image via Media.Ireland
Halloween has its roots in Ireland where it started life as ‘Samhain Night’, an end-of-harvest festival welcoming in the year’s darker half (ee.
The modern day Banks of the Foyle Carnival in Northern Ireland’s small second city celebrates this. It’s a nine-day extravaganza of ghost buses, bonfires and haunted houses, climaxing in a spine-chilling fireworks display. Pubs supposedly refuse to serve anyone not in fancy dress.
Chalindrey, France
Image via Ecole communale du Centre de Rixensart
In France’s sleepy Champagne-Adrenne region, the century-old Fête des Sorcières (Witch Festival) peaks with an all-night Celtic dance. That’s right: ceilidh, Halloween-style.
The chaos pauses briefly for a toast (of fizz, naturally) to the freshly crowned Miss Sorcière. Talk about a femme fatale…
Limoges, France
Image via Travel Away
Over in western France, Limoges is famous for three things: pottery, cognac barrels and France’s biggest Halloween hurrah.
Every October, the handsome city witnesses a vast array of street shows, fairs, spooky parades and parties, and welcomes around 50,000 face-painted carousers.
Ostend, Belgium
Image via Travel Away
Seaside Ostend impatiently begins celebrating Halloween in early October. Large spiders wander the streets, sailing vessels become pirate ships and macabre decorations hang on humdrum buildings.
A costumed children’s procession heralds 31 October and one day later, a lamplit parade concludes in Grote Markt’s plaza with a feverish ‘witch dance’.
Revels typically continue well past the witching hour.
New York City, USA
Image via Bryan Haeffele
No country does Halloween more zealously than America and the largest jamboree takes place in NYC. Involving two million people, the Village Halloween Parade shuts down most of Lower Manhattan as huge papier-mâché beasts and fearful pageant puppets strut their strange stuff.
Watch while chomping on a Big (toffee) Apple, or join in: anyone in fancy dress can march along.
Oaxaca, Mexico
Image via Kenneth Garrett
Mexico doesn’t do All Saints Eve, but it does famously mark a Day of the Dead on 2 November, when spirits are said to return home to their families.
The build-up begins on 31 October, and nowhere gets more involved than beautiful Oaxaca. Expect cemetery vigils, night time comparsa processions, sand-tapestry competitions, frenzied fiestas and pop-up altars appearing around town.
Los Angeles, USA
Image via Gentlemen's Guide LA
A tailor-made holiday wouldn't be complete without experiencing Halloween in LA. Santa Monica Boulevard’s chichi boutiques and trendy bars make a glitzy venue for the West Hollywood Carnival: an annual street party in which frightening, face-painted freaks mix with A-list celebs.
All the while, live music is performed across six stages. Come nightfall, the street’s nightclubs entice revellers inside with drink specials and themed nights. Bloody Mary, anyone?
Bangkok, Thailand
Image via Ahram
Among the many boisterous Halloween parties in Thailand’s garish capital, few top the one at pedestrianised Silom Soi 4.
A hub for by the city’s gay population, this trendy, gaudy street hosts a party and gives prizes to the most OTT outfits. There are even themed ‘sexy ghost’ nights at the adjacent clubs.
Salem, USA
Image via Jared Charney
Infamous for its 17th-century witch trials, New England town Salem now throws a month-long Festival of the Dead every October, including, uniquely, a Psychic Fair and Witchcraft Expo.
The end of the month sees crystal balls replaced by costumes as the Hawthorne Hotel’s legendary Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball—featuring voodoo ceremonies, ritual drummers and wasted witch doctors—gets underway.
Feature image, New York celebrates Halloween, via Flip Key
