Vancouver Halloween Events

Halloween activities take place in Vancouver in October including haunted houses, trick-or-treating, costume parties, tours and other events.

There are activities appropriate for children of all ages, and other events just for adults.

Halloween in Vancouver

Halloween highlights in the Lower Mainland include especially frightening things like the PNE’s Fright Nights, but also other great fun stuff like dressing up at work and trick-or-treating with children around the neighbourhood.

This article includes a list of the following types of Halloween and autumn-themed events:

Click any of the above links to jump to a specific kind of event, or continue reading to learn all about the Lower Mainland’s various Halloween-themed events and attractions.

Halloween happenings that take place in Metro Vancouver most years include the following:

Ongoing Haunted and Autumn-themed Attractions

Metro Vancouver is home to numerous Halloween and autumn-themed attractions that run for multiple days leading up to Halloween. Below are some of the main ones.

Burnaby’s Haunted Village – although free in the summer, admission at Burnaby Village during this family-friendly event is about $14 for adults, seniors and youth, and $9 for children ages 2 to 12. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, live entertainment and free carousel rides (which normally cost a couple of dollars). In 2019 is open October 25th to 28th between 6:00 and 9:00 pm each night.
FlyOver Canada at Halloween – the popular multi-dimensional theatre attraction at Canada Place gets decorated and its shows have a Halloween theme. In 2019 it runs from October 24th until November 3rd. The shows are a great way to learn about and experience Canada while celebrating the Halloween season.

Fright Nights – Playland’s annual Halloween celebrations takes place at the PNE grounds at 2901 East Hastings Street and features half a dozen haunted houses and over a dozen rides. Tickets range from about $27 to $47 for general admission at the gate depending on the date, or slightly cheaper if purchased online or at 7-11 stores. Admission with Rapid Pass, which helps you skip the main lineups, usually costs between around $69 and $109 at the gate. In 2019 Fright Nights is open from 7 pm until late most days from October 4th to 31st.
Halloween Spooktacular – Halloween activities at Britannia Mine between West Vancouver and Squamish on the last weekend or two in October. 2019 dates are the Saturdays and Sundays of October 19th-20th and 26th-27th.
Potter’s House of Horrors – two exceptional haunted houses in Surrey run for most of October. Potter’s House of Horror’s is open every day in October beginning on October 4th (except for the Thanksgiving Monday).
VanDusen Glow in the Garden – lit-up carved pumpkins and Halloween activities at VanDusen Garden at night during the last week or two of October. In 2019 the theme is a story that follows an owl, Anna the hummingbird and her friends through the gardens. This year the event runs from October 17th until the 27th.
Mystery Nights – groups of two to five players can try their luck at solving a cold-case murder investigation in the streets of Gastown. Games take place every evening in October starting at 7 pm.

Britannia Mine Halloween Skeleton — Halloween at Britannia Mine

Halloween Walking Tours

An interesting and entertaining way to enjoy the Halloween season is by taking a guided tour. There are some great walking tours to choose from, including the following:

Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours – a selection of exceptional and highly recommended guided tours each led by a professional actor. Perfect ones for Halloween include the Lost Souls of Gastown, Forbidden Tour and Secrets of Stanley Park. See below for details about each.
- The Lost Souls of Gastown tours are about 1 km in length and include stories about smallpox, fire and murder. The tours are great for Halloween and start at Cathedral Square (at the corner of Richards and Dunsmuir) and end at Maple Tree Square in Gastown.
- The Forbidden Tours go through Victory Square, Chinatown and Gastown, and they involve tales about opium dens, crime, bootlegging and corruption from days long ago. These tours take place in early October and they are also about 1 km in length.
- The Secrets of Stanley Park tours explore world-famous Stanley Park, including its seawall and paths through the forest. They take place on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons at 2:00 pm and involve stories about Deadman’s Island, cemeteries and crime scenes.

Vancouver Gastown Walking Tour — Lost Souls of Gastown Tour at Halloween

Halloween Party Boats

A popular activity for party goers is to go on a Halloween cruise on the weekend just before or after October 31st. These involve excursions on boats that hold anywhere from 50 to as many as 400+ people. Costumes are encouraged and there is usually dancing and DJ music.

A couple of Halloween cruises taking place in 2019 are the following:

Spooky Halloween Boat Party – a 3-hour excursion on Friday, October 25th, on a cruise boat that holds up to 300 people. The vessel has three levels and a massive outer deck. The trip starts and finishes in Vancouver at 1601 Bayshore Drive in Coal Harbour (by the Westin Bayshore Hotel). DJ music includes Hip Hop, Throwback, Top 40, Reggaeton and passenger requests. Costumes are encouraged and tickets start at $25 (plus taxes and online fees).
Halloween Boat Party – a 3-hour party cruise on Saturday, November 2nd, on a luxury yacht that holds up to 400 passengers. The cruise features guests in costume and DJs playing Hip Hop, House, Reggae, EDM Mash and other popular dance music. This cruise also departs from the docks at 1601 Bayshore Drive in Coal Harbour and tickets range from $55 to $160 (plus taxes and fees).

Halloween-Themed Movies

Because of the Halloween season, October is the perfect month to see horror movies (assuming you like that sort of thing). It’s also a great time to see kid-friendly Halloween-themed movies too. Below are some of the film opportunities happening in 2019:

Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival – a 2-day event featuring over 30 short horror flicks from 9 different countries at the York Theatre at 639 Commercial Drive in Vancouver on October 25th and 26th. The event is for all ages (but parental discretion is advised). Tickets range from $17.50 for the premiere of Puppet Killer (which is a new Vancouver-based horror film) to $35 or $40 for all showings on a single day (plus online fees). To see a 2-hour showing of between 9 and 12 films costs $22.50.
Roedde House Movie Night – the 1920’s German horror movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari plays at the Roedde House Museum in Vancouver’s West End (near Robson Street) on the evening of Friday, October 25th.
FlyOver Canada at Halloween – Vancouver’s multi-dimensional flying experience film at Canada Place has a wonderful, family-friendly Halloween theme between October 24th and November 3rd in 2019. In the show you get to fly with witches and it is suitable for all ages (i.e., in no way is it a horror film).

Halloween Trains

The Lower Mainland is home to a couple of miniature train attractions that go all out at Halloween. Both offer fairly tame tours for little kids in the afternoons and early evenings, but then really ramp things up for youth and young adults at night.

Stanley Park Ghost Train – family-friendly miniature train rides with a Halloween theme. In 2019 the train runs every day from October 11th until Halloween (October 31st).
Bear Creek Halloween Trains – child-friendly Halloween Pumpkin Express miniature train rides in Surrey are from 10 am until 4:30 pm from around the second weekend in October until the 31st. The cost is about $11. The Haunted Forest Scream Train is at the same place, costs about $2 more, runs from 6:30 to 10 pm (but starting a week or so later than the Pumpkin Express) and includes additional frightening stuff.

Special Halloween Events

Metro Vancouver is home to numerous attractions, like miniature trains and haunted houses, that run for either most of the month or at least the last few days of October. In addition to the “attractions” though, there are also a number of special one-day events, including the following:

Halloween Fireworks – music, kids’ activities, fire juggling, a magic show and fireworks at Minoru Park at 7191 Granville Avenue in Richmond on October 31st in the evening. This is a free event.
Parade of Lost Souls – an annual grassroots parade event where the location isn’t revealed until midnight on the Friday before Halloween (although one can assume it’ll be somewhere in the Commercial Drive neighbourhood). The parade takes place on the closest Saturday to Halloween from around 7 to 10 pm. Donations of $5 are encouraged to help support the event. A Lost Souls After-Party also takes place from around 9 pm to 2 am for which ticket prices range from about $20 to $30 depending on when you get them. In 2019 this event takes place on November 2nd.
Night for All Souls – free Halloween-type activities in the evening at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery on the last Saturday in October most years.
Celebrate the Night – an evening of family-friendly activities and fireworks at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge on the last Sunday of October most years. In 2019 this event takes place on October 27th.
Vancouver Halloween Parade – a fun family-friendly parade between Drake and Smithe, along Howe Street and Granville on a Sunday in early or mid-October starting at 11 am. Last year the parade was on Sunday, October 7th. In 2019 the parade takes place on Sunday, October 13th which is the Thanksgiving weekend.

For more special events click Halloween Weekend or Halloween for Adults.

Vancouver Halloween Parade on Granville — Vancouver Halloween Parade

Other Haunted Venues

In addition to the above-mentioned attractions, the Lower Mainland has numerous other wonderfully scary haunted houses.

Click Vancouver Haunted Houses for a list of more spooky places in the Lower Mainland. Some of the best haunted houses include North Shore venues like the Haunt of Edgemont and Dovercourt Crypt, the Nightmare Haunted House in Mission, Brinkworth Dungeon in Langley, Anmore Manor just north of Port Moody, Reapers in Chilliwack and the list goes on and on!

In addition to the above list, there is also a wide variety of other events and activities for people of different age groups, both on the big day of October 31st as well as throughout the entire second half of the month.

Halloween Activities for Children

Check out Vancouver Children’s Halloween Activities for a list of other family-friendly and only-moderately-spooky fun. Attractions with kid-friendly activities include FlyOver Canada, VanDusen Garden, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and other places of interest. In October there area also Pumpkin Patches and Corn Mazes all over the Lower Mainland.

Click Vancouver Children’s Halloween Activities for idea on what to do with kids.

Halloween Activities for Adults

Click Adult Halloween Activities for a list of Halloween events for people age 19+, or click Lower Mainland Haunted Houses for a list of haunted attractions suitable for adults and older youth.

In addition to haunted houses, adult Halloween activities include boat parties, night club parties, spooky walking tours and mystery games.