Back To Previous PageFamily-friendly harvest festivals and spooky ghost tours, scary campfire tales, the last hurrah (for the season) at the Drive-In, and even a spooky organ music recital; Fort Collins has plenty to keep you entertained this month. Here’s some of what’s on tap when it comes to Halloween and harvest celebrations in Fort Collins:
Trick-Or-Treat Family Fun
Daytime Fright-Free Fun: More than 60 Old Town businesses will take part in this year’s Downtown Trick-or-Treat event, set for Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visit the website to see the map of businesses.
Treat Street: Front Range Village hosts Treat Street on Oct. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. Come dressed in your favorite costume for an afternoon of free, spooktacular fun. While supplies last, children 12 and under will enjoy Trick-or-Treating, festive music with School of Rock Fort Collins, face painting, and score Treat Street swag bags on the main street.
Harvest Family Fun and Pumpkin Patches
Pumpkins on Parade: The Gardens on Spring Creek is once again hosting its fun-for-all-ages celebration of Halloween and the harvest with Pumpkins on Parade, Oct. 19-22. From 6-9 p.m. each evening, enjoy a community carved pumpkin contest, hundreds of pumpkins and gourds arranged across The Gardens in artistic displays and fun and festive activities for the whole family. Costumes are encouraged! This event is candy-free as part of the Teal Pumpkin Project. A. variety of food trucks will offer food and festive, kid-friendly games like pumpkin bowling, a magician, and the Colorado State University Bug Zoo. Buy tickets in advance online starting Sept. 7.
Harvest Extravaganza: Here are a few of our favorite local pumpkin patches and farms offering all sorts of fall family fun:
- The Bartel’s Farm – a huge selection of pumpkins, corn mazes, and hayrides.
- The Farm at Lee Martinez Park – visit the farm animals and take a hayride. There’s also a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect future jack-o-lantern.
- Northern Colorado Corn Maze – Jack Lantern’s Corn Maze is a Colorado favorite.
- Spooky’s Pumpkin Patch — Choose from a variety of pumpkins, gourds, carving kits, and even straw bales and corn stalks for your fall decorating needs at this patch, located on South College Avenue.
Halloween Family Fun at The Farm: Children ages ten years and under receive treat bags filled with goodies - including, coupons, promotional materials, and of course, candy! Participants also enjoy a hayride, a walk through the not-so-spooky barn, and photo opportunities. Tickets available Oct. 3 at 7 am.
- Friday, Oct. 27 5 - 7 pm
- Saturday, Oct. 28 5 - 7 pm
- Sunday, Oct. 29 1 - 3 pm and 5 - 7 pm
Halloween Live Concerts
Fort Collins Symphony Halloween Concert: Join us for Fort Collins Symphony - Halloween Concert, a mesmerizing Classical event that promises to redefine your expectations. Tickets now available.
2023 Halloween Organ Extravaganza: The organ studio and faculty artist, Joel Bacon, present the 18th annual Halloween Organ Extravaganza, with classic (and not-so-classic) works, including the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Spooky sounds, combined with lighting and special effects, are sure to put you in the Halloween spirit! The event takes place Oct. 31 at 6, 8, and 10 p.m. at CSU’s University Center for the Arts. “Every year the students seem to come up with the most creative ideas for the show! If people think organ music — or organists — are boring, this concert is designed to change their minds,” Dr. Bacon said.
Live Shows and Films
Spooky Show: See a spooky tale come to life during “Dracula” at the Lincoln Center. Did you know the theater company started in Fort Collins with a production of Dracula three decades ago? See the classic tale Oct. 27 - 29. Tickets are available online at lctix.com.
Scary Throwbacks: The Lyric is hosting a series of Halloween movies in October. Watch The Witches of Eastwick on Oct. 5; Hocus Pocus (outside) on Oct. 7; The Craft on Oct. 12; The Witch on Oct. 19; and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Live Event) on Oct. 26 and 27.
Double Feature Fun at the Drive-In: Sure, you’ve decorated yourself, your kid, even perhaps your pet for Halloween but have you ever decorated your car? The Holiday Twin Drive-In movie theater, which will soon close for the winter, gives you the perfect opportunity. Along with showing double features Thursday through Sunday nights through the end of the month (“The Addams Family 2” is one of the films on tap), the drive-in hosts a Trunk or Treat event Oct. 29 and 30. Dress yourself and your car or tailgate up for the occasion and enjoy treats along with two films.
Spooky Tours
Haunted FoCo Tours: Two Fort Collins tour companies dig into some of FoCo’s spookier stories with a historical lens.
• Fort Collins Discovery Tours, started this spring by a local historian, offers walking tours through Old Town. Forbidden Fort Collins, which focuses on Fort Collins’ bootlegging and brothel-filled past, takes place afternoons on Friday and Saturdays. A Haunted History After Dark tour takes place on weekend evenings and includes “true tales of Fort Collins’ haunted past.”
• Fort Collins Tours is open again and offers a range of tours, from ghost and history tours that even venture underground to a Ghosts & Goodies tour that’s kid-friendly and includes some sweet surprises.
A Fun Run
Run Fur Fun:
If you’d rather celebrate the changing seasons with a little exercise, the Run Fur Fun 5K is set for Oct. 28. The event, which starts and ends at SweetWater Brewing Company, benefits Animal Friends Alliance. Registration includes a race T-shirt, post-race beer and breakfast snack, a costume contest, and lots of fun with fellow animal- and beer-loving racers.
