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Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026. If you have lived here a while, you know what that does to a calendar. It does not just give you one night. It stacks up a whole run, Wednesday through Sunday, where Red Rocks, Ball Arena, the Botanic Gardens and two different corners of Denver all go off at the same time. Most people do not realize how rare that alignment is until they are staring at four things they want to do on the same night.
So here is the roundup. Five days, planned out, so you are not scrambling for tickets the morning of. Buckle up.
Two nights. Oct. 30 and 31, up at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (18300 W. Alameda Parkway in Morrison). Deadmau5 doing a Halloween run at Red Rocks is about as on-brand as it gets, and the light show he hauls into that venue is a different animal than a normal set. The rock walls basically become part of the production.
Here is the thing about late October up there. It can be 65 and gorgeous or it can be 34 and spitting snow, sometimes in the same evening. Bring the layers. Nobody looks cool shivering through the encore. Two nights means you can pick Friday or go full send on Halloween night itself.
Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m., Ball Arena (1000 Chopper Circle). The Avs take on the Calgary Flames, and honestly, a Halloween night home game against a division rival is the kind of thing that makes downtown feel electric. You get the costumes spilling out of LoDo, the crowd buzzing, the whole neighborhood turned into one big pre-party.
If you are coming in from the suburbs, park once and make a night of it. Ball Arena to the bars on Larimer is a short walk, and on a Saturday Halloween you will want to be on foot anyway.
Sunday, Nov. 1, 7 p.m., also at Ball Arena. Teddy Swims brings The UGLY Tour to town the night after the Avs game, so Ball Arena is pulling double duty this weekend. That voice does not really need a hype paragraph. If you have heard him, you already know. If you want to close the weekend on something with actual soul instead of another haunted house, this is your move.
Sunday, Nov. 1, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the Denver Coliseum (4600 Humboldt St.). This one is free, and kids 18 and under get in free too, which makes it the easiest family call of the whole weekend. Parade, festival, the full spread, nine hours of it. Día de los Muertos is not a Halloween add-on. It is its own thing, and Denver does it right.
Sunday, Nov. 1, 4:30 to 8 p.m., at historic La Raza Park. This is Denver's oldest Día de los Muertos celebration, and it is free. What makes this one matter is the ground it stands on. La Raza Park is tied directly to the Chicano Movement, and this event honors that history. This is the part people miss when they lump everything into one big Halloween weekend. La Raza is a place with real stakes behind it, and the celebration carries that weight. Go for the meaning, not just the food.
Sunday, Nov. 1, 2:30 p.m., Boettcher Concert Hall (1400 Curtis St.). The Colorado Symphony puts on a family-friendly Día de los Muertos Celebration, conducted by Christopher Dragon with the Colorado Children's Chorale. A 2:30 matinee is the kind of thing you can actually bring the whole family to and still be home for dinner. And if you time it right, you could do this and swing by the Coliseum festival or La Raza in the same afternoon. The symphony crowd and the street-festival crowd do not usually overlap, but this is the weekend to do both.
Oct. 30 and 31, 7:30 p.m., Boettcher Concert Hall. The symphony pairs a full screening of Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" with the orchestra playing the score live. I mean, if there is a correct movie to hear with a full symphony on Halloween night, it is this one. Two nights of it, which is good, because this is the one that sells out while you are still thinking about it.
Oct. 28 through 31, at Denver Botanic Gardens (1007 York St.). Luminaria paths, glowing carved pumpkins everywhere, and live pumpkin-carving demos. This is the mellow one. No mosh pit, no haunted house actor jumping out at you. Just the Gardens lit up at night, which is worth the ticket on its own. Good date night, good thing to do with kids before they hit the trick-or-treat sugar wall.
Friday, Oct. 30, Paramount Theatre downtown. Fred Armisen brings "Comedy For Musicians But Everyone Is Welcome," and the title tells you exactly what you are walking into. The guy built half his career on music nerd humor, so if you have ever played in a band or just owned too many pedals, this is aimed straight at you. The Paramount is a gorgeous old room too, which never hurts.
Saturday, Oct. 31, at Bounce Empire in Lafayette. This is billed as Colorado's biggest 21+ Halloween party, and it is in its 19th year, so it is not some fly-by-night thing. Open bar. A
Both run through Nov. 1. Fright Fest is at Elitch Gardens, and the 13th Floor Haunted House is at 3400 E. 52nd Ave. These are the classics, the ones that have been scaring people in this city for years. If your Halloween is not complete without somebody chasing you with a chainsaw that has no chain in it, this is the pair. Good news is they both run through Sunday, so you do not have to choose between a haunted house and literally everything else happening Saturday night.
Running through Nov. 1 at venues all over the city. The Film Festival hitting its 49th year quietly overlaps all of this, and it is the easy thing to forget in a weekend this loud. But if the crowds and the cold are not your thing, a dark theater and a film you cannot see anywhere else is a pretty great Saturday. Next year is the big 50, so consider this the warm-up.
Here is how I would run it if I were building the whole five days.
Wednesday and Thursday, start slow at Ghosts in the Gardens before the real chaos lands. Friday, pick your lane. Deadmau5 night one, Armisen at the Paramount, or Nightmare Before Christmas at Boettcher. Saturday is the big one. Deadmau5 night two, Avs and Flames downtown, or Coloween up in Lafayette. You cannot do all three, so choose. Sunday, slow it back down with Día de los Muertos at the Coliseum, the symphony matinee, or La Raza Park in the late afternoon, then close it out with Teddy Swims if you still have gas in the tank.
One more thing worth saying. Weekends like this, where the whole Front Range lights up at once, are the exact thing people fall in love with when they are deciding where to put down roots. Hayley and I talk about it all the time. You can live in Lafayette, catch Coloween, and still be at Red Rocks or Ball Arena inside an hour. That spread, that access, is a big part of why people keep moving here and staying. If a weekend like this makes you think harder about where in the metro you actually want to wake up, that is a conversation we have every day.
For now though, just pick your nights. This one does not come around often.