Halloween Events Past the Pumpkin Patch and Haunted Houses
Image: Courtesy Joan Marcus/Wicked
Halloween has a way of spreading itself across the entire month. And why not? There’s a vast spectrum to explore, cute and cozy, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes to all things harrowing and murderous. Between the movies, haunted houses, pumpkin carving, and costume assembling, the holiday also bleeds into the more traditional, year-round entertainment outlets. This year, October’s calendar holds a few timely touring performances in addition to the cast of beautiful and ridiculous local traditions. (Unfortunately, though for important safety reasons, it seems the annual stand-up paddleboarding event, SUP Witches, is indefinitely paused while the organizers try to formalize the event.) Here’s what we’ve got our eyes on.
OMSI Laser Halloween
4:30pm Tue–sun, thru October | OMSI, $7.50
This quick 30-minute show promises an express dose of heebie-jeebies, for both kids and kids at heart. There are lasers, of course, casting a surfeit of bats and pumpkins, and ghosts and ghouls across OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium. But there are also “frighteningly good tunes,” because this laser light show is a monster mash of sorts.
Comedy Murder Mystery Machine
7:30pm Thu–Sat, through Nov 5 | Funhouse Lounge, $13–80
Clown-themed comedy bar Funhouse Lounge (pausing here to relish the beauty of our fair city) has brought back its Scooby-Doo-indebted improv show for another spooky season, providing safe, drunken laughs without the faintest threat of nightmare fuel. Each night, audience suggestions lead the members of Mystery Incorporated into an invented-on-the-fly slasher; it’s good Halloween fun, especially with a stiff drink.
Image: Courtesy Joan Marcus/Wicked
Broadway Wicked
Oct 16–Nov 3 | Keller Auditorium, $54.25+
Wicked. Broadway. Halloween. What more could you want? Glinda the good witch and co. are in town, courtesy of Broadway in Portland, to tell “the untold true story of the Witches of Oz.” The Keller’s café is even serving Elphaba cheesecake, stained green with matcha.
Image: Courtesy Eric Hermann
On the Water West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta
10am–4pm SUN, OCT 20 | lake of the commons, FREE
Each October, this festival draws thousands of spectators who come—sometimes from other countries—to watch costumed paddlers jockey 1,000-pound pumpkins across the Tualatin Lake at the Commons. Ideally, you also show up in-costume, to pose in front of the giant pumpkin selfie station, run the pumpkin-themed 5K, play pumpkin golf or checkers, or go pumpkin bowling.
Image: Courtesy Bodyvox
Dance BloodyVox
October 18, 25 & 26 | BodyVox Dance Center, Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center, $10–50
Local dance company BodyVox is touring its beloved and bloody multimedia performance around town this year. Everything ghostly and macabre, orange, black, and green, as well as phantasmagoric and funny (note the family-friendly matinee show) is fair game for choreographers.
Runnin’ The Great Pumpkin Run
8am SAT, OCT 26 | sellwood riverfront park, $25–115
Something for those looking to turn their fright into exercise? This costumes-encouraged and family-friendly Halloween run kicks off with a kids’ race, followed by a half marathon, 10k, and 5k along the Springwater Corridor. Past the finish line: a costume contest, something to eat (hopefully dyed a spooky color), glory, and the ever important postrace swag.
Music Philip Glass’s Dracula
7 & 9pm Wed, Oct 30 | Reser Arts Center, $35–45
A haunting score is crucial for a truly scary movie. But, maybe for budget reasons, the OG Dracula film, directed by Tod Browning in 1931, had virtually no score. In 1998, Philip Glass was contracted to remedy this. While Glass, now 87, is not billed to play at this live performance and film screening, his ensemble’s director, Michael Riesman, will play the piano parts Glass originally wrote for himself and lead a quintet assembled by local new music outfit Third Angle.
