Fact: Halloween is the greatest holiday ever. There are costume parties, free license to be a weirdo and all the candy you can shake a wizard staff at.
And in an all-too-rare event, Halloween is on a weekend this year, meaning there’s no shortage of Halloweeny things to be done. That makes it sort of a double-holiday.
To help you get the most out of your H-day, BW has compiled a list of fun to be had. Go have it.
PARTIES
Getcho flap on at License No. 1
9 p.m., Friday Oct. 31 and Saturday, Nov. 1, License No. 1 Bar at the Hotel Boulderado, 2115 13th St., Boulder, 303-442-4344
The former Catacombs Bar beneath the Hotel Boulderado was recently remodeled and swankified into the loungetastic License No. 1, which is going old school for Halloween with its two-day 1920s Reincarnation Celebration. Come in your best roaring ’20s garb on Friday, Oct. 31 or Saturday, Nov. 1, mingle, “flap,” and potentially win all kinds of prizes in costume contests held at 9 p.m. and midnight on both nights. Bonus points to anyone who goes as Zombie Gatsby.
Upslope wants you have a happy firkin Halloween
9 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31, Lee Hill Tap Room at Upslope Brewing Company, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Boulder, 303-449- 2911
Upslope Brewing’s North Boulder location on Lee Hill Drive will be hosting its free Swills and Chills Halloween Costume Party on Friday, Oct. 31 at 9 p.m. There will be tunes from DJ Old Man Winters, prizes every hour, a costume contest at 11 p.m. for tap room gift cards and a specially-tapped “Halloween-themed firkin.” What’s a Halloween-themed firkin? Clearly, it’s beer brewed in a hollowed out Jack-o-Lantern or the skull of a wooly mammoth. Yum!
Haunted happy hour
6-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, McCarthy’s Pub, 30 Main St., Longmont
Got a killer costume that makes you look just like Albert Einstein or Marie Antoinette? Put it to the test at this happy hour, which includes a famous dead person focus on the costume contest. Ready to chat it up with the person you’re impersonating? Dori Spence of the Haunted History Tours in Longmont will also giving a presentation on ghost encounters.
Halloween with oomlats
10 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31, Bohemian Biergarten, 3420 Broadway St., Boulder, 720-328-8328
Downtown staple Bohemian Biergarten is hosting a costume dance party with tunes from DJs Gangsterish Sassfactory and Hip Czech, lasers, fog, projections, zombies, ghouls, goblins and maybe, if you’re lucky, the ghost of Van Gogh’s ear. It’s bohemian and macabre as it comes. Things start at 10 p.m. and admission is $5 at the door.
Web of Lies
10 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 30, The Studio Boulder, 3550 Frontier Ave., Boulder, 303-356-4232
The Studio Boulder at 3550 Frontier Ave., is hosting a costume dance party. The $30 ticket gets you entry and all the “truth serum” you can drink at the open bar.
The dead shall ARISE
9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, Apex Movement, 3850 Frontier Ave., Suite 250, Boulder, 720-432-0279
The folks behind the ARISE Music Festival are teaming up with StarWater for the Faeries and Phantoms Masquerade Ball on Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Apex Movement Boulder. The 6,000-square-foot warehouse will be packed with music, performers and haunted fun.
Tickets are $22 in advance and $33 at the door. The winner of the costume contest will win tickets to ARISE 2015.
CONCERTS
The Motet
9:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 30 and Friday Oct. 31, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030
Colorado’s funkiest bunch, The Motet, are doing a two-night stand (Thursday, Oct. 30 and Friday, Oct. 31) at The Boulder Theater on the theme of Mixtape 1975. Start squeezing into your flared cordory trousers now.
Devotchka
9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030
Colorado faves Devotchka are infamous for the elaborate costumes and set pieces of their Halloween shows. And this year’s performance at the Boulder Theater on Saturday, Nov. 1 will include aerial dancers, but shhhh… We’ve already said too much.
Hazel Miller
5:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31, Boulder National Guard Armory, 4750 Broadway, Boulder, 303-444-6550
The fine folks at Boulder Art Matrix are hosting Hazel Miller and her band for a big ol’ 21-and-over steampunk par-tay at Boulder National Guard Armory. There will be art, music, food from Comida food truck, drinks and a full-on danceapoclaypse. Tickets are available for $25 on BrownPaperTickets.com, and include two drinks. Be there or be somewhere else. Those are your only choices.
Haunted Houses
Boulder High School
7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, Boulder High School, 1604 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 720-561-2200
Based on some of the frights they’ve created at Boulder High School, the kids clearly aren’t all right. They got some serious demons in them, and the hard-working members of the theater department are bringing those out. The Boulder High School haunted house runs 7-10 p.m. on Halloween night and is $5 for students and $10 for adults.
Zombie Shoot
Noon-4 p.m., 5 p.m.- 9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1 and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, Longmont Firing Range and Training Center, 10916 Weld County Road 5, Longmont. 303-774-4589, $50 single player, $75 team.
Make all your zombie movie and haunted house fantasies become a reality at the Zombie Shoot in Longmont where participants will be transported to a zombie apocalypse and have to fight off the living dead themselves. Paintball-style handguns, live zombie actors and the house of horrors bring this nightmare to life for fans of these horror narratives and anyone who is looking for a screaming good time. The Zombie Shoot simulation game is a full four hours of mayhem.
The 13th Floor
7:30 p.m. 4120 Brighton Blvd., Denver, 303-355-3327. Through Nov. 9
The 13th Floor is the Front Range’s definitive haunted house, with multiple warehouses full of sets, actors and horror. More than just a haunted house, it’s like being inside a horror movie. Minus the part where you actually get chopped into bits.
Haunted Field of Screams
Sundown until 10 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, and until midnight Friday and Saturday, Riverdale Road and E. 104th Avenue, Thornton, www.hauntedfieldofscreams.com
Children of the Corn still making you steer clear of farm country? Here’s your choice option of voluntary terror this Halloween. This year marks the 13th season the Haunted Field of Screams has been luring unsuspecting victims into a corn maze and torturing them there with a choice list of your very worst nightmares. Each twist and turn of the maze — lit only by the light of the moon — brings a new horror. Zombies, clowns and the iconic chainsaw chase will all see that you have plenty of opportunities for a heartpounding, blood-curdling scream.
Spider Mansion
7-10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 7 p.m.– 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Heritage Square, 18301 W. Colfax Ave., Golden, www.spidermansion.com
This year, Spider Mansion takes you on a trip down the rabbit hole not to Wonderland, but to Alice’s Horrorland with twisted takes on the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and even little Alice. You always knew it was a creepy story, right? Now let it get even creepier. Colorado Fear Fest 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, Olde Town Arvada, $10-$25 Why settle for one haunted house when you can have a whole bunch? For Colorado Fear Fest, Grisly Lodge, The Dark Mine and Creepy Carnival Midway are all next to one another. And next to some places to grab a bite in between.
SHOWS
Theater of the Vampire
8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31, Mackey Auditorium, 285 University Ave., Boulder, 303- 492-8423, $15
Boulder’s Frequent Flyers dance troupe is resurrecting its award-winning show, Theatre of the Vampires, featuring aerial dancing, pop culture and fangs, as well as a specially made beer for the event from Twisted Pine Brewing. The story of a young journalist being sucked into the vampire underworld plays out to tunes by Jack White, The Rolling Stones, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and an original score from Jesse Manno.
Halloween BOO-lesque Show!
8 p.m., and 11 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 30, Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe St., Denver, 303-297-0075, $25-$25
The dancers of Lannie’s Clocktower Clockettes are doing their annual burlesque tribute to Halloween with zombies, vampires, jugglers, aerialists and more.
KIDS
Munchkin Masquerade
3-6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31, Pearl Street Mall, Boulder
Normally the turf of costumed freaks and weirdos, the Pearl Street Mall will be taken over by, well, costumed freaks and weirdos. But you know, little.
The annual children’s costume and trick-or-treating event is free, fun and excellent G-rated horror.
Goat-o-Ween
11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, Mountain Flower Goat Dairy, 3420 Broadway St., Boulder, 518-605-8382
Why go for fake costume horns when the real thing are there, waiting to be gawked at? Mountain Flower Goat Dairy is hosting Goat-a-Ween at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1 with live music, a costume contest for kids and animals, face-painting, gourd-decorating, food, and did we mention goats?
They’ll be goating it up all over the place for all your milking, lotion-making and photo-taking needs, being all goaty.
Kids under two get in free, but for everyone else, admission to the event is $25.
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