The Halloween calendar for people who are over the pub-with-cobwebs playbook
Halloween, done differently: six curated nights across India that aren't just another costume party
Halloween in urban India has, for most of the last decade, meant one of two things. A nightclub with cobwebs stapled to the DJ booth and ten-rupee discounts on bad cocktails if you came in costume. Or a kids' birthday party in a mall with facepaint and sugar.
Both are fine. Neither is interesting. This year's Urbanaut collection is.
Nineteen Halloween events across the country, curated for the full range of what a thinking city actually wants from the last weekend of October: A room for people who like to drink. A room for parents of three-year-olds. A room for cinephiles who prefer their horror with footnotes. A room for anyone who finds the usual club night tiring.
Halloween Pub Crawl by Everyday Friday
Panjim's bar scene, bagged into one Friday night. Four bars, forty-five minutes each, a passport you collect at check-in, a free Everyday Friday Vodka Soda at the first stop, and an after-party once the crawl finishes. Haunted playlists, eerie cocktails, mischief missions, costumes encouraged. The organiser's own tagline captures it well: "Limited seats. Unlimited chaos."
Friday, October 30 · Panjim, Goa · 7 PM onwards → Book the Halloween Pub Crawl
Halloween's Special Walk in Mehrauli
A spooky walk through Mehrauli, the ruin-rich 12th-century stretch that still holds a dozen tombs, a mosque older than Delhi itself, and some of the oldest ghost stories the city has to offer. Expect accounts of a vanishing wedding procession and a romance between a mortal and a jinn, told on the stones where they're said to have happened. Pack real walking shoes.
Saturday, October 31 · Mehrauli, New Delhi → Book the Mehrauli Horror Walk
Potion Laboratory: King's Halloween Party at Coro
The sweet spot for parents of three to eight-year-olds. The King's School Canterbury runs a theatrical apothecary-style potion lab at Coro, where children work as Apprentice Potion Makers through fizzing reactions, colour-changing liquids, and gooey experiments. Younger ones watch the spectacle; older ones are nudged into thinking like scientists. There's a costume competition open to kids and adults, and the full ticket price redeems against the Halloween menu at Cafe Plume afterwards.
Saturday, October 31 · Coro, Bengaluru · Ages 3–8 → Book Potion Laboratory
Boo! Ya Watchin? Screen Screams: Halloween
For the Hitchcock corner of the room. Boo!yawatchin?'s Halloween edition opens with a tarot reading from 5:30 to 6:30, hosted by self-styled Scream Queen Queen Andro, who then stays on to judge the costume competition. The screening is Psycho. Theme is Bates Motel. Costume is compulsory.
Saturday, October 31 · Bengaluru → Book Boo! Ya Watchin?
A Night of Fright 3: All Folked Up
The genuinely serious pick in the collection. Bollywood Crypt's third edition of their horror film programme runs for eight hours at Chamundeshwari Studios in Bengaluru, from 2 PM to 10 PM, built this year around folk horror. Film historian Tim Paxton opens with a primer on the genre. Yogesh Chandekar curates the shorts programme. Features curated by horror directors Vishal Furia (Chhorii) and Prosit Roy (Pari) include Mother of Toads by Richard Stanley, Palace of Horrors by Ashim Aluwalia, Joko Anwar's Siksa Kubur, and The Forbidden Forest by Keith Rondinell. Tickets strictly capped at 150.
Saturday, October 31 · Chamundeshwari Studios, Bengaluru · 2 PM to 10 PM → Book A Night of Fright 3