Tam Eastley rounds up this year’s main Halloween events…
Long gone are those Halloween nights when sad Berlin expats and visitors sit at home in the cold and dark evening, wondering why no one is celebrating the spookiest and yummiest “holiday” of the year.
Say goodbye to the inevitable flip through friends’ photo albums on facebook come November 1st, enviously eyeing everyone’s costumes and cursing the day you decided to move to Berlin.
No more shall you sit at home with the lights off, resolving instead to just pop a bowl of popcorn and watch a scary movie. Perhaps it’s the rise of foreigners, or maybe it’s just the onslaught commercialism, but whatever it is, Halloween is finally being embraced by Berlin.
This year, many of the city’s bookstores, restaurants, clubs, and boutiques have lined up a positively spooky and diverse week of electrifying events for all you ghouls and goblins out there.
Halloween kicks off on Friday October 26th with a Halloween party at Berlin’s beloved bookstore Another Country near U Bahn Gneisenaustrasse. Squeeze into the heart-felt Berlin institution, overflowing with dusty old books, comfy couches, and lots of heart, and throw on your most spine-chilling costume for a chance to win prizes. Dinner will also be served for the low low price of €5 a plate and Sophie will be giving tarot card readings. Festivities start at 9pm.
On Friday October 26th and Saturday October 27th, starting at 6pm as the sun starts to dip eerily out of sight, Filmpark Babelsburg out in Potsdam will host an absolutely terrifying and special effect ridden horror park.
The flickering lights, smoke machines that make it impossible be see what’s around the next corner, and screams from fellow victims create a terrifying and nightmare inducing atmosphere. Monsters, zombies, mutants, men covered in blood wielding chain saws, you name it, it’s there, and chasing after you.
How scary is it? Well, kids under 16 aren’t allowed in without in an adult, and pregnant women, people with epilepsy or with heart problems are asked to stay far far away… There’s a huge amount of different attractions and events, so check the pdf for details. Admission: €16 on Friday, €19 on Saturday, €30 for a weekend combo ticket.
If you happen to be wandering around Spandau on Saturday October 27th, beware! You might just have your brains eaten by a zombie! Hoards of the undead will be meeting in front of the church on Grunerstrasse on the corner of Klosterstrasse to slowly stumble their way down the streets looking to satisfy their ungodly need for live flesh. To join the throng, show up in your best Zombie outfit and let out a soulless moan. There’s also rumours of a flashmob…
© I. Haas, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem
Take a day to relax on Sunday October 28th after perhaps one too many spooks and head over to the Botanischer Garten in Dahlem for a day of Halloween arts and crafts and pumpkin carving with the kids.
To keep the little ones entertained all day while you let your racing heart recover from the night before, there will be Halloween performances, a haunted house, and face painting. Admission: €6 adults/€3 discounted/ kids under 7 free.
Wednesday October 31st is the big day. Keep a couple of candies by the door for the slow trickle of trick-or-treaters who, yes, even ring the doorbells of people living on the fourth floor.
There’s no staircase too high for those in want of candy. Then, choose between a movie, a party, or one of the biggest and craziest five day long DIY underground music festivals of the year.
At 9pm, Mind Pirates will be showing the 1978 film Halloween. Yes, you know the one, the epic independent film that started the Halloween franchise, starring the terrifying masked slasher villain Michael Myers and his stalker victim, the young high school student Laurie Strode (played by, none other than Jamie Le Curtis).
Then, if you’re too scared to head home, head on over to White Trash Fast Food’s Halloween Monster Bash to dance the chills away with a live performance from Eat Lipstick, featuring punk glamour icon Anita Drink as well as a DJ set featuring music described as “a living-fire-breathing hydra of electro punk death disco.” Admission: €5
Or, celebrate Halloween at the obscure, weird, community based, underground, provocative, and do-it-yourself Drop Dead Festival at Neukölln’s own The Cube on Rollbergstrasse. The event boasts that it brings together unknown and quirky music from all over the world, of all styles, and from all walks of life. It celebrates music and art, bringing the two together in a collaborative five day long mish-mash of partying, dancing, and breaking down boundaries.
It’s a chance for people to discover something new, something unknown, and something completely outside of the box. As the event opens on Halloween, the first order of the day will be a foggy and terrifying Halloween party, with a haunted house presented by Mindpirates on one floor, a gothic pogo party with deathrock and horror punk on another floor, and a macabre art show on the main floor.
BUT, that’s just day one of five! Check the website for more awesome events and parties. Admission: various prices
Phew! If you still have energy come the weekend, hit up the Halloween Party at the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauerberg on Friday November 2nd. There will be 10 floors, 20 DJs, ghosts, goblins, spiders, jack-o-lanterns, and professional make-up artists on site to give you a gruesome and unholy new face. Admission: €12
About The Author
Tam Eastley is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She moved to Berlin almost four years ago and completed a Master’s Degree at the Freie Universität Berlin in English Literature and Cultural Studies. Never content staying in one place, she recently cured a bout of wanderlust with a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She is currently a freelance travel blogger and podcaster with Mädels With a Microphone, a monthly podcast series about the quirky side of Berlin. Her interests include culture, literature, travel and roller derby.
