Welcome to the holiday season where bright pumpkin orange and black are the key colors. So many events in the Richmond area in October usher in fun, festive and sometimes creepy Halloween festivities in so many different ways.
This round up listing festivals and fairs takes you to cultural centers for Day of the Dead celebrations full of dance and art workshops, amusement parks for thrilling rides, drive in cinemas for skin crawling tales, and commercial centers and sports complexes for fall festivals.
Many events are FREE. A lot don’t even involve candy. Check the links to be on top of fees and hours as well as any changes. (Keep checking back as more are announced.)
🍭Trick or Treating around Richmond 🍬
With this terrific, cool fall weather, it’s a great time to get out and enjoy the crunch of leaves underfoot and those slowly changing bright colors all around us but especially at parks, farmers markets, apple orchards and pumpkin patches, corn mazes and fun farms around the region.
🎃 Richmond area Pumpkin Patches, Corn Mazes, and Fall Fun Farms
🎃 BOO! Spirit Halloween, specialty retail stores are NOW OPEN at eight locations around Richmond. The most comprehensive one-stop destination for everything shoppers can imagine for Halloween with a vast merchandise assortment and memorable visual presentation. In addition to being a fun and interactive event for shoppers, the locations offer complete selections of costumes and accessories for infants/toddlers, children, ‘tweens, teens and adults. A broad assortment of décor and party goods complete the Halloween story.
-5430 W Broad St., Richmond, VA 23230
-9860 West Broad St., Glen Allen, VA 23060
–9840 Brook Rd., Glen Allen, VA 23059
–4501 S Laburnum Ave., Richmond, VA 23231
–4501 S Laburnum Ave., Richmond, VA 23231
–11500 Midlothian Turnpike
–11861 W Broad St., Richmond, VA 23233
–153 Perimeter Dr., Midlothian, VA 23113
🎃 Get scared at Terror on the Farm which offers a plethora of scary situations at Ashland Berry Farm, 12607 Old Ridge Road, Beaverdam, VA 23015. Open Sept. 30 through Oct 31. TERROR ON THE FARM is back and our Haunts are better than ever! Haunts change every year. You will never know what to expect from year to year! Come enjoy the Food Concessions, Music, DJ, BonFire and a good Scare.
🎃 Enjoy Halloween fun at Busch Gardens with treats by day and trickery by night at the ALL-NEW Busch Gardens Halloween Harvest limited capacity special event. On select dates.
Enjoy Halloween fun at Busch Gardens with treats by day and trickery by night with The Count’s Spooktacular and the scary adult Howl-O-Scream on select dates through Oct 31, 2021
silly, not-too-spooky fun every Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 30 at The Count’s Spooktacular! Children (9 and younger) are invited to come dressed up in their favorite Halloween costume to experience dance parties with their favorite Sesame Street friends, a festive hay maze, pumpkin scavenger hunt, and trick-or-treating throughout the park with more treats than ever before! Different themes every weekend with unique activities and special photo opportunities offer new experiences for guests with every visit. For more details regarding the event see: https://bit.ly/3EfmW6P
🎃 Kings Dominion: Halloween Haunt on select nights through Oct. 31, 2022: “Monsters and terror are ready for you at our scariest Halloween Haunt. Over 400 monsters will be unleashed making the most terrifying nightmares come alive. Featuring thrilling rides, haunted mazes, terrifying scare zones, and the spookiest live shows, fear is waiting for you around every corner at Halloween Haunt. Thrilling shows, an all-new outdoor maze, and a new scare zone plus the return of some of your favorite and most frightening haunted attractions. Take a journey over the river and through the woods in the all-new outdoor scare maze, Grimm Woods, based on the tales of the Grimm brothers. Encounter Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, Hansel and Gretel, the hungry witches of the woods, and more. Each night of Halloween Haunt will kick off with an opening scaremony featuring Majesty as she summons and casts hundreds of monsters out into the night. A variety of new shows will thrill guests with spine-chilling music and dancing. If you dare, join us for Halloween Haunt on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 PM to 12 AM and Sundays from 6 PM to 10 PM starting WARNING! This Halloween event is too intense for young children. Parental discretion is advised.
🎃 King’s Dominion – The Great Pumpkin Fest – Saturdays & Sundays through Oct. 30, 2021. Family-friendly, pumpkin painting, hay mazes, ghostly games, not-so-scary live entertainment and more, this scare-free festival makes for the perfect fall and Halloween activity for kids and everyone in the family.
King’s Dominion Halloween-themed event is the Peanuts’ themed The Great Pumpkin Fest – Saturdays & Sundays, Sept. 24 – Oct. 30, 2022. Family-friendly, pumpkin painting, hay mazes, ghostly games, not-so-scary live entertainment and more, this scare-free festival makes for the perfect fall and Halloween activity for kids and everyone in the family.
🎃 Want to learn more about the ghosts of Richmond? Hear actual scary stories from professional tour guides at Haunts of Richmond or Richmond Ghosts tours.
Telling ghost stories at Colonial Williamsburg. Photo credit: CW . Facebook
🎃Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum, brings visitors back into time showcasing the people and their stories from centuries ago – and their ghosts are ready to share their tales. Please find below the haunted activities you can find this Halloween season.
- Haunted Williamsburg Tours: From authentic 18th-century colonial ghost stories to creepy modern-day encounters, Haunted Williamsburg is the only tour with exclusive access to historic outdoor spaces, featuring costumed storytellers who share their unnerving tales. This one-hour candlelit walking ghost tour takes you strolling through town, into gardens, and beyond the barriers to our most haunted sites. Haunted Williamsburg is the official ghost tour experience of Colonial Williamsburg.
- Ghost Walk Junior This experience is returning to the Historic Area to bring an exciting new interactive storytelling experience for those seeking less fright and more fun! Enjoy this 45-minute ghost tour of traditional spooky stories with a Colonial Williamsburg flavor. Appropriate for ages 4+
- Cry Witch: You decide! Is Grace Sherwood a witch? Question witnesses. Weigh evidence. Finally, cast your vote for the guilt or innocence of “the Virginia Witch.” Not appropriate for young children due to subject matter and intense emotion.
In addition, Colonial Williamsburg Resorts is making it easier to experience the season’s offering with the Fall Weekday Savings package (valid now-Nov 21, 2021), where beyond nightly accommodations, you will receive up to two complimentary length-of-stay admission tickets to explore the spooky happenings in the Historic Area and the newly expanded Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, $50 resort credit, and up to $350 in resort outlet savings coupon when you book directly through Colonial Williamsburg Resorts. Additionally, Stays at Colonial Williamsburg Resorts directly support the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and mission.
🎃 Ashland Halloween: From scavenger hunts for children to a bar crawl, there’s fun for all ages in Ashland, from Oct. 28-31. Visit Ashland’s Halloween website for all the details
Be sure to subscribe to email updates, follow @rvacheap on Twitter or like RVA (Richmond) on the Cheap on Facebook to stay in the know about the latest freebies & deals.
More things to do in and around Richmond:
- Richmond’s Museums Highlight History, Art, Science and More
- The Ultimate List of RVA Parks and Playgrounds
- Richmond’s Public Pools & Splash Pads
- RVA Dog-Friendly Parks
- 12+ Free Things to do in Colonial Williamsburg
- RVA Historic Sites
- Free Art Galleries in RVA
- RVA’s Nearby Ski Resorts
- 50+ Things to Do in Richmond
- Orchards and Berry Farms
- Things to Do: RVA
- 50+ Events & Festivals
- Special Resources
- Military Discounts
- FREE for Kids (or really cheap)
- Garage, Moving, Estate Sales and more
- Metro Richmond Zoo
- Richmond boat launches and marinas
- Fairs in RVA and Virginia
- Richmond Museums: Some Admission Free
- Discount Tickets: D.C. & NoVA Shows & Events
Busch Gardens
1 Busch Gardens Blvd.
Williamsburg, VA 23185
(757) 229-4386
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