You saw the Hilloweekend crowds of grown-up partygoers celebrating around Broadway and Pike/Pine. Here is a look at Hilloween 2023 from the streets of the Capitol Hill trick or treat zone around 16th and 17th Ave near Volunteer Park.
Like many essential services including public transit, the level of Hilloween enthusiasm is also back to pre-pandemic levels with lines of kids — and a few adults — scoring candy from the area’s haunted houses. Continue reading
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The serious sharing continues Tuesday night. Venture into the Capitol Hill Trick or Treat Hot Zone on the blocks surrounding 16th Ave E and E Aloha near Volunteer Park for bowls and bowls of candy and some great haunted houses. The area gets crowded but many of the streets are closed to cars and locals prepare for lots of trick or treaters so spirits large and small should do well. Remember your pleases and thank yous. Don’t try to drive and definitely don’t park in the area. It’s best to either jump on a nearby Metro bus line or arrange to be dropped off on the edges of the zone.
Happy Hilloween.
Showtime on E Roy
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You can look at the return of the Haunted Soiree “macabre Halloween cocktail party” to Capitol Hill as the return of a soul-stealing zombie business that haunts the neighborhood sucking dollars from unsuspecting tourists and filling them with watered down cocktails.
Afterall, Capitol Hill does Hilloween just fine on its own. Bars and restaurants up and down Broadway and across Pike and Pine look forward to the weekends around the holiday for almost Pride-levels of business.
It is also true that the concept is part of a nationwide production company’s ventures that swoops onto Capitol Hill once a year to cash in on Hilloween enthusiasm.
But you’ll be missing most of the fun. And some of the cocktails are actually good.
“I’m a teaching artist and I heard about Haunted Soiree through some friends,” cast member Hannah Votel said. “I love the tiny moments to scare the partygoers, luring them in with a false sense of insecurity. You can tell they like to be messed with.” Continue reading
(Image: Hilloween)
(Image: Hilloween)
The forecast calls for a crisp, cool, and candy-filled Hilloween.
Saturday, the annual kid-friendly Capitol Hill Halloween fest returns to the AIDS Memorial Plaza for a day of games, performance, music, costume marching, and, yes, trick or treating.
CHS is again proud to help host the fun organized annually by the Broadway Business Improvement Association and partners. This year in the plaza above Capitol Hill Station just north of Cal Anderson Park, you will find the usual mix of arts and crafts, games and prizes, a pet costume contest, magic and music, plus an appearance by the Chaotic Noise Marching Corps for the costume parade onto Broadway where trick or treating is encouraged to ensue.
For more Hilloween 2023 things to do, check out the CHS Calendar. There, you can also add Hilloween community events we may have missed.
Learn more at hilloween.me.
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(Image: Meyer2Meyer Entertainment)
(Image: Meyer2Meyer Entertainment)
The crowds are a little smaller and the hype down a level or two as a seasonal Halloween cocktail “experience” has returned for a second season at Capitol Hill’s DAR Rainier Chapter House
Re-branded as a Haunted Soiree production, this year’s The Volkov Possession continues through Halloween in the E Roy Mansion:
This 21+ immersive experience is part theatrical production, combined with an old-school variety show, dressed up as an upscale cocktail party, inside a historically haunted venue. It’s a night of eerie elegance, featuring themed mini-cocktails, extravagant entertainment, music, macabre magic, surreal specters, and interactive guest experiences.
While many reviews of last year’s visit described an overhyped, oversold experience, the show is still drawing Halloween-happy patrons. Ticket prices range from $64 to $95 depending on how many “miniature craft cocktails” and assorted other upgrades you want.
Unlike other pop-up experiences that have visited the neighborhood, the Haunted Soiree adds a new venue to the area’s October nightlife offerings. Continue reading
(Images: Ananya Mishra/CHS)
A Capitol Hill Hilloween tradition since 2018, the Volunteer Park Halloween Pet Parade got the spooky season’s festivities off to a monstrous start Sunday. The annual parade organized by the Volunteer Park Trust has grown into a costume contest, pet fair, and food truck event along with the band-led march through the park.
This year’s costumes stuck to mostly traditional themes of creepy spiders and surprise lions but a few new ideas for 2023 included the popular dog-cow and a chest-bursting Alien chihuahua. Jones the cat was nowhere to be found.
For more costumed fun for everyone, mark your calendar for Hilloween 2023 as the annual carnival and day of Broadway-area trick or treating takes place Saturday, October 28th on the AIDS Memorial Plaza above Capitol Hill Station. Learn more at hilloween.me.
If you are the type who wishes every day was Hilloween, it’s time to get excited. Sunday marks the start of costume and candy season on Capitol Hill with the annual Halloween Pet Parade in Volunteer Park:
Sunday, October 8th, 2023
Volunteer Park — 1247 15th Ave EThe Schedule
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
— Emcee: Matt Smith
— Parade Leader: 8-Bit Brass Band11:00 AM — Gather at the stage for the Pet Parade!
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM — Register Your Pet for the Costume Competition at the Stage Area
12:00 PM — Speakers on the Stage
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM — Costume Competition on the Stage Continue reading
Hilloween should never fall on a Monday but here we are. You’ll have to wait it out until 2025 for the calendar to roll around enough for October 31st to fall on a Friday. But years like 2022, 2023, and 2024 have a different spirit about them. The workday Hilloween only strengthens the Friday, Saturday, Sunday pre-party. Below, you’ll see more of the ghosts and goblins CHS found on the streets around Pike/Pine and Broadway celebrating the Hilloweekend.
Happy Hilloween!
The weekend is sure to bring plenty of ghouls and boos to the streets of Capitol Hill. Saturday, the AIDS Memorial Plaza above Capitol Hill Station will also be filled with Hilloween.
The Broadway Business Improvement Association will continue a tradition put off in recent years due to the pandemic with Hilloween 2022 taking shape on October 29th.
This year’s event will take place Saturday 1 PM to 4 PM with a free “Kids Halloween Spectacular” carnival hosted by DonnaTella Howe in the AIDS Memorial Plaza above Capitol Hill Station. After, Broadway and area businesses will be ready to hand out candy to young trick or treaters. Continue reading
For all the focus on Seattle’s big city problems, parts of the city can still feel like a small town.
Saturday, the Hilloween season kicked off not with kids trick or treating but with dog and cat parents gathering with their four-pawed little ones in a costumed celebration in Volunteer Park.
The return of the Volunteer Park Halloween Pet Parade over the weekend brought out lions, and witches, monsters and superheroes, and even a hot dog or two. Sadly, no fuzzy friends were dressed as Patty Murray and none of the dogs said they had ever heard of Tiffany Smiley.
The annual Volunteer Park Trust event returned to the schedule in 2022 after recent pandemic cancellations to bring the popular community event back together. This year’s edition included a marching band-led parade and an awards ceremony on the park’s new amphitheater stage.
Capitol Hill this year should continue to hold its place a popular Seattle Halloween season destination. Continue reading
