ONCE upon a time it was a Christianised feast, with its roots in Celtic harvest festivals and an emphasis on confronting death. Now haunted by the ghost of cheesy consumerism (with retailers raking in over £300m, second only to Christmas and Easter), All Hallows Eve is fast becoming one of those ancient customs zombified into a 21st century shadow of its former self. A frightful turn of events indeed.
Rise from your coffins and head to the Zombie Shack
Through the encroaching gloom, however, shines a hopeful beacon of light from those who know how to celebrate the creepy October climax in all its gory glory. Forget half-hearted club ‘specials’ and half-arsed costumes (this year’s batch include doggy mullet wigs... eh?) and instead think fiendish film, live music and even lost cities. And yes, of course there's fancy dress...
FRIGHT NIGHT | Zombie Shack | Saturday 31 October
Rise from your coffins and head to the Zombie Shack, who will be hosting a nebulous night in aid of Oxfam. Being half dead, you’ll rather need livening up, lucky therefore that a horde of musicians, not to mention flaming cocktails, will be on hand to do just that. Get your ghoul on to President Ray Gun, In Pixels, The Pirate Band and Colin Cunningham; hosted by the grimm Lance Grim. Dust off your best fancy dress as there’ll also be a cosplay competition.
Zombie Shack, 50 New Wakefield Street, M1 5NP (7pm; £5).
Zombie ShackILLUMINAUGHTY ‘LOST CITY’ INDOOR FESTIVAL | Bowlers Exhibition Centre | Saturday 31 October
Great things come in small packages... but they also come in big ones. Manchester’s largest Halloween dance fest is taking over Bowlers Exhibition Centre for the ninth year, with 2015 set to be the most gargantuan yet. Six stages will host some DJs including GMS, Dub Pistols, Alex Kidd and Red Eye Hifi across an immense fully-themed space with a 5000+ capacity. There’s plenty more lurking within its capacious cloak too: a funfair, graffiti, live art exhibition, street foodsters, circus performers, fire eaters, acrobats...need we go on?
Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Longbridge Road, M17 1SN (6pm; tickets from £27.50 at skiddle.com).
Fire and brimstone at BowlersHALLOWEEN DOUBLE BILL| Gorilla | Saturday 31 October
In conjunction with Grimm Up North and Manchester Gothic Festival, R.A.D. are back with more supernatural screen action. This year’s gruesome twosome is The Burbs and The Addams Family, so join swindling Uncle Fester and Ray’s motley crew for a devilish eve of retro classics. Last year’s event sold out so shake a limb...
54-56 Whitworth Street West, M1 5WW (6pm; tickets £8 at seetickets.com).
The Addams FamilyLYDIA LUNCH’S HALLOWEEN SEANCE | Islington Mill | Saturday 31 October
Voted by Timeout as 'one of the most influential performers to have emerged from New York City' (really?), for one night only the No Wave scene's Queen of Doom makes Manchester her gloomy arcane palace. With Lydia Lunch, believing is seeing... via the sixth sense. Enter the spirit as Wytches take over and the otherworld sets in, taking weird and wonderful to withering new heights.
1 James Street, Salford, M3 5HW (8pm; £7 from skiddle.com).
Lydia LunchGIRLS ON FILM: ROCKY HORROR | Deaf Institute | Saturday 31 October
The nights are drawing in and Halloween is on the dark and stormy horizon. Young newlyweds, Brad and Janet, curse their luck as their car grinds to a halt; a flat tire, we’ve all been there. Seeking a telephone and shelter from the depths of the night, they make their way along the road, then, in the distance – lights, noise and an odd looking man in stockings... the rest is cinema history
135 Grosvenor St, Manchester M1 7HE. 0161 276 9350 (10pm; £5 tickets here).
Ronnie Wood had only gone in for a haircut...HALLOWEEN MURDER MYSTERY | Manchester235 | Saturday 31 October
What with HOME’s Orestaia, Royal Exchange’s Pomona and the Lowry’s A Warning to the Curious, theatre programmes are spooking us with spine-tingling shows aplenty. Manchester235, however, is going one more with some immersive drama that’ll bring out your inner Sherlock Holmes in a jiffy...
Will self-made millionaire Willie-Reece Lyklbyn end up on one of his own scrap heaps? Will French actress Chantelle de Trooth be making a grande finale? What does the hotel’s lowly butler Spheres have tucked away in his private quarters? Join Inspector Archie Bauls to catch the crim.
Great Northern, 2 Watson Street, M3 4LP (7pm; tickets £45 at manchester235.com).
Was it the croupier over the table with a chip-rake?
DEAD FAMOUS | All Star Lanes | 30 September - 1 October
The celebrity graveyard reawakens as Marilyn, Elvis and James Dean drop into All Star Lanes to enjoy the limited edition Halloween drinks or a spot of bowling. With entertainment that thrills and costumes that chill (those in fancy dress will be rewarded), this will be one hair-raising, dead-raising, pin-throttling weekend.
Great Northern, 235 Deansgate, M3 4EN (7am; free entry).
Dead FamousAND ONE FOR THE MUMS...
PAWS SPOOKTACULAR | Heaton Park | Saturday 31 October
With a sinful eve ahead, bark up a more wholesome tree during the day with St Ann’s charity dog walk. Never mind motley crews, it’s a mutley crew at Heaton Park as Halloween sees some fur-raising action. As well as a 5km sponsored stroll around the historical grounds, get your paws on everything from fire-jumping dog troupes to ‘have a go agility courses’ (for your pet, not you). What with street food and stalls too, a yappy day awaits.
All proceeds go to St Ann’s Hospice.
Heaton Park, Middleton Road, Higher Blackley M25 2SW( 1pm; £15 from sah.org.uk).
Sounds good to me...
