Your Eerily Eclectic, Frighteningly Fabulous, Scary-Good

Collection of Halloween-Themed Activities

Appear in This Spookily Sequential Order:

The Meatpacking District’s Treats in the Streets / Chelsea Green Park’s Hocus Pocus Harvest Block Party / High Line Halloween: Ghostly Gardens / Halloween Events at Verdi Cannabis / Barktoberfest / Spooky Streets Trick or Treat / Pier 57’s Pumpkin Patch

Treats in the Streets: Saturday, October 19, 11am to 6pm, Across the Meatpacking District | Stores and restaurants across the neighborhood will be offering special goodies and surprises from 11am-5pm—so stroll through the district to fill your bags. Along the way, you’re encouraged to engage in games and activities around the neighborhood, including pumpkin ring toss, pumpkin tic-tac-toe, and corn hole.

From 11am-6pm, immersive Halloween vignettes by designer Theresa Rivera turn Little West 12th Street into a spirited, spooky, shutterbug-friendly zone. Rivera’s work also adorns—and aligns—Washington Street, in the form of chic, custom-designed scarecrows.

Scheduled activities also abound, including live performances from Jammcard musicians, 11am-6pm on Gansevoort Plaza. On West 13th Street, 11am-5pm, it’s pumpkin painting for kids of all ages; Also 11am-5pm, artist Lauren Weinstein guides you through the design and decoration of your own Halloween Mask; and, from The Culture Tree (which promotes cultural literacy about South Asia), a Storytime reading of The Five Blind Men and Elephant takes place 12pm-12:15pm.

Also on West 13th Street, courtesy of The Cultue Tree: From 12pm-2pm, kids can decorate their own elephants, drawing upon the power of imagination (or the nearly 100 life-sized elephants appearing throughout the neighborhood through October 20); And from 12:45pm-1pm, Storytime returns with a reading of Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant.

And at 2pm, don’t you dare miss the Meatpacking District’s 6th Annual Dog Costume Contest, at Gansevoort Street & Ninth Ave. The competition is friendly but fierce, providing endlessly adorable eye candy as mutts strut their stuff down the runway in search of glory (or a belly rub or a treat). For more info, click here to visit the applicable page of the Meatpacking BID (Business Improvement District).

Hocus Pocus Harvest Block Party (Chelsea Green Park’s Annual Halloween Event): Sunday, October 20, 10am-2pm on West 20th Street btw. 6th & 7th Aves. and in Chelsea Green Park (140 W. 20th St. btw. 6th & 7th Aves.) | Chelsea Green Park, having just turned 5 this past summer, takes another turn at what’s become its most well-attended annual event—and with all the costumes, candy, crafts, and special surprises, it’s easy to see why. Last year, over 1,200 people attended. This year, Friends of Chelsea Green (the Park’s year-round boosters) have set the Halloween Hijinks bar high, with plenty of kid-focused activity inside the Park, an enormous amount of candy present, and variety of vendors and reps from nearby block associations at tables along the Park perimeter and up and down the block. “Trick or Treating, Halloween Storytime, Music, Magic, Dancing in the Street & Much More,” promise the organizers—who ask you, if possible, to donate “a bag of individually wrapped candy or Halloween favors.” To stay informed about what’s going on at Chelsea Green Park, join the Friends of Chelsea Green email list. Contact them via chelseagreenpark@gmail.com.

High Line Halloween: Ghostly Gardens: Saturday, October 26, 1pm-4pm on the High Line at West 14th Street | A festive, family-friendly celebration that delivers thrills and chills for all ages is the promise of this Halloween-themed event that features lively musical performances and storytelling; spooky sculptures made from High Line dried plants; larger-than-life carnival games; art activities; a photo booth; creative face painting; and treats too special to specify here. Seasonal food and drinks will be available for purchase from frighteningly fantastic High Line food vendors. The whole shebang is produced by artist and High Line Educator Greg Corbino, whose work the New York Times proclaimed to be “crafty and audacious.” For more info, click here. Please RSVP via this link.

Halloween Events at Verdi Cannabis (158 W. 23rd St. btw. 6th & 7th Aves.) | We’ll resist the urge to say “high times” can be had at Verdi Cannabis. But good times are to be had, for sure, at Chelsea’s legal cannabis distributor, whose music, art, and special events happenings cultivate a friendly, sociable vibe. Add “chills” and “thrills” to the emotional harvest, with a few chechmarks on the Verdi calendar custom-made Halloween. First and foremost, the shop is decked out in traditional Halloween tropes, from the flying bats on the wall to the pumpkin-headed scarecrow near the entrance, who seems to be positioned to give a second opinion as you present valid ID to gain entry.

On Saturday, October 26, the Halloween Pumpkin Painting event provides the paints, with you showing up with pumpkin in hand (or on head). On Thursday, October 31—Halloween—Verdi will be running an all-day Costume Contest, with prizes for Best Individual Costume, Scariest/Spookiest Costume, Best Group Costume, and Best Pet Costume. “We plan on having a Photo Booth for people to take mini-Polaroids with them throughout the day,” says co-curator Kenny Cunningham. The whole shindig is sponsored by cannabis brand names Bloom, HighSkrapers, and Supernaturals—whose local rep will be part of the fright’s (sorry, the night’s) entertainment, when the band OG’s Noise plays OCM (Original Cannabis Music). To keep up with what else is up with Verdi, click here to visit their website.

Barktoberfest: Saturday October 26, 4pm at Pier 57’s Rooftop Park (25 11th Ave. at West 15th Street) | For humans who excel at dressing up their dogs—and for the precious pooches who indulge them—comes this annual happening, held for the first time this year at Pier 57’s sprawling Rooftop Park.  The centerpiece feature of this paws-itively adorable gathering is its highly competetive, fur-tastic Costume Contest. Special prizes are awarded for best-dressed pups: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place for Best Costume, and individual prizes in the categories of Best Original/ Creative, Best Pop Culture, and Best Group Theme. The event is free to the public and participants must pre-register here.

The Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance Presents Spooky Streets Trick or Treat / A Free Event on Thursday, October 31, 3pm-5pm at Bella Abzug Park (33rd St. to 36th St. btw. 10th & 11th Aves.) | Free candy, of course, is the guaranteed reward for trick or treaters who venture into Bella Abzug Park on Halloween. While there, it would be a frightful shame to pass by the Bouncy House without getting an insider’s feel for the place. Other activities will be offered, along with a special Halloween menu from @paradisinthepark including pumpkin soft serve and churros!

Pier 57’s Pumpkin Patch: Through November 1 at Pier 57 (25 11th Ave. at West 15th St.) | Available daily from 6am to 1am in Pier 57’s cavernous-yet-comfy Living Room space, this plump display of practically perfect pumpkins—combined with sweeping waterfront views—makes for picture perfect photo-ops aplenty.

—Compiled by Scott “Only Sightly Haunted” Stiffler

—END—

ChelseaCommunityNews.com (CCNews) is an independent, single-owner online newspaper providing news, arts, events, and opinion content to Manhattan’s Chelsea community and its adjacent areas (Flatiron/NoMad and Meatpacking Districts, Hudson Yards, Hell’s Kitchen, Broadway/Times Square, and the Penn Station area).  Our editorial content is made possible by advertising revenue, grants, quarterly pledges of support, and voluntary reader donations (click here for our GoFundMe campaign). To join our subscriber list, click here to receive ENewsletters containing links to recently published content–as well as an occasional “Sponsored Content” email featuring an advertiser’s exclusive message. 

ChelseaCommunityNews.com is a member of the New York Press Association (NYPA) and the Empire State Local News Coalition. Our content is collected for placement in the United States Library of Congress’ LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive. (“We consider your website to be an important part of  the historical record,” said a July 26, 2019 email.) Our freelance reporters have been recognized by NYPA’s annual Better Newspaper Contest, with Honorable Mention wins for Best News or Feature Series  (2021, 2023). CCNews is a three-time winner in the Coverage of the Arts category (First Place and Honorable Mention, 2022 and Third Place, 2023).

PLEASE SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: HELP CHELSEA COMMUNITY NEWS THRIVE BY FREQUENTLY  VISITING THIS WEBSITE TO READ OUR ARTICLES AND CLICK ON THE ADVERTISEMENTS.

Questions? Comments? Want to Place an Advertisement or Make a Donation? Email Founder/Editor Scott Stiffler at scott@chelseacommunitynews.com.