Calling all vamps, ghouls, and creatures of the night! Halloween – better known as Gay Christmas – is just around the corner and we’ve got a lineup of the creepiest, most drop-dead stunning local Halloween events for you to check out in the 2023 scary season!
Whether you’re looking for a proper scare or for a spooktacular party, here are some of the best queer Halloween events of 2023 happening in Ireland this month.
Farmaphobia
October 6 – November 2, Fordstown, Co. Meath
Spread out over 100 acres of the Irish countryside, Farmaphobia is renowned as Ireland’s largest Halloween event. For 2023, Farmaphobia is back and better than ever with five uniquely terrifying attractions just in time for the scary season.
Uncaged leads guests through Peril Penitentiary, a prison filled with dangerous serial killers, while Cornered is a terrifying corn-maze attraction where guests will find themselves caught between two feuding families–the Baxters and the McCricks. Farmaphobia’s Cult attraction requires guests to escape the woods before getting caught by the Children of the Forest, while Clown Town terrifies with three-headed clowns wielding menacing chainsaws. Finally, Farmaphobia boasts its Zombie Morgue attraction, leading guests through a haunted hospital filled to the brim with brain-eating zombies.
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The Nightmare Realm: Night Terrors
October 13 – November 3, The City Market, Mary’s Lane, Dublin
Voted the Best Scream Park in Europe, The Nightmare Realm is Ireland’s only indoor scream park. Returning to Dublin’s City Market, this year’s Nightmare Realm celebrations will feature Haunt Mazes and attractions such as Sundown Manor, Death Row 2: Shank Season, BioX1ne Laboratories, Dead Carnival: Killer Clowns, and Shriekers: Return of the Swamp Witch.
Additionally, The Nightmare Realm will feature a food court, street performers, and live music. Tickets are on sale now!
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Bram Stoker Festival
October 27 – October 30, various locations, Dublin
If you’re in the market for a family-friendly Halloween event, Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival is sure to satisfy your taste. With plenty of events scheduled over the course of the 2023 Halloween weekend, the Bram Stoker Festival features theatre performances, lectures, film screenings, and Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow Presents: Nightmaresville.
Stokerland also makes a triumphant return to the Bram Stoker Festival this year, offering festival-goers a free, pop-up Victorian fun park for the entire family.
More information on this year’s line-up of events can be found on the Bram Stoker Festival website.
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HalloKween
October 4 – November 1, All My Friends Pub, Dublin
The second annual HalloKween art exhibition is already up and running at Dublin’s pub All My Friends and will run through November 5. The HalloKween exhibition features the work of five critically-acclaimed artists – Hazel Coonagh, Gerry Lee, Aine Macken, Gabriel Marques, and Claire Michelle O’Connor – who are inspired by “all things surreal and otherworldly, including alchemy, queer archetypes, tarot, costumes, witches, ghosts, reflective experience, and the traditions of Samhain.”
Be sure to drop by All My Friends Pub on Meath Street this month to check out the exhibition!
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Sweatbox: Alt Account
October 20, Here & Now Club, Dublin
Sweatbox returns this October 20 with a phenomenal four-hour set from DJ Karen, the High Priestess of House. Located in Dublin’s Here & Now Club, the Sweatbox: Alt Account club night will feature four bars spread out over two floors of hot, sweaty, scary season fun.
DJ Jamie G will perform upstairs on Sweatbox’s Bear Pit Darker Dance Floor.
Remember! Sweatbox is a “community space based on respect, it’s full of sound people so be sound, and look after one another.”
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Fluid Club: Creatures of the Night
October 27, Pawn Shop Basement, Dublin
Fluid Club’s Halloween event titled ‘Creatures of the Night’ has been billed as a “party for the bisexual, pansexual, the fluid & flexible + friends”. This year’s celebration will feature DJ sets from talent such as L. Ivory, Ailbhe Ni Riain, and Sleepless Beauty.
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Honeypot
October 27, Wigwam, Dublin
The first of two events in our list to be hosted at Dublin’s Wigwam, is Honeypot Club’s ‘Call Your Ghoul Friend’. Featuring DJ sets from Rhyzine, Rosita, Orla King, and Puzzy Wrangler, Honeypot are describing the party as “a nightmare on Abbey Street.”
In an Instagram post promoting the party, Honeypot wrote: “Round up your Hallo-queens and start planning some drop dead gorgeous costumes. It’ll be a ghoul night out that you’ll NEVER forget.”
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Petrified Podcast Live
October 25, Laughter Lounge, Dublin
“Are you ready for a night of fright?” asks the team behind the legendary Petrified Podcast. The award-winning horror podcast (spearheaded by former GCN editor, Peter Dunne) is bringing its spine-tingling series to the stage for a one-night-only live recording of a “brand new horror tale pulled from beyond the grave.”
The recording will be followed by a Q&A session with the show’s creators, so stick around and celebrate the scary season with Peter Dunne and Liam Geraghty.
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QueerMania Halloween Spooktacular 2
October 26, The Sound House, Dublin
QueerMania invites all party-goers to snatch up tickets to its Halloween Spooktacular 2 event, sponsored by Absolut. Promising a “fabulous party that will leave you spellbound,” QueerMania’s Halloween Spooktacular 2 will feature performances from Vicky Voltz, TOMi KENi, Kai Jupiter, Sparkling Spitfire, and Impi Wimp. Meanwhile, Jack O’Connor will act as the host for the spooktacular evening.
“Put on your most creative costume and get ready to dance the night away!” said QueerMania in anticipation of the event.
Tickets for QueerMania’s Halloween Spooktacular 2 are on sale now!
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Of a Midnight Meeting
October 16 – October 26, Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Dublin
Not much of a partier but still want to celebrate the greatest time of the year? Why not check out Katie McCann’s Of a Midnight Meeting, a staged supernatural thriller playing at Dublin’s Bewley’s Cafe Theatre. The play, set in 1926, takes place “in the wake of The Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic”, when “Scientific American runs a high-stakes international contests seeking objective proof that ghosts are real. Acclaimed Medium, Hester O’Brien is determined to be the magazine’s first winner, while investigator Nathaniel Harker, sceptical of her claims, is determined to expose her.”
“As the two battle it out, faith and science clash, secrets are revealed and painful truths confronted.”
Tickets for Of A Midnight Meeting are on sale now!
Disco Bloodbath (Mother)
October 29, The Crypt, Dublin
“Deep in an 18th century crypt in the city centre, Mother is waking the dead for an all hallows disco bloodbath.”
If the tag line for Mother’s Disco Bloodbath event isn’t enough to sell you, how about the promise of “a plague of undead drag queens, re-activated actors, Ghostboy on the decks, and an underground hallowicked experience designed to get you dancing with the undead”?
Disco Bloodbath will kick off at the crypt of the Church on Wolftone Square on October 29!
Get your tickets while you still can!
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Púca Festival
October 27 – October 31, Trim and Athboy
Finally, if you’re looking to celebrate the Irish holiday of Samhain as opposed to its over-commercialised descendant, then the Púca Festival is perfect for you!
The Púca Festival celebrates the scary season through “folklore, food, myth and music reopening the pathways of reflection and celebration carved by travelers over 2,000 years ago.” With music, comedy, circuses, and storytelling at every corner, the Púca Festival is the perfect event for those wanting to celebrate Halloween’s Irish heritage.
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Have another 2023 Halloween event in mind that we haven’t mentioned? Get in touch and let us know!
© 2023 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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