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Here Comes Halloween: London Events

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This Halloween is the best-scheduled so far! There are so many amazing events planned in London, many of them for free or at least low-priced, plus there is something to suit almost everyone. If you want to dress up and dance your spiked heels off, you can. If you want to go to a book reading, that’s an option too. If you’re in an educational mood, you can attend talks about horror films and other spooky things. If you just want to watch Beetlejuice and eat cupcakes – London is here for you!

I have selected the suggestions on this mini-list of events myself. For the most part, if I haven’t visited a venue or attended a particular company’s events in the past, then I know at least one person who has. However, there are a couple of events thrown in to the mix that I just think sound really cool…

Friday 26th October

Photo by mrskyce

I’ve been to several of the Society of Young Publishers’ and the Society of Authors’ events in the past and this one sounds like a great idea. The main acts are authors James Dawson, Cathi Unsworth, and Katy Darby, and there will be readings of gothic poems and short stories inbetween.

Music, talks (including one on ‘Witchcraft through Fashion’!), films, and other activities. Did I mention that it’s free?

Saturday 27th October

Photo by jamieanne

More literary spookiness with a multi-author discussion, including C J Daugherty, who wrote Night School (link goes to review on my book blog).

  • Cant Buy Me Love, 12:30-17:30, The Boogaloo, entrance free

If you’d rather shop, entry to the CBML vintage market and jumble sale is free.

Seven hours of movie-soundtrack tunes, with free popcorn, and Oscars awarded to the wearers of best costumes. If you get hungry you can visit the diner and if the music isn’t enough, you can make your own in the karaoke rooms, or bowl, of course.

  •  THRILLER NIGHT!, 18:00-02:00, Drink Shop & Do, £5 with fancy dress/£8 without

House-party style Halloween with Thriller dancing. They also have pumpkin carving nights on the 29th and 31st, and Day of the Dead colouring-in on the 30th.

  • Or just go to Slimelight. They’ve got a very generous special offer on membership that night.

Wednesday 31st October 

Photo by Blyzz

I went to the St Paul’s Beas of Bloomsbury for my birthday the year before last and can personally attest to the deliciousness of their cakes. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, however, there will be plenty of American-style savoury food available too.

Film, performance, art, music, and blood-red cocktails. For £8 you can join a backstage torch-lit tour. There are other relevant entertainments this week at the Barbican too.

What are your plans for Halloween? How do you prefer to celebrate it? Will you be going to any of these events – or one I’ve missed? There are several amazing-sounding Halloween balls this week and next in London, but most of them are sold out and/or out of my current budget!

Here Comes Halloween: Introduction

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If there is one thing that is likely to get me posting on this blog, it is Halloween. Let’s be honest: it’s Goth Christmas. Sure, giving presents isn’t traditional on Halloween (YET!), but it has a much better aesthetic.

I realised yesterday that there’s little over a week to go until the first day of Halloween. I personally celebrate 13 days of Halloween. 12 days of Christmas, 25 days of my birthday, and 13 days of Halloween. Plus there’s all the stuff in the run up to it, which I class as the Halloween equivalent of Advent. Anyway, I haven’t even started wearing my pumpkin-with-a-moustache badge yet, and it’s already the 23rd! Dire.

Desperate times call for spooky measures, and I have decided to write a short series of posts all about the upcoming/already beginning festivities.

Hopefully I will write a post about the Halloween-related goods available in various shops, as soon as I get the chance to run around and check them out (Edit: sorry everybody, I tried but I was too late!). So far, however, it is looking like the best Halloween so far in terms of the available relevant merchandise. Tesco has glow-in-the-dark nail polish on sale and my boyfriend got me this awesomely tacky goblet from Poundland.

(And it’s purple. Win)

I will do a quick round up of Halloween costume links. I am not very good at coming up with costume ideas on my own. However I am very good at Google and at remembering which blogs have offered excellent contributions in past years.

But first, I will put together a list of Halloween events in London. I already had a few ideas – I’m subscribed to plenty of venue mailing lists and follow even more on Facebook/Twitter – but I’ve been checking the Time Out website obsessively for the past few days and have finally been rewarded with their Halloween in London guide. I’ll have a dig through and see if there’s anything that looks particularly cool/cheap that I can add to the list I’ve been preparing, then it’ll be good to go!

Are you excited by Halloween? Have you been preparing already?