Happy Halloween Happenings 

Pumpkins, costumes, and candy, oh my. Yes, it’s almost All Hallows’ Eve and as always, Santa Barbara steps up this weekend ahead of the actual trick-or-treating time on Tuesday. We’ve chosen to highlight a few events with an eye toward something for everyone. 

The Library, SBPAL, Santa Barbara Parks and Rec, and the Santa Barbara Youth Council get together to sponsor the annual Trunk or Treat event at Spencer Adams Park 5-8 pm on October 27. Families can wear costumes, collect candy, and vote for the best decorated trunk at the free community event… The scary spirits in Ghostbusters: Afterlife don much more than white sheets with eye holes but the comedy is still king in the belated franchise sequel directed by Montecito-raised Jason Reitman, son of original director Ivan, which screens for free at the Hilton Beachfront Resort on October 27… That same night, DJ Darla Bea spins the tunes for the ‘90s themed adults-only Halloween party known as Freaky Friday on the Rooftop of the Canary Hotel from 7-10 pm. The best costume winners earn a night’s stay at the swanky hotel… The Santa Barbara Zoo offers a second weekend of its rhyming Halloween “spell-ebration” known as Boo at the Zoo (October 27-29), family fun time featuring a safe trick-or-treating trail, train rides, a hay bale maze, creepy-crawly animal encounters, mad science experiments, and other “monster-ous” thrills and chills (www.sbzoo.org).

Darla is also the DJ for the Natural History Museum’s freaky fundraiser called Creep the Halls: Into the Abyss from 6-9 pm on October 28, celebrating the weird, wonderful and misunderstood “monsters” of our sea. Play games and seek your fortune on a progressive experience through the heart of SBMNH’s historic campus, passing within a tentacle’s length of the lifelike Giant Squid, bopping around the bones of Channel Islands mammoths, and strolling the banks of Mission Creek, before joining the deep-sea disco dance party in Poseidon’s Court… Earlier in the day, World Dance for Humanity hosts its 14th annual Thriller at the Courthouse Sunken Gardens, a free family-friendly dance party and Zombies performance as part of “Thrill the World,” a global event that happens each year on the Saturday before Halloween. WDH also does impromptu flash mobs all over town through Tuesday night.

Veteran Santa Barbara storyteller Michael Katz gets your inner ghoul going with ghost stories for all ages with two free shows at Soul Bites on October 30. Katz shares some of his tamer tales from around the world for kids under 10 before launching into eerier and more evocative stories for older kids and their families in the later set at the casual downtown eatery.

Calling all cretins and fiends, goblins and ghouls: Get ready to get your groove on for Isla Vista Recreation & Park District’s 3rd annual Halloween Pumpkin Patch at Anisq’Oyo’ Park on October 30-31. The free immersive theatrical experience, curated with Lucidity and the Environment Makers, features live performance actors, interactive storytelling and decorative landscapes of light, sound and color to dazzle and delight participants as they embark on their quest through mystical realms to retrieve their pumpkin souvenir. More than 10,000 souls have popped up at the Patch where guests must gather clues and symbolic tokens from an intriguing cast of characters, or simply enjoy the environs at their own pace. Other activities include a silent disco with an illuminated dance floor, carnival games, face painting, chill zones, a costume contest featuring a $1,000 cash grand prize and a theatrical grand finale on Tuesday.