Things To Do In Austin For Halloween Weekend
Our city is not just for Austin bachelorette parties and summer Colorado River floats. No, if you’re lucky enough to visit Austin in the fall months, you’ll find there’s much more to do in the way of seasonal activities!
What better way to start your season of haunting than with a classic haunted house. Or, maybe this one isn’t so classic (they recommend you leave your nice clothes at home because you will leave covered in blood and gore!). At this event, you will be scared for a good cause! Scare for a Cure donates all of their profits to cancer research organizations and operates with a group of all volunteers. That’s a wholesome way to get scared this holiday season.
If it’s spooky Halloween cocktails you’re seeking, there are lots of Austin bars and restaurants featuring special scary menus with seasonal cocktails. One of our favorite Halloween pop-ups this year can be found at Lefty’s Brick Bar, which pays homage to Little Shop of Horrors with tarot readings and themed food and drinks to be enjoyed at their large East Austin location. If you’re looking for fun cocktails to get you in the holiday spirit, without being terrified, Nickel City is continuing their tradition of a Moe’s Tavern pop-up from The Simpsons. For a longer list of local spirited bars and restaurants, check out this article.
In Austin, there is no shortage of ghost tours that you can take around the city. There’s adult-only tours, family-friendly tours, and tours that have been named ‘Austin Murder Walks.’ This tour takes you through the haunted history of the ‘Midnight Assassin,’ who was America’s first serial killer and who terrified the people of Austin in 1885. This guided tour also stops for a beverage at the haunted Driskill Hotel as you get a full history of the killings that go unsolved to this day. Spooky!
More things to do in Austin this season is to enjoy a drive-in movie theatre and really feel vulnerable as you enjoy an open-air horror film. Blue Starlite Drive-In is sticking with the theme and showing a variety of scary movies this month. Their lineup includes Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Young Frankenstein. Be sure to get your tickets early from their website!
If all those spooky activities are a bit much, we always recommend staying in with your bottle of ReVerb spirits and hosting people at your house instead. There are plenty of fun, scary, and downright disgusting-looking appetizers you can make for your loved ones, and we’re not just talking about deviled eggs. This site has 63 recipes to scare your friends! To match, follow these directions for the best old-fashioned recipe, with a scary twist:
First:
Rim the outside of your glass with fake blood:
½ oz corn syrup
5 drops red food coloring
¼ cup cornstarch
Put this blood-rimmed glass in the freezer while you make your cocktail.
2 oz Small Batch Rye Whiskey by ReVerb Distilling
¼ oz simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir this cocktail together with ice, then strain over a big ice cube in your scary, bloody glassware. Note that this blood is edible, but not necessarily tasty. You can add a bit of simple syrup to it to make it sweet!