Halloween fun in and near Winnipeg

These are the dates and details for Halloween Fun in 2009 -- but all of these events are popular, so you can pretty much count on them being back next year(and beyond).

This page is on Visitor-Guide-to-Winnipeg.com year-round (for those who really like to plan ahead).

I'll update for Halloween 2010 as details are revealed by the various organizers of these events...

Halloween fun for younger children

Tuesday, October 20 and Tuesday, October 27 Halloween fun for the very young during Toddler Tuesdays at Boo at the Zoo.

Kiddie rides and fairy tales at the Zoo in a gentler version of the city’s largest Halloween fun and fundraiser event specifically for the very young up to age 8.

Gates at the Zoo’s Main Entrance open at 5:30 (until 8:30; it’s all over at 9 p.m.).

Boo at the Zoo is popular, so I suggest you arrive early to get a good parking spot and avoid longer line-ups at the rides. Tickets are available online or at Safeway ($7.50 plus tax) or at the gate night of ($10); free admission for infants and toddlers under age 23 months.

Friday October 23, Saturday October 24 and Sunday October 25 All Aboard! for the Prairie Dog Central Halloween party on the Halloween Express, departing from Inkster Junction Station just north of Inkster Blvd..

Wear your costume because there will be prizes plus music and games before departure (at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 5 p.m. on Sunday) and more Halloween fun on the train plus hotdogs and snacks when you return.

Tickets are $19.95 for children; $24.95 for adults, tax included. More info about Prairie Dog Express events and tickets is here.

Halloween, Saturday October 31 there's an all-day Halloween Party at Oak Hammock Marsh. Scavenger Hunts, Pumpkin carving, Costume Parades and, in the evening, a Spirit Walk.

To get to Oak Hammock Marsh, take either Highway 7 or Highway 8 north from the Perimeter and follow the signs.

Halloween fun for all ages

Thursday October 15 to Friday October 30 every evening except Mondays (October 19 and 26), the very popular Boo at the Zoo: Mission Big Foot Halloween fun with the animals, a fund-raiser for Polar Bear Conservation Fund in Tribute to Debby the Polar Bear, at The Zoo, Assiniboine Park.

20 themed areas with music, costumed actors and entertainers, including the return of favourites Myron the Juggler and Madam Clara’s Gypsy Village.

Gates open at 6 p.m. on weekdays; 5:30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; the event is over each evening at 9 p.m.

Food is available, at the Zoo restaurant and at the mini-donut booth.

Designed for all ages – there is a super scary section for older teens and adults only. Wear your costume and dress for the weather. There are no rain dates – it may rain, it may snow, but the ghouls and goblins come out every night at Boo at the Zoo!

The zoo, and this event, are accessible for people in wheelchairs.

Tickets are $7.50 plus tax at Safeway or $10 at the gate or available online here.

Every weekend until October 31 there’s scary fun for kids, older kids and teens and adults at Halloween Haunt at Six Pines Ranch, where various tricks and terrors are set up all around the ranch.

There’s a not-too-scary kids haunt (Dracula does make an appearance), the popular Terror Train and the really creepy Twisted Barn of Doom (not for the faint of heart).

Six Pines is on Sturgeon Road, four km north of the Perimeter in Township of Rosser.

Family time Saturdays and Sundays noon to 5:30 p.m.; adults-only evening hauntings (the really scary stuff) are from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

October 27 to 31 are this year’s dates for Halloween Howl at East Elmwood Community Centre, where the dressing rooms, meeting rooms, hallways and even one of the washrooms become a dark and haunted maze with scary props and even scarier ghouls around every corner.

This family event has added one extra-scary room for those with nerves of steel and there’s also a scare-free option for the feint of heart (nobody jumps out at you). Free, but please bring a non-perishable food item or cash donation for Christmas Cheer Board, at 927 Beach Avenue, 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

October 29 to 31 there’s a new spooky spot in town, The Haunted House at Double Spurs Ranch near Dugald. The hour just after opening each evening is meant for younger kids (and scaredy cats), then Hollywood-styled hell breaks loose with pirates, a torture chamber, a gory butcher, Linda Blair’s bedroom from The Exorcist and worse. (My fave is the Western ghost town).

Admission is $12, or $10 with a non-perishable food item for Winnipeg Harvest. 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 29145 Prairie Grove Road. To get there from Winnipeg, take either Highway 1 (Trans-Canada) or Highway 15 east to Dugald. Turn onto Municipal Road 30E, then on Prairie Grove Road (there are signs). Info: 853-7921.

Weekends until October 31 The Planetarium at The Manitoba Museum presents The Halloween Show at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

More fun for kids...

More fun for older kids and teens

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SBI!