October 28, 2026 — Celebrate scary and sweet season with Halloween happenings
As you can tell by the abundance of oversized skeletons — and dog skeletons and even pumpkin skeletons — in yards all over Olympia, Halloween is nigh. Better yet, it falls on a Saturday.
The happy result: lots of seasonally appropriate treats on and around the big day, including parties, costume contests, theater, film and even an al fresco performance by Samba Olywa. Here’s a sampling of the seasonal fun:
- Love Oly Downtown for Halloween: The Olympia Downtown Alliance is celebrating Oct. 31 with trick-or-treating at shops and restaurants and a pet costume contest. Get all dressed up to collect treats from 3 to 6 p.m. at participating locations (https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=16rcMbd21S5McG_7fdulWOgskkyAV8Cw), and show off your pet — or just check out the cuteness — from 4 to 5 p.m. at 5th Avenue and Washington Street. Get the details and register your pet online (https://loveolydowntown.com/events/loveoly-downtown-for-halloween/).
- Boo Bash: The Hands On Children’s Museum’s annual fall festival, continuing through Oct. 31, features costume parades, cider pressing, crafts, an interactive Boneyard with staff from Seattle’s Burke Museum and a bilingual Silly Skeleton Show. Activities (https://www.hocm.org/events-programs/annual-events/boo-bash-6/), for kids 12 and younger and accompanying adults, happen from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at the museum, 414 Jefferson St. NE, Olympia, and are free with museum admission (https://www.hocm.org/plan-your-visit/).
- Samba Olywa’s Bone Gang: Best known for providing the grand finale of the Procession of the Species, Samba Olywa also does an annual pop-up performance — weather permitting — in the South Capitol neighborhood. Look and listen for the band’s skeleton crew from 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31 in the vicinity of 21st Avenue and Capitol Way.
- “A Spirited Manor”: Theater Artists Olympia’s current offering, a spooky show featuring haunted houses, ghosts and demons, is already in the spirit of the season. The company will launch its Halloween festivities with a costume contest at 8 p.m. followed by a performance at 9 p.m. at Oly Theater, 412 Jefferson St. SE, Olympia. Regular performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 and Nov. 2, 6 and 7 and 2 p.m. Nov. 1 and 8. Tickets (https://www.olytheater.com/) are $15-$20.
- “Alien”: The Olympia Film Society is screening the sci-fi horror classic in the days surrounding Halloween. The 1979 film (https://www.olympiafilmsociety.org/movie/alien/), directed by Ridley Scott, was chosen by the society’s Jeff Powell, who said he’s excited to see it on a big screen for the first time. Powell will introduce the film at the first screening, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 at the Capitol Theater, 206 5th Ave. SE, Olympia. You can also catch it at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 or 4 p.m. Nov. 4. Tickets are $7-$14.
Molly Gilmore just returned from Ashland, Oregon, where she caught the end of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s (https://www.osfashland.org/) 2026 season and fell in love with “Come From Away.”
To keep track of what is happening in the arts in the South Puget Sound region, be sure to read Molly Gilmore’s weekly “Arts Aficionado” column in Oly Arts magazine. Subscribe to Oly Arts to receive an email when we publish new articles and columns.