Things to do for Halloween in Madrid

The Casa de México Foundation in Spain builds its Day of the Dead altar, this year dedicated to composer Agustín Lara (1897-1970), the Flaco de Oro, who presides over the scene at his piano. 🌼🎹

The offering is inspired by a mountain cemetery in Michoacán on the Night of the Dead: candles, marigolds, copal, music and monarch butterflies, which in Purépecha and Mazahua tradition represent the souls returning to visit the living.

🌼 DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR 2026

📅 2 October to 8 November 2026

🕐 Free entry: Monday 10 am to 6.45 pm, Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 1.45 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 12.45 pm

📍 Fundación Casa de México en España, calle de Alberto Aguilera, 20, Madrid

🎟️ Free

🕯️ Guided tours

About 20 minutes: Tuesday to Friday 2 pm to 8.30 pm, Saturday 1 pm to 8.30 pm and Sunday 1 pm to 6.30 pm.

With free booking (link sent every Friday in the Casa de México newsletter) or via the walk-in queue, subject to capacity.

🎨 Folk art

The altar features traditional Mexican crafts such as embossed tin and cartonería (papier-mâché).

✨ Music, memory and flowers for those who live on in our songs.

Marigolds, papel picado, candles and pan de muerto: Teatro Fernán Gómez builds its Day of the Dead Altar, this year dedicated to the memory of the Generation of '27. 🌼🕯️

A poetic meeting between the Mexican tradition and the artists of '27, seeing death not as absence but as the lasting presence of artistic creation.

🌼 DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR 2026

📅 20 October to 8 November 2026

🕐 Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 8 pm. Closed Mondays

📍 Teatro Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa, Plaza de Colón, 4, Madrid

🎟️ Free entry, no booking

🕯️ The altar

A three-tier Mexican altar representing the stages of the path of memory and knowledge, with a marigold arch, coloured papel picado, a banquet, candles, pan de muerto and sugar skulls.

One space is dedicated to Las Sinsombrero, women artists erased by official history, and another to the Generation of '27: Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre, Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Dámaso Alonso and Manuel de Falla.

ℹ️ Good to know

Groups should email actividades@teatrofernangomez.es in advance, ideally on weekdays before 6 pm. For all audiences.

✨ Memory, poetry and flowers in the heart of Madrid.

Parque Warner's most extreme nights are back: the 5th Halloween Scary Nights, billed by the park as its most extreme edition ever. 🎃🩸

A night-time event with its own ticket, featuring 8 horror walkthroughs, 6 scare zones and shows across the park.

🩸 HALLOWEEN SCARY NIGHTS

📅 Friday 23 October and the night of Saturday 31 October 2026

🕐 23 October, 10 pm to 3 am. 31 October, midnight to 5 am (early hours of 1 November). Entry from 2 hours before

📍 Parque Warner Madrid, San Martín de la Vega

🎟️ Dedicated Scary Nights ticket, on sale on the park website

👻 What's on

8 horror walkthroughs, including La Monja (The Nun), Crime Alley: Night of Chaos, IT Experience and Expedientes Warren (The Conjuring).

6 scare zones, two of them new, plus the Dionesium Escape Scare Zone.

The 5th edition adds a new horror walkthrough and an extreme experience.

ℹ️ Good to know

Last tickets available. Under-12s are advised to come accompanied. Times may change.

✨ Madrid's most extreme Halloween nights.

Pick your own pumpkin in the field, paint it and get lost in a corn maze: La Huerta de Aranjuez celebrates Halloween with its Pumpkin Patch. 🎃🚜

A countryside outing for the whole family, with a special Halloween edition on 24, 25 and 31 October.

🎃 HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN PATCH

📅 Saturday 24, Sunday 25 and Saturday 31 October 2026

🕐 Three sessions: 9.30 am to 12 pm, 12.30 pm to 3 pm and 4.30 pm to 7 pm

📍 La Huerta de Aranjuez, 28300 Aranjuez, Madrid

🎟️ €23 for adults and children from 18 months (corn cob and drink included). Babies 0-18 months free

🌽 What's included

Pick your own pumpkin, a pumpkin painting area, tractor ride, sack race and traditional games, hay maze and corn pit, a big corn maze, photocall and snack area.

Halloween special: early entry 15 minutes before your session, Halloween face painting, a sweets table and a live country band.

ℹ️ Good to know

Pumpkin Patch tickets go on sale soon on La Huerta's website. Food combos are available at an advance price.

✨ Pumpkins, tractors and Halloween in the countryside.

San Lorenzo de El Escorial gets ready for the scariest night of the year with activities by the Youth Department, the Municipal Library and the Tourist Office. 🎃👻

🎃 HALLOWEEN IN SAN LORENZO DE EL ESCORIAL

📅 24 October to 1 November 2026

🕐 Family party: Saturday 24, 6 pm to 8 pm

📍 Casa de Cultura, calle Floridablanca, 3, San Lorenzo de El Escorial

🎟️ Free. Except for the family party, all activities require prior registration

📋 Programme

Saturday 24 October, 6-8 pm: Family Halloween Party at the Casa de Cultura, with dancing, parades, workshops and games.

Friday 30 October, 6 pm: Spooky Gymkhana by the Municipal Library, with games, dancing, face painting, balloon modelling and storytelling (until about 7.30 pm).

31 October: family haunted house at the Albergue Fuente Nueva and another for secondary school students at the Casa de la Juventud. At 7 pm, Halloween costumed tour by the Tourist Office with the Deverde association.

1 November, All Saints' Day: another costumed tour.

ℹ️ Registration

Municipal Library (91 890 04 20), Casa de la Juventud (91 890 39 95, juventud@aytosanlorenzo.es) and Tourism (91 890 53 13).

✨ A small-town Halloween at the foot of the Monastery.

Have you heard mysterious footsteps inside the walls of the Price? They say some ghosts still roam Madrid's old circus... and this Halloween week they need help to reappear. 👻🎪

Los fantasmas del Price (The Ghosts of the Price) is a family workshop of light and shadow at the Teatro Circo Price.

👻 LOS FANTASMAS DEL PRICE

📅 Friday 30 October and Friday 6 November 2026

🕐 5.30 pm to 8 pm

📍 Teatro Circo Price, Ronda de Atocha, 35, Madrid

🎟️ €5 per person. Children and adults both need a ticket

🔦 What you do

These ghosts are not scary: they are circus artists, musicians, acrobats and tightrope walkers who left their mark under the ring lights and who come back now and then to tell their stories.

The workshop plays with light and shadow: participants experiment with their bodies and with objects to create characters and scenes, build mysterious silhouettes and invent new worlds. A plan to imagine, create and play as a family.

🎪 Madrid's circus

The Teatro Circo Price has been Madrid's great circus stage since the 19th century and today runs shows, galas and workshops for all ages at its Ronda de Atocha venue.

ℹ️ Good to know: the workshop may include intense or strobe lighting. Places are limited, so book in advance on the Price website. The activity is in Spanish.

✨ A scare-free Halloween with shadows, circus and imagination.

The scariest night of the year arrives in Soto del Real with a chilling experience designed to test visitors' courage and deliver spooky fun. 👻🎃

Organised by Soto del Real Town Hall as part of its youth and children's programming, this haunted walkthrough has become a key seasonal event in the town.

🥁 Passage of Terror

📅 31 October 2026

🕐 From 18:00

📍 Casa de la Juventud, Soto del Real

🎟️ Free admission

📖 An immersive walkthrough full of surprises

This iconic passage offers an eerie tour filled with mystery and unexpected encounters, challenging the nerve of everyone who dares to enter.

Participants will navigate darkened areas and uncover startling scenes at every corner, plunging straight into the thrilling spirit of Halloween.

🥁 A vibrant youth hub in the northern mountains

The Casa de la Juventud e Infancia in Soto del Real hosts this event at its facilities on Calle Concejo, providing an engaging space for youth leisure.

The municipal centre regularly hosts activities and community gatherings tailored specifically to the interests of the local younger audience.

ℹ️ Good to know: Designed for young audiences aged 11 to 17. Admission is free and no advance registration is required.

✨ Step into the shadows and test your nerve on the most mysterious night in Soto del Real.

A dancing skeleton, a pianist from beyond the grave, a sneaky spider and a skateboarding witch: the Retiro Puppet Theatre celebrates Halloween with a variety show full of fun scares. 🎃🕷️

Madrid company Periplo Marionetas presents Varieté Halloween, a puppet show for the whole family.

🎃 VARIETÉ HALLOWEEN

📅 Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November 2026

🕐 12.30 pm

📍 Teatro de Títeres de El Retiro, Retiro Park (enter by the Puerta de la Independencia), Madrid

🎟️ Free with a ticket downloaded in advance

🎭 The show

Musical numbers, improvisation and humour alternate in a 40-minute variety show with a duel of little titans, traps and plenty of surprises. Recommended from age 5.

🪆 Periplo Marionetas

Diana Romero and Andrés Maturana have designed, built and performed their own puppets and marionettes since 2009, at festivals such as Titirimundi, Festitíteres, the Bristol Festival of Puppetry and the Charleville-Mézières World Puppet Theatre Festival.

ℹ️ Good to know: free tickets can be downloaded from Friday 30 October at 10 am, up to 4 per person, and children need a ticket too. No entry once the show has started. It may be cancelled in bad weather.

✨ An open-air Halloween in the Retiro with puppets: a perfect plan for little ones.

Lanterns floating on the water as the sun sets over Madrid: the Water Lantern Festival returns to Parque Juan Carlos I, with a new date. 🏮✨

A plan to slow down: live music, food and drink, and a lantern each guest decorates with a wish, a memory or a message.

🏮 WATER LANTERN FESTIVAL MADRID

📅 Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November 2026

🕐 4 pm to 8 pm

📍 Parque Juan Carlos I, Madrid

🎟️ Free entry to the grounds. To take part in the lantern ritual, buy a ticket on Fever (prices rise closer to the date)

🎶 What to expect

A live band plays from the moment the gates open until the lantern launch.

Food and drink stalls with vegan and gluten-free options, plus an open-mic moment.

Space to stroll and sit by the water: bring a blanket.

ℹ️ Good to know

All ages. Your ticket is a QR code in the Fever app. Wear comfortable clothes: it's outdoors by the water.

✨ An afternoon of light, music and wishes on the water.

True to tradition, Alcalá de Henares stages José Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio on the nights of 31 October and 1 November, when part of the play takes place. 🎭🕯️

These are the 40th itinerant performances of Don Juan en Alcalá, a Festival of National Tourist Interest. The company Zoe Teatre presents a Tenorio told as a living tale, wrapped in music and with an aesthetic close to magical realism.

🎭 DON JUAN EN ALCALÁ

📅 Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November 2026

🕐 7.30 pm

📍 Garden of the Archbishop's Palace (Huerta del Obispo), calle Cardenal Sandoval y Rojas, s/n, Alcalá de Henares

🎟️ Free entry

🌟 The cast

Paula Iwasaki and Rubén de Eguía star in Don Juan en Alcalá 2026.

ℹ️ Good to know

Open-air performance in the walled grounds of the Archbishop's Palace. Arrive early.

✨ Zorrilla's Tenorio, outdoors on the night of the dead.

Catrinas, music and colour through central Madrid: ÁNIMA celebrates the Day of the Dead with a big free parade and a Mexican party in Plaza Mayor. 💀🌼

The parade is the highlight of ÁNIMA, the festival bringing Mexican tradition, art, music and food to Plaza Mayor, Plaza de Chamberí and the Círculo de Bellas Artes from 29 October to 3 November.

💀 DAY OF THE DEAD PARADE

📅 Sunday 1 November 2026

🕐 5 pm parade start. Mexican party around 8 pm

📍 From the Mexican Embassy (Carrera de San Jerónimo, next to Plaza de las Cortes) to Plaza Mayor, Madrid

🎟️ Free

🌼 The ÁNIMA festival

1 November, about 8 pm: Mexican Party in Plaza Mayor after the parade.

29 October to 3 November: activities and workshops in Plaza de Chamberí and a stall at Mercado de Prosperidad (9 am to 9 pm).

Want to march? Sign up on the festival website.

ℹ️ Day of the Dead

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2008, it's a celebration to remember loved ones, with music, colour and joy. All ÁNIMA activities are free.

✨ Mexico takes over Madrid to celebrate life.