New Orleans does not confine Halloween to a single night. October in the city brings a 15-float parade through multiple neighborhoods on the Saturday before Halloween, a major multi-day music festival at City Park in the last week of the month, licensed-guide cemetery tours that sell out weeks in advance, and a Bourbon Street scene on October 31 that rivals any in the country.
New Orleans also has a year-round supernatural culture that makes Halloween feel less like a holiday and more like a homecoming. Voodoo is a real religious tradition with deep roots in the city. The above-ground cemeteries are part of daily neighborhood life, not tourist gimmicks. Bars like Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at 941 Bourbon Street have been accumulating ghost stories since 1722. The city is primed for all of this before the first costume appears.
This guide covers the four things worth planning around — the parade, the festival, the ghost tours, and the cemeteries — plus what to do on Halloween night itself and how to handle the practical realities of visiting in October.
The Krewe of BOO! is the city's official Halloween parade, and in 2026 it rolls on Saturday, October 24 — one week before Halloween. The parade is free to watch from the street along the entire route.
The route begins on Elysian Fields Avenue in the Faubourg Marigny, where bars open early and costumed crowds build well before the floats arrive. From there, the parade rolls through the French Quarter, turns up Canal Street, and ends near Tchoupitoulas Street in the Warehouse District. In 2026, 15 floats and 45 subkrewes took part. The French Quarter stretch and the Canal Street turn are the best viewing spots — floats stack up at the turn, giving you more time to see each one.
Arrive 30 to 45 minutes early for a good spot on the curb. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is the natural place to start the evening: live music is playing at the clubs there by 6pm, and the crowd fills in before the parade arrives on that stretch. After the parade, most of the crowd moves toward the French Quarter.
Get short, interactive stories that make each place easier to remember while you travel.
Voodoo Music + Arts Experience has run at City Park every late October since 1999, making it one of the longest-running Halloween-season music festivals in the country. City Park sits about 3 miles north of the French Quarter — a 15-minute Uber or Lyft ride.
The festival runs across multiple days in the last week of October and consistently combines rock, hip-hop, and electronic lineups with art installations, local food vendors, and an atmosphere that leans heavily into Halloween costumes. Ticket options typically include single-day general admission and multi-day passes. Camping is not available — most attendees stay in city hotels and commute to City Park for sets.
The specific dates, headliners, and ticket prices change each year. Check voodoomusicfest.com for the 2026 lineup before buying. One practical note: Voodoo Fest weekend and Halloween weekend overlap in late October, which means the city is simultaneously hosting the festival crowd and the Halloween street crowd. Hotel prices reflect this. If you are going primarily for the festival, book accommodation near the Mid-City or Lakeview neighborhoods rather than paying the French Quarter premium.
New Orleans has more ghost tour operators than almost any American city. The most consistent company with high booking volume is Ghost City Tours, which runs several formats from the French Quarter: a standard walking tour starting around $20 per adult, an adults-only 'Killers and Thrillers' version around $30, and a haunted pub crawl around $25. Most tours depart from near Jackson Square or along Decatur Street and run for two hours.
For the most atmospheric option, look for the haunted cemetery bus tour departing from 620 Decatur Street — around $39 per adult — which includes access to an above-ground cemetery after dark. This is the version that shows you what the cemeteries actually look like outside of daylight hours, and it is the most different experience from what you can arrange on your own.
Beyond the tour operators, the French Quarter itself has sites worth knowing. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar at 941 Bourbon Street is the oldest bar in continuous operation in the United States — the building dates to 1722. The Ursuline Convent at 1100 Chartres Street, completed in 1752, is the oldest surviving building in the Mississippi River Valley. The LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street is where socialite Delphine LaLaurie enslaved and tortured people in the 1830s — the building still stands and draws tourists who know the story. Any walking tour in the French Quarter will pass most of these.
Book tours in advance for October. The best options sell out weeks ahead.
There are 42 cemeteries in New Orleans. Two are visited most often by out-of-towners, and they operate on completely different rules.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, at 300 Basin Street near the edge of the French Quarter, is the oldest Catholic cemetery in New Orleans, opened in 1789. Its above-ground 'oven' tombs — stacked rows of sealed burial vaults built into perimeter walls — are what most visitors picture when they think of a New Orleans cemetery. The tomb of Marie Laveau, the 19th-century Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is inside; visitors still leave offerings at the base. Entry is only permitted with a licensed guide registered with the Archdiocese of New Orleans — solo entry is enforced against, a rule put in place after vandalism damaged tombs. Licensed walking tours run approximately $29-$33 per adult and last 45 minutes. Book weeks in advance for October.
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, at 1400 Washington Ave in the Garden District, is the opposite in every way: free to enter, no guide required, and far less crowded. This is the cemetery featured in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire novels and used as a filming location for the 1994 film adaptation. It has a very different feel from St. Louis No. 1 — tree-shaded paths, a neighborhood context rather than a tourist corridor, and quiet on most weekday mornings. Open weekdays 7am-3pm, Saturdays 7am-noon. If you are already visiting the Garden District, it is a five-minute walk from the Magazine Street stretch.
October 31 is a Saturday in 2026. Bourbon Street will be closed to car traffic and full of costumed crowds by 8pm. No tickets or wristbands are needed to walk the street — it is a free public scene. The character of Bourbon Street on Halloween is high-energy, dense, and loud; by midnight it is one of the most photographed Halloween spectacles in the country. If you have never seen it, it is worth a few hours of your night.
Frenchmens Street in the Faubourg Marigny — about 10 minutes east on foot from the heart of the French Quarter — is what locals tend to prefer. The Spotted Cat Music Club, d.b.a., and the Frenchmen Art Market nearby create a more music-forward, less tourist-saturated version of the same all-night energy. On Halloween, the street fills with costumed musicians and dancers starting around 9pm. The atmosphere is the same city, different register.
If you have only one night in New Orleans for Halloween, walk Bourbon Street first (say, 9 to 11pm) and then move to Frenchmen Street for the rest of the evening. The two-neighborhood circuit takes about an hour of walking and covers the full range of what the city does on this night.
When should I book hotels? Halloween weekend 2026 falls on a Friday-Saturday. Book hotels in July at the latest — the French Quarter and Garden District fill first, followed by the Faubourg Marigny and Warehouse District. If you are attending Voodoo Fest in the days before Halloween, consider Mid-City accommodation; it puts you between City Park and the French Quarter.
Is late October a good time weather-wise? Yes — it is one of the best. Average highs around 75F (24C), lows around 60F (16C), low humidity, and a low probability of rain. It is noticeably more comfortable than summer, when heat and humidity regularly push into the low 90s with 80-plus percent humidity.
Do I need tickets for the Krewe of BOO! parade? No. The parade is free to watch from the street along the entire route. You do not need to be in the French Quarter; the Faubourg Marigny stretch and the Canal Street section are both easy to watch from the sidewalk.
Is Voodoo Fest still running? It runs annually at City Park in late October. Check voodoomusicfest.com for the current year's dates, headliners, and ticket prices — lineups typically announce two to three months before the event.
Is the Voodoo religion in New Orleans real or just for tourists? Both, which is the tension that defines how to engage with it. Voodoo (or Vodou) is a syncretic religious tradition with roots in West African and Haitian practice, brought to New Orleans by enslaved people from the 18th century onward. It is still practiced by a community in the city. Commercial shops on Bourbon Street sell herbs, candles, and gris-gris bags. Marie Laveau's tomb at St. Louis No. 1 draws visitors who leave offerings. Approach with the curiosity and respect you would any living religious tradition. Details in this guide were verified in October 2026; hours, prices, and events change, so confirm before you go.
