Krewe of BOO! has fog machines, flying skeletons, and grown-ups in vampire capes—but don’t be fooled: this spooky spectacular is also one seriously fun family affair. With costumed characters, candy-packed throws, and musical mayhem, it's the perfect way to introduce your little ghouls to the magic of New Orleans Halloween. Here’s how to survive at Krewe of BOO! with kids in tow. Because nothing says "quality family time" like catching plush pumpkins while standing next to a

New Orleans may be known for its wild nights and haunted happenings, but Halloween weekend with the Krewe of BOO! isn’t just for the grown-up ghouls—it’s a family-friendly fright fest from start to finish. With dancing skeletons, spooky swag, costumed crowds, and candy galore, it’s a weekend your little monsters won’t forget (and neither will you).

In most cities, ghosts are something you try to avoid. In New Orleans? We throw them a parade, name cocktails after them, and invite them to brunch. The Crescent City doesn’t just tolerate the dead—we adore them. We build above-ground cemeteries like marble cities for the dearly departed, we honor voodoo queens with candlelit altars, and we clink glasses to the other side with drinks that could wake the dead (looking at you, Corpse Reviver No. 2).

In most cities, funerals are quiet affairs. In New Orleans, they come with a brass band and backup dancers. Here in the Crescent City, we don’t just mourn the dead—we honor them, celebrate them, and send them off in style with a dance, a drink, and a little bit of jazz. The line between grief and joy gets blurred by trumpet blasts and feathered umbrellas, and before you know it, you’re crying into your cocktail and dancing in the streets.

In most places, cemeteries are quiet places of mourning. In New Orleans, they’re architectural wonders, haunted landmarks, and—when October rolls around—fashion inspiration. Welcome to the City of the Dead, where tombs are stacked like stone row houses, saints and sinners rest side by side, and spirits stroll casually through the fog. Our above-ground cemeteries aren’t just resting places—they’re a foundational part of our city’s mystique.

There is but one New Orleans—Queen City of the Inland Sea, Gateway to the Mississippi Valley, Paris of America. She is the most wicked of cities, with a past as thick as roux simmering on a stovetop. This backward-like town, built on a bed of oyster shells, offers a little voodoo in a good ol’ Southern night, brewing a provocative spell through the pervasive French Quarter. She enchants vampires to roam and spirits to haunt, and if a passerby is willing to probe, there are my

In a city filled to the brim with juxtaposition, New Orleans is a complex landscape of violence and religion, of sinister acts and saintly gifts, of brutality and compassion side by side. With street names literally altered between historic saints and legendary sinners, the city's heritage is a cultural line up of eccentric personalities who have garnered lives filled with mainly good or mainly bad influences. Here, we like to say, "sin tonight; church tomorrow."

In New Orleans, catching things thrown at your head from a moving vehicle is considered a sport, a tradition, and a badge of honor. Beads, trinkets, toys—if it flies through the air during a parade, you want it. And while most folks associate throws with Mardi Gras, Halloween has officially entered the chat. Welcome to the eerie evolution of this classic Crescent City tradition, and how Krewe of BOO! took “Throw me something, mister!” and gave it a spooky-season spin.

If it’s your first time at Krewe of BOO!, welcome to the wildest, weirdest, most undead fabulous parade you’ll ever attend. But if you want to do it right—like really right—you need wisdom from those who’ve been BOO’ing for years. We asked our most seasoned paradegoers to spill their secrets. Here are their best tips, tricks, and Halloween hacks for making the most out of your Krewe of BOO! experience. Take notes… or just carve them into a pumpkin.

So you’ve just survived the Krewe of BOO! Parade—you caught a flying plush skull, danced with a stilt-walking werewolf, and now you’re glowing from all the glitter, fog, and haunted brass band beats. You think the night’s over? Boo, please. The real party is just getting started. Welcome to the Monster Mash—New Orleans' official Krewe of BOO! after-party, where ghosts don’t rest, ghouls get down, and mortals become monsters on the dance floor.

So you survived the Krewe of BOO!—you’ve caught your haunted plushies, dodged a flying eyeball, and danced in the streets with skeletons on stilts. What now? You go straight to the Monster Mash. This isn’t just any after-party. The Monster Mash is where the night truly comes alive. It's New Orleans’ Halloween heartbeat—a full-throttle, costumed, cocktail-fueled bash where the spooky, the sparkly, and the just-plain-strange come to get down.

Before the floats roll and the fog machines fire up, before skeletons dance down Decatur and vampires toast to the full moon, there’s only one thing on New Orleans’ Halloween weekend agenda: Run for your life. Literally. Welcome to the New Orleans Zombie Run—a 2-mile, blood-spattered sprint through the heart of downtown, where participants either flee in terror or stagger with dead-eyed determination. It’s cardio meets chaos, and it kicks off Krewe of BOO! weekend with a shri

The French Quarter may be paved with cobblestones and echoing jazz, but beneath that rhythm lies something older—something enchanted. Step behind the wrought-iron gates, past the flickering gas lamps, and you’ll find whispers of a magical sisterhood: the witches of the Vieux Carré. Some were revered. Some were feared. All were powerful. From voodoo queens and herbalists to potion-sellers and secret midwives, these mystical women helped shape the haunted, mysterious soul of Ne

Before the floats roll, before the brass bands blast, and before the cocktail-fueled conga lines take over the French Quarter—there’s the shuffle. The groan. The blood-spattered sneakers pounding the pavement in undead unison. We’re talking about the New Orleans Zombie Run—the gory, glorious, adrenaline-fueled tradition that kicks off Halloween weekend like only this city can.