Luton's free pumpkin patch is in Hat Gardens on Wednesday 28 October, 10am to 4pm. Woodside Farm's Halloween days start 17 October, £16.50, plus crafts.

Luton’s big free Halloween event is the council’s Pumpkin Patch in Hat Gardens on Wednesday 28 October, 10am to 4pm. Children wheel mini barrows round the town centre garden to pick a pumpkin, and it costs nothing (Explore Luton). Two days later, on Friday 30 October, the council runs free Spooky Storytelling on the Steps in the same garden.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, at the end of the October half term (Monday 26 to Friday 30 October). Most of what is on is aimed at children and runs in the daytime during half term. The one evening event on the night itself is a concert of Tim Burton film music in St Mary’s Church.

The quick answer

Free: the pumpkin patch, Hat Gardens, Wed 28 Oct, 10am to 4pm, and spooky storytelling, Hat Gardens, Fri 30 Oct, shows at 1pm and 2pm. Paid: Halloween craft sessions at Wardown, the Hat Factory and Stockwood (£4.50), a clay creature workshop (£9.50), WiFi Wars (from £13.20) and a children’s pirate show. Halloween night, Sat 31 Oct: Tim Burton’s Universe at St Mary’s, 6.30pm, £15 to £40. Just outside town: Woodside Animal Farm’s Halloween days start Sat 17 Oct, £16.50 online. Every detail below is from the organisers’ own listings, read on 29 September 2026.

Updated 6 October: added Woodside Animal Farm’s Halloween Spooktacular, just outside Luton, which starts on Saturday 17 October, and a half term screening of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (PG) at Luton Library Theatre on Monday 26 October at 2pm. The other listings were re-checked today and are unchanged.

Every Halloween event, day by day

Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 October

  • Corpse Bride (PG), Orange Picture Club, Luton Library Theatre, LU1 2NG, Monday 26 October, 2pm to 3.30pm. Tim Burton’s animated gothic love story, about a nervous groom who proposes by accident to a bride from the world of the dead, on the theatre’s big screen. The listing prints no price (Luton Library Theatre).
  • Make Your Clay Creature, Stockwood Discovery Centre, LU1 4LX, sessions at 11.30am and 2pm. Luton-based Lugus Ceramics helps children shape a “creepy clay creature” to take home. Ages 4 to 11, and one adult must stay. £9.50 including the booking fee (The Culture Trust).

Wednesday 28 October

  • Pumpkin Patch in Hat Gardens, Bute Street, LU1 2EP, 10am to 4pm, free. The council says it will publish more details, so it has not yet said whether children take a pumpkin home (Explore Luton).
  • Halloween Creative Make and Take, Wardown House, Museum and Gallery, LU2 7HA, at 11.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm. Bat bookmarks, spooky masks and “mummify a beast”. Ages 3 and up, £4.50 (The Culture Trust).
  • WiFi Wars: Halloween Special, Hat Factory Arts Centre, LU1 2EY, 2pm. A comedy game show that the whole audience plays on their own phones or tablets. Ages 6 and up. £15.40 adult, £13.20 child, including the booking fee (The Culture Trust).

Thursday 29 October

  • Dame Dolly’s Spooktacular Pirate Party, Luton Library Theatre, LU1 2NG, 2pm to 3pm. A Halloween pirate show for children, with Dame Dolly Dollop and audience help (Luton Library Theatre). The theatre does not print a price; the council’s Explore Luton calendar lists it at £10.

Friday 30 October

  • Family Film Club: Monster Family, Hat Factory Arts Centre, 10.30am. A PG film about a family an evil witch turns into monsters, with a creative corner and the café open. £4, or four tickets for £12 (The Culture Trust).
  • Halloween Creative Make and Take, Hat Factory Arts Centre, at 11.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm. Monster bookmarks, spooky masks and the monster mash. Ages 3 and up, £4.50 (The Culture Trust).
  • Spooky Storytelling on the Steps, Hat Gardens, shows at 1pm and 2pm, free. Halloween stories, games and puppets from A Children’s Story. Children who come in fancy dress get a small treat while stocks last (Explore Luton).

Saturday 31 October, Halloween

  • Halloween Creative Make and Take, Stockwood Discovery Centre, at 11.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm. Spiders, bugs and minibeast decorations. Ages 3 and up, £4.50 (The Culture Trust).
  • Tim Burton’s Universe by Mystery Ensemble, St Mary’s Luton Parish Church, Church Street, LU1 3JF, 6.30pm, running about an hour with doors 30 minutes before. Danny Elfman’s scores for Burton’s films, from Beetlejuice to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ages 6 and up, £15 to £40, and late entry may be refused (Red Events).

Just outside Luton: Woodside Animal Farm

The biggest Halloween day out near the town is not in the borough at all. Woodside Animal Farm, on Mancroft Road at Aley Green near Slip End, LU1 4DG, runs its Halloween Spooktacular on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October and every day from Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October. The farm lists a hunt for a golden pumpkin with a prize, a scarecrow field, a spooky walk, a witches and ghosts hunt, Halloween crafts, a fancy dress competition, creepy crawly encounters and animal cuddling, on top of its usual tractor rides, funfair rides and indoor soft play (Woodside Animal Farm).

  • Price: £16.50 for an adult or a child (2 to 16) booked online, plus a 50p booking fee, against £20 on the gate. Tots aged 12 to 24 months are £6, and under-12-months go free (Woodside tickets).
  • Return visit: a Halloween ticket includes a free return visit between 1 November and 24 December.
  • Opening hours: the farm park’s standard hours are 10am to 4.30pm every day (Woodside visitor info); the Halloween ticket page gives no separate event hours.
  • Essential companions: free on entry for holders of an Access Card with the +1 or +2 symbol.

Is there a Halloween trail or fright night in Luton?

Inside the borough, not that any organiser has announced; the nearest is the spooky walk at Woodside, above. The Culture Trust, which runs Stockwood, Wardown and the Hat Factory, lists craft sessions but no trail, and the council’s Halloween category on Explore Luton held the seven events above and nothing else on 29 September. If a trail or a fright night is announced, it will go on this page.

Getting there and parking

The pumpkin patch, the storytelling, the Hat Factory and the Library Theatre are all within a few minutes’ walk of each other and of Luton station. St Mary’s is on the other side of the town centre, by the university. Stockwood Discovery Centre has free parking off London Road. For town centre car parks and charges, see parking in Luton; for closures and roadworks that week, see our roadworks and travel page.

More for half term

The whole week, including the non-Halloween children’s shows and the school dates, is on our October half term page. The town’s free fireworks follow a week later, on Saturday 7 November at Popes Meadow: see Luton fireworks.

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