-- Eastern State Penitentiary’s annual Halloween festival returns for 2024 season --
September 6, 2024
Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary returns for its 2024 season on Friday, September 20. The annual event, which runs select nights through November 9, features new and improved visitor experiences this year along with many returning favorites. Tickets are on sale now at HalloweenNights.org.
Halloween Nights is a massive Halloween festival that contains five haunted houses, as well as historic tours, themed bars, live entertainment and more, and occupies all ten acres of Eastern State Penitentiary’s abandoned cellblocks and yards.
Halloween Nights announces several improvements throughout the festival for the 2024 season, including Beyond the Veil, a new immersive experience; new local concessions; additional photo opportunities; and upgrades to attraction sets and visitor flow. In addition, Halloween Nights continues its popular option to “opt in” for a more intense experience. If they choose, visitors can pick up a glow necklace at the entrance to the festival. Anyone wearing a glow necklace may be grabbed, sent into hidden passageways, and even temporarily separated from their group.
NEW for 2024: Beyond the Veil
Visitors who want to dig deeper into Halloween Nights lore can engage in Beyond the Veil, a brand-new way to experience the festival for 2024. They uncover an overarching storyline that unites the attractions and delves into the backstories of a cast of all-new signature characters. This immersive-theater-style experience combines narrative and puzzle, engaging visitors in a non-linear quest that spans all ten acres of the penitentiary complex. Key characters engage with guests, putting them on paths to make decisions and unravel additional storylines and challenges as they go. Additional signage throughout the festival gives visitors a more intimate look at the creatures who wander the grounds of Halloween Nights.
Beyond the Veil is included with admission to Halloween Nights.
“We’re thrilled to bring visitors another year of festive Halloween fun,” says Erin Davis, Director of Halloween Nights. “It takes months of thoughtful planning to ensure that every season of Halloween Nights is bigger and better than the last. In addition to revamping attractions, we are always making improvements to the visitor experience. This year, we’re excited to add more scares and photo opportunities, enhance our characters and sets, and implement a storyline that allows guests to engage more deeply in this one-of-a-kind world we’ve created. From the moment visitors step through Eastern State’s imposing front gate, they will feel truly immersed in the completely unique world of Halloween Nights.”
In addition to five haunted houses, visitors to Halloween Nights can experience themed bars and lounges, live entertainment, and historic tours, including a flashlight walking tour of the penitentiary’s hospital block.
Within the festival is an area for the historic site’s flagship interpretive experiences. In The Fair Chance Beer Garden, Halloween Nights visitors can take a break from the scares and engage with the award-winning contemporary criminal justice exhibits The Big Graph and Prisons Today or take a history highlights audio tour narrated by actor Steve Buscemi.
Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary is open select nights from September 20 through November 9, 2024. Ticket prices start at $39 and vary by night. Tickets are on sale now at HalloweenNights.org.
A Massive Halloween Festival in an Abandoned Prison
The setting for Halloween Nights is unparalleled. Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous prison in the world, but stands today in ruin, a lost world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers. This gothic structure, with soaring 30-foot-high fortress walls, is intimidating enough during the day. At night, the cellblocks fall into darkness and the penitentiary takes on a different energy. Halloween Nights brings visitors into the penitentiary’s cellblocks, exercise yards, workshops, outdoor courtyards, and hidden nooks. Nearly every inch of the penitentiary complex is activated for the event.
General Information
Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary is located at 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Halloween Nights does not affect operation of the historic site, which remains open for daytime museum admission. All proceeds from Halloween Nights benefit the preservation and interpretation of Eastern State Penitentiary, a National Historic Landmark.
Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary runs select evenings from September 20 through November 9, 2024. Ticket prices start at $39 and vary by night. Tickets are on sale now at HalloweenNights.org. Purchasing tickets online in advance is strongly recommended. It’s the cheapest and most convenient way to purchase tickets and is the only way to guarantee entry to the festival. Some tickets may be available at the door, but capacity is limited, and many nights do sell out.
For more information about Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary, the public can visit HalloweenNights.org and follow @HalloweenAtESP on Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, and X.
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Get ready for some scary good fun! Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary is back with FIVE terrifying haunted houses & so much more. Are you brave enough to opt in for a more intense experience? @HalloweenAtESP opens select nights 9/20 – 11/9. Details at HalloweenNights.org
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