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Journal / Nashville Guide

Halloween Hits In Music City

Nashville’s the kind of town where you can see people dressed in costumes every day of the year. You’ll see women dressed as brides along Broadway and musicians in stage costumes walking to their cars. Someone who frequently shows up at events dressed as Abe Lincoln around town. And there is no shortage of themed road races, paddling events and dances where costumes are appreciated.

Even with that propensity to dress up, Halloween is still something different to experience in Nashville. If you are in Music City at the end of October, check out these six themed activities for spooky season.

  1. The historic Parthenon is worth visiting all year. This month it gets a little haunted. Grab tickets to hear Candlelight Concerts’ haunted evenings featuring favorite movie soundtracks, such as Ghostbusters, The Exorcist and Beetlejuice, performed by local classical musicians inside a space illuminated by thousands of candles. These concerts are appropriate for those ages 8 and older.

  2. If you like your trick-or-treating to be sweet, head to Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer in downtown Nashville, just blocks from the Bobby Hotel Nashville. Its “31 Nights of Halloween Graveyard Shake” includes M&M cookie pie, gravestone cookie, crumbled Oreo, gummy worms, chocolate frosted rim, whipped cream, chocolate shavings and orange and black sprinkles. Yes, all that sugar in one shake.

  3. Cheekwood, Nashville’s beloved botanic garden, is also a sight to see any time of year. But during Cheekwood Harvest, it is particularly seasonal. Show up to see the 55-acre oasis bedecked with a pumpkin-shaped topiary, chrysanthemums and not one, not two, but three different pumpkin houses, scarecrow trail and other themed displays.

  4. For just $10 you can enter Germantown’s Butchertown Hall pumpkin carving contest. Head to therestaurant’s host stand (where you can also trick or treat) where you can grab a pumpkin and tools to make a scary face. And, you don’t have to clean up pumpkin guts! Winners will be announced on Halloween night.

  5. Maybe you didn’t travel to town with a costume? No worries. At Goat Yoga Nashville, the goats will be the ones wearing their Halloween best. Held on a farm in Nolensville, just south of Nashville, you can get an extra stretch in downward-facing dog with a costumed goat standing on your back.

  6. What could be scarier than climbing trees and Ziplining in the dark? The Adventure Park at Nashville uses colored LED lights to illuminate the forest for fun during Glow in the Park.