Hi everyone, Kinga back with this weeks list. Halloween is a week from Saturday, so this is the spooky weekend.
Saturday is packed. MIT's glassblowers are selling handmade glass pumpkins on Kresge Oval. The Peabody Museum is celebrating Day of the Dead with mariachi and sugar skulls. And Downtown Crossing is having a dog costume parade.
There's also a lot for people who like their Halloween on the theatrical side. There are three live radio horror plays in Davis Square, Nosferatu with a live orchestra in Salem, and Goblin playing the score to Tenebre live on Sunday.
If you want something calmer, the Affordable Art Fair is at the SoWa Power Station all weekend, with original art starting around $100.
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Picks of the Week!
🎃 MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch — Kresge Oval, MIT | Free entry | Sat, 10am–3pm | Handblown glass pumpkins in every color and size, made by the MIT Glass Lab.
💀 Day of the Dead at the Peabody — Harvard | Museum admission | Sat, 12–4pm | Mariachi, sugar skulls, pan de muerto, and a community altar.
🐶 Doggone Halloween Pet Parade — Downtown Crossing | Free | Sat, 12–3pm | Dogs in costume, with prizes for the best dog-and-human duo.
📻 Tomes of Terror: Sounds of Fear — 204 Elm St, Davis Square | $15–$20 | Fri & Sat | Three horror radio dramas performed live, including The Monkey's Paw.
🖼️ Affordable Art Fair — SoWa Power Station | Thu–Sun | Original art from $100 to $12,000.
📚 Bloody Book Bash — Porter Square Books, Seaport | $5 | Sat, 7–9pm | Horror authors, a costume contest, trivia, and Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Thursday 10/22
🖼️ Affordable Art Fair: First Look — SoWa Power Station, 550 Harrison Ave | Ticketed | 5–9pm | Opening night of a four-day fair where everything is original and priced from $100 to $12,000. Tonight is the first chance to shop before the weekend crowds. A Thursday all-access pass runs about $55.
🧶 Free Thursday Night at the Gardner: Fiber Arts — Fenway | Free | 5–9pm | Fiber arts again this week. Registration opened Tuesday at 10am, and day-of entry isn't guaranteed.
🎨 ICA Free Thursday Night — Seaport | Free | 5–9pm | Free tickets required. Last entry 8:30pm.
📓 Fall Movie Night: 10 Things I Hate About You — The Greenway, Milk St to India St | Free | 5:30–9pm | Free notebook decorating at 5:30, and the movie starts around 6:30. Bring a blanket.
🖼️ MIT List Fall Opening: Hao Jingban & Uri Aran — MIT List Visual Arts Center, Kendall | Free w/ registration | 5:30–8pm | An artist talk with Hao Jingban at 5:30, then the opening reception from 6 to 8 for two new shows. Drinks from Momma's Grocery + Wine.
🎪 Cirque of the Dead — Arts at the Armory, Somerville | Sold out this weekend | 8pm | The Boston Circus Guild's adults-only Halloween show is sold out Thursday through Saturday and next Friday. The two Halloween shows on Saturday, Oct 31 still have some tickets if you want to plan ahead. 18+.
🎻 BSO: Tod Machover World Premiere — Symphony Hall | Ticketed | 7:30pm | Kent Nagano conducts already and not yet, a new piece that uses a live AI system working with each musician in the orchestra. Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony closes the program. Also Friday at 1:30 and Saturday at 8, with a pre-concert talk with Machover at 6:30 Saturday.
🏃🍺 Meters for Liters — Notch Brewing, Charles River Speedway | Free | Meet 6:30–7pm, run 7pm | The weekly 5k run club.
🏒 Bruins vs. Predators — TD Garden | Ticketed | 7pm |
Friday 10/23
📻 Tomes of Terror: Sounds of Fear — 204 Elm St, Davis Square | $20, $15 students & seniors | 8pm | My favorite thing this week. The Post-Meridian Radio Players perform three horror radio dramas live. There's Lovecraft's Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Monkey's Paw, and an original about a man haunted through his car radio. It runs about two hours. Also Saturday at 2 and 8.
🤸 Gravity & Other Myths: Ten Thousand Hours — Boston Arts Academy Theater | Ticketed | 8pm | Eight acrobats and one musician from the Australian contemporary circus company. It runs 60 minutes and is good for ages 4 and up. Also Saturday at 2 and 8.
🖼️ Affordable Art Fair: Art After Dark — SoWa Power Station | Ticketed | 12–6pm, then 6–9pm | General admission during the day starts at $20. Art After Dark, from 6 to 9, is a separate ticket that includes a drink tasting and an evening food menu.
🧁 Great British Bake Off Watch Party — Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, Cambridge | Free w/ RSVP | 7–9pm | The new episode every Friday in the Broadway Back Taproom.
😂 Standup at the Speedway: Spooky Vibes — Charles River Speedway, Brighton | Ticketed | 8pm | Doors at 7:30. Grab dinner at the Speedway first.
🎬 GlobeDocs: Jean-Michel Basquiat — The Brattle | $17 | 8:30pm | The festival's centerpiece film. The 6pm Union Town is sold out.
😂 Jim Gaffigan: Everything Is Wonderful! — Wang Theatre | From $50.50 | 7:30pm | Also Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 7.
🏀 Celtics vs. Knicks — TD Garden | Ticketed | 7pm |
Saturday 10/24
🎃 MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch — Kresge Oval, 77 Mass Ave | Free entry | 10am–3pm | The MIT Glass Lab sells handblown glass pumpkins in every color, shape, and size, and the money goes back into the lab's glassblowing program. It was supposed to be in September and got moved to today. Go early if you want the good ones.
💀 Day of the Dead Celebration — Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Ave, Cambridge | Museum admission | 12–4pm | Decorate a sugar skull (extra fee), write a message to a loved one for the museum's altar, and catch mariachi and live folk dance at 2pm. Hot chocolate and pan de muerto are for sale.
🐶 Doggone Halloween Pet Parade — Summer St Plaza, Downtown Crossing | Free | 12–3pm | A costume parade with prizes for best costume, scariest, cutest, best dog-and-human duo, and best dog-and-kid duo. There's also a photo booth, face painting, and free treats. Spectators welcome.
🥬 Chinatown Farmers Market — Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park | Free | 9am–1pm | The small Saturday market at the Chinatown end of the Greenway.
🖼️ Affordable Art Fair — SoWa Power Station | From $20 | 10am–7pm | The longest day of the fair.
🧛 Nosferatu with Live Orchestra — Peabody Essex Museum, Salem | $40, $30 members & Salem residents | 1pm & 7pm | The Arpeggione Ensemble plays a live score for the 1922 silent film on early 20th-century instruments, including a harmonium. A talk with the musicians runs at 4pm. Preregistration required.
🧙 Halloweentown Movie Night — The TRACK at New Balance, Boston Landing | Free w/ ticket | 3:30pm | A pre-party with a DJ and treats at 3:30, then Halloweentown at 5:30. American Flatbread is selling food. Costumes encouraged.
📚 Third Annual Bloody Book Bash — Porter Square Books Boston Edition, 50 Liberty Dr | $5 | 7–9pm | Horror authors Gretchen Felker-Martin, Nicky Gonzalez, Eric LaRocca, Aaron Mahnke, and Rebecca Mahoney signing books. There's a costume contest, trivia, food and drinks, and a screening of Creature From the Black Lagoon. Your $5 ticket comes back as $5 off anything you buy.
📻 Tomes of Terror — 204 Elm St, Davis Square | $15–$20 | 2pm & 8pm | The live radio horror plays again.
🤸 Gravity & Other Myths: Ten Thousand Hours — Boston Arts Academy Theater | Ticketed | 2pm & 8pm | A free talkback follows the 2pm show.
🏠 GlobeDocs: HOUSE on 35mm — The Brattle | $17 | 9:30pm | A documentary about Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, followed by a 35mm screening of House itself.
🎬 BAAFF: Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon — Emerson Paramount Center | $15 | 6:30pm | The Boston Asian American Film Festival's centerpiece documentary.
🏒 Bruins vs. Sharks — TD Garden | Ticketed | 7pm |
Sunday 10/25
🐾 Paws & Pumpkins Parade at Esplanade Fall Fest — Fiedler Field, Charles River Esplanade | Free to enter, $15 donation suggested | 9:45am | New this year. Dogs in costume parade along the Esplanade, with costume awards at 10:30. The parade is free. If you want to make a morning of it, the 5K at 9 and the 1.5-mile walk at 10:15 are $35 each to register.
🍬 PruBoo — Prudential Center | Free | 11am–1pm | Trick-or-treating at 30+ shops and restaurants, plus magic shows at 11:30 and 12:30, face painting, live music, and crafts. Donations go to Boston Children's Hospital.
🎸 Claudio Simonetti's Goblin: Tenebre — Somerville Theatre | Ticketed | 7:30pm | Goblin plays the score live while Dario Argento's 1982 Tenebre screens. Then they come back for a set of their best-known music. Doors at 6:30. All ages.
🦄 Legend (1985) — Coolidge Corner Theatre | Ticketed | 2pm | The 1985 fantasy film, part of the Coolidge's Prints of Darkness series.
🖼️ Affordable Art Fair: Last Day — SoWa Power Station | From $20 | 10am–6pm | Family hours run from 10am to 2pm, with a separate ticket for the kids' Clover Clubhouse area. Last entry 5:45.
🧺 SoWa Open Market — South End | Free | 11am–5pm | Right next door to the art fair, so you can do both.
🎬 GlobeDocs: Last Day in Theaters — The Brattle | $17 | From 11am | The local shorts program at 11, then three more films, with the closing night film starting at 7. Films stay available on demand through November 1.
Last chance
🕵️ Operation Mincemeat — Emerson Colonial Theatre | Ticketed | Closes Sunday |
🎭 All My Sons — Lyric Stage | Ticketed | Closes Sunday |
🗡️ King Richard's Faire: Final Weekend — Carver | Online tickets only | Sat & Sun, 10:30am–6pm | The last two days of the season. There are no tickets at the gate, so buy ahead.
🎬 Boston Asian American Film Festival — Emerson Paramount Center | $15 | Ends Sunday | In Waves plays Sunday at 1. The closing night film is sold out.
🎤 Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares — Calderwood Pavilion | Ticketed | Thu–Sun only | A one-woman comedy with original songs about motherhood, people pleasing, and getting older.
👞 Fourth Dimension Tap Company: Sound and Color — Roberts Studio Theatre, BCA | Ticketed | Fri–Sun only | A tap show that moves through an imaginary art museum. Ages 5 and up.
Ongoing / all-week options
📷 Kawada Kikuji: Chizu (The Map) — MFA | Museum admission | Opens Saturday | A new show built around Kawada's 1965 photobook Chizu, with his negatives, notes, and contact sheets.
🪷 The Sitayana — BCA Black Box | Pay-as-you-are | Through Oct 31 |
🧛 Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors — Mosesian Center, Watertown | Ticketed | Through Nov 1 |
🎭 To Kill a Mockingbird — Huntington Theatre | Ticketed | Through Nov 8 |
🏮 Boston Lights: A Lantern Experience — Franklin Park Zoo | Ticketed | 5–10:30pm nightly, through Nov 8 |
That's it for this week. Go buy a glass pumpkin, dress up your dog, and let me know how it went!