Blog: The Best Halloween Events in Chicago

With parties, parades, and pumpkin patches back on the menu, Halloween 2021 is set to be a scream. Residents of the Lakeshore East apartments at Cascade are close to everything they need to celebrate the spooky season — from costume balls to after-dark cruises to haunted houses.

Pick a Pumpkin

No Halloween is complete without a jack-o'-lantern to frighten the trick-or-treaters. But instead of just buying a pumpkin from the store, why not make an evening of it? Jack's Pumpkin Pop-Up is just a 15-minute drive from Cascade, and offers carnival games, fortune tellers, axe throwing, a corn maze, and bars serving up seasonal Samuel Adams brews. Most importantly, there's a pumpkin patch where you can select your special squash before taking it back to your apartment for carving.

Visit a Haunted House

Haunted houses spring up all over Chicago this time of the year — Time Out has even made a list. Run into crazed clowns and bloody nurses in Basement of the Dead; explore 60 terrifying rooms at The Massacre Haunted House, one of the biggest of its kind in Illinois; or crash a grotesque dinner party at Disturbia Haunted House. All events are socially distanced, so the only thing you need to worry about is the ghouls.

Get Your Groove on at Parties and Parades

Since Cascade is situated in the Lakeshore East neighborhood, in Downtown Chicago, residents have the luxury of being surrounded by scores of spooktacular goings-on. Take a Haunted Halloween Night Booze Cruise, departing from DuSable Harbor, and admire the bewitching Chicago skyline at night. While you're in the area, see the spectacle of 1,000 menacing jack-o'-lanterns glowing on Navy Pier. Put together your most impressive Halloween ensemble and enter the Haunted Halsted Halloween Parade, for a chance to win $500. Young ones will love Fall Fest at Lincoln Park Zoo, with its live pumpkin carvers and animal chats. Grown-up revelers can dance with the undead at Congress Plaza Hotel's Haunted Halloween Ball.

Host a Movie Night at Cascade

With their open-aspect kitchen/living spaces and private balconies, Cascade's apartments are great for hosting a Halloween movie night — they even feature dimmable lights. Rustle up ghost pizza bagels, pumpkin deviled eggs, and Dracula Dentures in your kitchen fitted with Bosch appliances. Then, choose a movie or two to scare your guests witless: maybe “Casper” or “Halloweentown” for the matinee viewing, and “The Shining” or “Friday the 13th” for some real late-night fright at home or at Cascade’s screening room.