WHEW! You guys!
We made it through another Halloween season in Witch City, a.k.a. Salem, Massachusetts.
Hands down, Salem hosts the best Halloween party in the world.
Granted, as city residents for almost a decade now, we may be a little bit biased.
We invite you to see for yourself!
Join us for a photo tour of this year’s Halloween festivities
So, when you live in Salem, Massachusetts, you come to understand after a while that the city basically revolves around the holiday during the entire month of October.
And by entire month, I mean the whole month, right on through to Midnight on Halloween.
On November 1st, we locals creep out and start to get our routines back to normal.
(Doing regular errands like going to the grocery store or running to CVS becomes an adventure of traffic, closed roads, and encounters with costumed revelers here in October.)
They use these barriers to close streets to make way for the monstrous evening crowds.
Take a gander at the mob on Essex Street on Halloween day.
We stopped in to see our good friends Annie and Leo at Koto Grill & Sushi on Washington Street.
They have the best sushi in town, and did a great job keeping Salem nightlife going with live music and juicy cocktails almost every night this October.
(Stay tuned for coverage of one of their sushi classes soon! I’m super excited to learn how to make a proper roll.)
Here’s the scene on Rockafella’s patio, a block or two down Washington.
The patio is always good for people watching.
And the food vendors on the corner of Essex and Washington by the famous Samantha statue (from the TV show, Bewitched).
The best Halloween costumes in Salem, MA
Most people dress up when they come to Salem at Halloween. Some people, however, pull out all the stops.
Here’s a look back at some of our favorite Halloween costumes from this year.
This Frankenstein’s monster is out every year for photo opps. He’s one of the best we’ve ever seen.
This year, he was joined by his bride!
Duff Man was out promoting Bit Bar, an arcade and bar located in the old Salem jail, which is also home to a handful of condos and apartments.
(Spooky place to live, right?)
Pets in Halloween costumes
Our four-footed friends always get in on the costume action, too.
Old Burying Point Cemetery in Salem, MA
Here’s a stroll through the oldest boneyard in the city.
Old Burying Point Cemetery is a huge draw year-round as a tourist attraction.
See more pics of this cemetery in our post from Halloween 2014.
And Pokemon Go fans will be happy to see that even Pikachu dressed up for Halloween this year.
(And as our favorite forest spirit, Totoro! Love it!)
And it wouldn’t be Halloween in Salem, MA without a small, raucous flock of street preachers—and their associated protesters.
(This is actually a thing that happens: Folks come to protest Halloween in Salem.
Free speech aside, we’ve seen some street preachers yell at little kids and their families who are dressed up and heading out for candy.)
Halloween in Salem, MA at night
We headed back out after nightfall to check out the party once it really got rolling.
As you can see, the crowd gets THICK.
The dancing tyrannosaurus was one of my favs:
Here are some of our favorite shots from the night.
The Hare Krishna peeps usually have a procession through town, too. They pick up a few extra dancers along the way.
This guy was a walking game of Beer Pong.
We saw loads of creepy clowns
Given the creepy clown phenomenon in the news, we were surprised to see as many clowns out as we did.
The love tester machine was awesome.
Here’s the crowd around more of those street preachers at night.
We did another pass down Essex Street, which is one of the main party corridors.
Here are some of the best costumes we saw.
This Darth Vader was hanging with a dancing jawa, who would *not* stand still for pics.
We see this guy every year. He’s so super nice.
And Freddy Kreuger flashed me the rest of his completely legit costume.
We saw a handful of Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus, but only the Bette Midler model.
Like the jawa above, the guy on the left would NOT stop shimmying.
Here’s the scene at the Salem Common, which had a band and was littered with food carts.
We met a couple of really nice nerds.
Even the Belcher Family from Bob’s Burgers made it to Salem this year.
Our favorite costume: Ash from the Evil Dead
I think this Ash from Evil Dead was our favorite costume of the night.
He did a great job (guy knows how to pose with a chainsaw hand and a boomstick).
We figured we couldn’t top the Ash, so we headed home past the Salem Witch Museum.
Even though I’ve lived here for years, I’m still not opposed to peeping the windows as I walk on by.
That’s all, folks!
That’s it! We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Salem at Halloween.
Until next next year, we wish you happy hauntings!
Up next, get ready for loads of yummy new holiday recipes!
