Massachusetts Events Calendar - October
Things to do in Boston, Cape Cod, Western Mass and other Massachusetts cities and towns. A month-long of spooky events are held in Salem each October. Harvest festivals are scheduled in other Massachusetts towns.
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Every year Salem, known for its witch trials and modern-day witches, plans a month-long series of spooky events that involve museums, haunted houses, storytelling, and tours.
A recreation of 16th century English marketplace at festival time. It's great for kids, and includes exotic animals and jousting knights.
A huge fair with livestock shows and competitions, a visit to the Emerald Isle, and The Avenue of States - life-size replicas of each New England state's original capitol building.
Local restaurants are showcased with special menu offerings.
Includes live entertainment, cooking contests, goat and llama shows, displays, a petting zoo, and the New England Giant Pumpkin weigh-off - held on opening day.
Art, garlic cuisine, live music, and regional agriculture. Expect to find more than 20 varieties of garlic, hot apple cider, honey with a live bee display, herbal products, heirloom tomatoes and garlic farmstead cheeses.
Art studios in the Rocky Neck area and other locations open to the public.
The Cape Cod Cranberry Grower's Association festival includes cranberry harvesting tours, live entertainment, agricultural exhibits, and crafts. Located in Wareham.
A "Tavern Night," with 18th-century style dining and dancing, will also be held at Historic Hall Tavern in Deerfield.
Harvard Square ushers in the fall with an outdoor block party, filled with street vendors, concerts, activities for children, and other types of performances.
Farmstands, music, and a scarecrow contest in the North Shore's Newburyport.
Features live blacksmith competitions, music, food, jewelry, art, hand crafts, ironwork, and children's activities.
Live music, local crafts, delicious local fare and brews, kayak and road races, children's activities, a spelling bee and the "Shuck-Off" shucking competition.
You can expect pumpkin decorating, a scarecrow creation contest, hayrides and more. Rockport is north of Gloucester on the North Shore.
Spectators from around the world gather in Cambridge and Boston for the two-day rowing race on the Charles River at the Cambridge Boat Club. It was first held in 1965.
Sturbridge Town Common is filled with family activities, including music, hayrides and face painting.
There's no better place to find clams than Essex on the North Shore.
Head deep into the woods where a coven of witches supposedly met each October. At Nashoba Valley in Westford.
Learn of a Plymouth witch who supposedly cursed a family - and if you dare - visit the cursed family's gravesite on Burial Hill.
Held at Salem's Hawthorne Hotel. Music by Fiona Horne.
The night starts with a stage show, but ends with visits trapped in dark, haunted corridors. In Falmouth, Cape Cod.
Pets compete for best costume at Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
Costume ball at Salem's historic Hawthorne Hotel.
Costume ball and fireworks at the Outlook Restaurant at Nashoba Valley Ski Resort in Westford.
