Halloween on the Costa Blanca: what is actually on

Halloween is not an old tradition here, but it is no longer going away either. Theme parks build a whole season around it, councils put a stage on the square on 31 October, and the next morning half of Spain goes to the cemetery with flowers. Here is what is confirmed for 2026, what is still to come, and how to tell the difference.

What is already confirmed for 2026

Let us start with the part you can actually book, because it is shorter than you would expect.

Terra Mítica in Benidorm has announced its full Halloween season: 3 October to 1 November 2026. The Horror Nights run on the Saturdays of 3, 10, 17 and 24 October.

The Teatro Principal in Alicante has the children’s show Halloween, Room on the Broom by Eva Mataix on Saturday 31 October at 12:00, tickets from 5 euros. The same day at 19:00 it stages Crónica del Rey Pasmado, from 8.40 euros.

And that is it, at the time of writing. The municipal programmes for Alicante, Benidorm, Torrevieja, Elche and Orihuela had not been published on 2 October. That is normal here: they usually come out in the week of 20 October. Further down you will find what each town normally does, clearly as a pattern and not as a promise.

Terra Mítica: the Horror Nights, date by date

This is the hardest thing the province offers in this line, and it is explicitly not for children.

The Horror Nights run on four Saturdays: 3, 10, 17 and 24 October, from 21:00 to 24:00, in the park’s Iberia zone. On 31 October it runs until 01:00, with six live terror passages at once.

Age limit: 14 and over. Fourteen and fifteen year olds are only admitted with an adult. That is an entry condition, not advice.

What is waiting:

• Andén 666, Los Desterrados and 13. La Última Habitación: the passages
• Ritual and La Cacería: immersive experiences where you become part of the story
• La Barbería: the extreme version, where the actors are allowed to touch you
• La Quema de Brujas: a show
• El Reclutador, la historia final: the closing show

Those last two are the difference between a haunted house and a night out. The park has built a running story around it that carries across the evening.

Capacity is limited and the park advises buying in advance. Prices were not in the announcement, so you will find those on the park’s own site.

Terra Mítica by day, and for anyone who finds that too much

The park’s Halloween season runs from 3 October to 1 November and is far wider than those four Saturday nights. By day the park is simply the park, with themed dressing on top.

That distinction matters if you have children. An eight year old can have a perfectly good day at Terra Mítica with pumpkins and costumed staff and never go near Andén 666. The Horror Nights are a separate programme, at a separate time, with their own age limit.

Watch the end date: 1 November is the last day of the season. Anyone coming in the second week of November finds a different park from anyone coming in late October.

Why the dates you find online are wrong

Search for Halloween and Costa Blanca now and you get a flood of programmes with precise times and locations. Most of them are not this year. That is not a detail, because you plan an evening on it.

A few examples of what we ran into while checking:

• The widely shared Torrevieja programme with the 19:30 parade and the Pasaje del Terror at Vistalegre is from 23 October 2024.
• The Elche page with the party on Plaza de Baix sits on the council site under the year 2025.
• The Terra Natura Halloween page on Benidorm’s official tourism site is about 2024: it lists 26 and 27 October and 1 and 2 November.
• Another Terra Natura page does give dates (16 and 17, 23 and 24, 30 and 31 October) but no year at all. That is not the same as confirmed for 2026.

The reason is simple. These events return every year, the pages stay online and aggregators copy them across without a year. A programme without a year is not a programme.

How to check it yourself: look for a year, and check that the weekday matches. In 2026, 31 October is a Saturday and 1 November a Sunday. If it says “Saturday 29 October”, it is another year, because 29 October 2026 is a Thursday.

What each town normally does

Below is the pattern of recent years per town. Treat it as an expectation, not a diary: the 2026 dates and times are still to come.

Alicante does it through the shopping streets and the neighbourhoods. The council and the traders’ associations run parties in the barrios on 31 October, with costume contests and children’s activities, designed to get people walking round the local shops. The city also has the largest supply of ticketed evenings out, from theatre to concerts at the MARQ.

Benidorm revolves around the two parks and the nightlife streets. The city itself programmes less than you would expect from a place this size; the weight sits with Terra Mítica and Terra Natura, and with the bars.

Torrevieja makes the biggest effort on the coast: a parade through the centre, a pasaje del terror in an exhibition hall and, in some years, a zombie experience in La Mata. This is where the street programme gets the most attention.

Elche fills the central square: workshops, face painting, music and a costume contest, from early evening until deep into the night.

Orihuela splits it: activities in the historic centre around the Glorieta, and a separate parade down on the coast in Orihuela Costa, where many foreign families live.

Dénia, Jávea, Calp, Altea and Moraira keep it smaller and more domestic. Think a children’s parade from the market or the seafront, trick or treating round the participating shops, and a party in the community centre. Precisely because it is small, it is announced late, often only a week beforehand on the council’s Facebook page.

Where to look: the site or social media of the ayuntamiento itself, and the concejalía de fiestas or de juventud. Not the tourism sites, because those are exactly the pages that leave old years up.

What 1 November actually is here

If you are new here, this is the part that explains the most. Halloween in Spain is an import of the last twenty years. The day after is anything but.

1 November is Tots Sants, All Saints. Families go to the cemetery, clean the grave and put flowers on it, usually chrysanthemums. It is not a gloomy day; it is busy, people talk, and the flower stalls at the cemetery gate work overtime. Anyone who sees how exuberantly 31 October is celebrated and then drives past a cemetery the next morning is seeing two things that have nothing to do with each other.

For 2026 there is one practical point many people get wrong. 1 November falls on a Sunday. In the Comunitat Valenciana a public holiday that falls on a Sunday is not moved to the Monday. So there is no long weekend: Monday 2 November is an ordinary working day and schools are open.

Who does get a long weekend around then: Benidorm, with local holidays on 9 and 10 November 2026.

The food that goes with it

The pastry shops switch over at the end of October, and that is a better gauge of the season than any pumpkin.

Ossos de sant, literally saint’s bones, are rolls of marzipan filled with sweet egg yolk. They sit on a gold tray in the window and they are only on sale in these weeks. They are sweet, and we mean genuinely sweet: buy two, not a box.

Bunyols de vent, wind fritters, are airy fried balls that are hollow inside, with sugar or with cream. You meet them in the Comunitat Valenciana around other festivals too, but in early November they are everywhere.

Panellets are really Catalan, made of almond paste with pine nuts, but you now find them in bakeries here as well.

A tip that costs nothing: on 30 or 31 October walk into a pastelería in your own town rather than the supermarket. The difference between an industrial os de sant and one made that morning is not subtle.

With children: what suits which age

What is on offer here runs from a face painting table to actors who are allowed to grab you. A rough split helps.

Up to about six: the town square. The council activities usually start around 17:00 or 17:30, are free, last an hour or two and are built around dressing up and sweets. That is exactly enough.

Six to twelve: a day at Terra Mítica or Terra Natura with the themed dressing, plus the square in the evening. The pasajes del terror councils put up vary in intensity; ask at the entrance how heavy it is, because it differs by year and by town.

Twelve to fourteen: the hardest group, because they are too young for the Horror Nights and too old for the square. This is the age where the town programme in Torrevieja or Elche often works out best.

Fourteen and over: the Horror Nights, with the note that fourteen and fifteen year olds need an adult and that La Barbería is the version where you get touched. If that is a bad idea for someone in the group, that is knowable beforehand and not once you are inside.

Practical: tickets, parking and costumes

Buy in advance for anything with a capacity. That goes for the Horror Nights, for theatre and for concerts. For the street programme you need to arrange nothing.

Parking. On 31 October councils close their centre for the parade. Leave the car on the edge and walk; that is almost always faster than trying to get as close as possible. At the parks in Benidorm parking is paid and on a Horror Night Saturday it fills up.

Costumes do not buy well last minute here. The bazares and the big supermarkets have a rack from early October, but the last week it is empty. Anyone who wants something specific sorts it in the first half of October.

What is closed. On 1 November many shops are shut and buses run a Sunday service, even though it is not an extra day off. Weekly markets that normally fall on a Sunday usually go ahead. The flower stalls at the cemeteries are open precisely then.

The weather. Late October is still around twenty degrees in the daytime here, but it cools off in the evening and October is statistically the wettest month of the year. A parade goes ahead in the rain; you just get wet yourself. Bring a jacket you can tie round your waist.

Frequently asked questions

When are the Horror Nights at Terra Mítica in 2026? On the Saturdays of 3, 10, 17 and 24 October, from 21:00 to 24:00, plus 31 October until 01:00.

What is the minimum age for the Horror Nights? Fourteen. Fourteen and fifteen year olds only with an adult.

How long does the Terra Mítica Halloween season last? From 3 October to 1 November 2026.

Does Terra Natura have a Halloween programme too? The park runs one every year, but the 2026 dates had not been published when we wrote this. What you find online belongs to an earlier year or carries no year at all.

What is on in Alicante on 31 October? At the Teatro Principal, the children’s show Halloween, Room on the Broom at 12:00 from 5 euros, and Crónica del Rey Pasmado at 19:00 from 8.40 euros. The council’s neighbourhood programme was not yet known.

Is 1 November a day off in 2026? It is a public holiday, but it falls on a Sunday and is not moved in the Comunitat Valenciana. So Monday 2 November is an ordinary working day.

Is Halloween celebrated in Spain at all? Yes, and increasingly, mainly by children and in the bars. The local tradition is 1 November, Tots Sants, with a visit to the cemetery.

What are ossos de sant? Rolls of marzipan with an egg yolk filling, on sale only around All Saints.

Where do I find my own town’s programme? On the ayuntamiento’s site or social media, under fiestas or juventud. Usually only from the week of 20 October.

Does Halloween 2026 fall in a school holiday? Not for Spanish schools, which have no autumn break. For Dutch and Belgian families it depends on the region; that is in our article on the autumn half term.

About the authorMilo Schuijt

Milo Schuijt is an entrepreneur and DJ on the Costa Blanca. He writes about the places where he lives, works and plays: from beach bars to the housing market.