Performance

Day of the Dead Parade: Giant Catrinas to Plaza Mayor

More than 500 marchers walk from the Royal Palace to Plaza Mayor, then the square becomes a Mexican dance party with live music.

Performance

Varieté Halloween: Puppet Variety Show at El Retiro

A dancing skeleton, a ghostly pianist and a skating witch share the stage in a Halloween puppet show at El Retiro's open-air theater. Free, if you grab tickets in time.

Festival

Parque de Atracciones Halloween: Kids' Haunted Passages

Last weekend of the season, with gentle scares for younger kids and the full fright for 10 and up, and a reason to do the little-kid half first.

Exhibition

Agustín Lara's Day of the Dead Altar

Marigolds, candles and monarch butterflies around a composer's piano, with skeletons that feel more like a party than a fright. One thing has to stay at the door.

Performance

Circlassica: Christmas Circus at IFEMA Madrid

Opening weekend of a brand-new show: high wire, aerial silks and a live orchestra, and for families who arrive early, the show starts before the show does.

Workshop

Family Magic Workshop at El Corral de Lope

A short live magic show, a wand your kid builds by hand, and then the magician gives away how the tricks were done.

Exhibition

Halloween at the Wax Museum with Live Characters

Gargoyles, a spooky cemetery and a real coffin to pose in, with candy through the day. The scarier route with live actors is one younger kids should skip.

Festival

Halloween Workshops and Face Painting for Ages 4-13

Alcobendas' youth center puts on a Halloween afternoon for kids in costume. In 2025 it had a kids' disco and a story time just for babies.

~25m drive

Workshop

Los Fantasmas del Price: Family Shadow Theater Workshop

Kids and parents team up with lamps, cut-out silhouettes and their own bodies to summon the old circus ghosts of the Price. Every adult joins in.

Festival

Terror Cruise and Face Paint at Halloween Micropolix

A kid-sized city where children try grown-up jobs gets decorated for Halloween, with one spooky stop that stays on the gentle side of scary.

~25m drive

Performance

El Vampiro Iro: Kids' Circus Show at Casa del Reloj

A caped vampire takes over a circus show at Arganzuela's cultural center on Halloween, an easy costume outing with Madrid Río's playgrounds a short walk away.

Performance

Halloween Haunted Passage in Ensanche de Vallecas

Tatira Teatro builds an outdoor haunted passage full of surprises and scares on the Ensanche esplanade. The question is whether your kid dares to walk in.