Spooktober Halloween Festival is a four-day festival at St Kilda Town Hall bringing spookiness to all age groups.

When: 28-31 October 2016, Monday 31 Oct 4pm until late

Where: St Kilda Town Hall, 99A Carlisle St, ST KILDA

Cost: Entry into the grounds and the Wizz Fizz Trick or Treat Trail is FREE, carnival style games and the giant inflatable slide are $2 each, entry into the Haunted Manor starts at $16.50.  You can buy tickets at the door or pre-book here.

Spooktober has been on my radar for a number of years now but the moons have never aligned to allow us to get there (kudos to the Spooktober team for persisting with me!).

But this year finally we had a long weekend in our favour and I got organised way in advance.

There are two components to Spooktober for families: the inside (the Haunted Manor Ghost Tour) and the outside (the Halloween Festival).

I showed the kids the video of what the Haunted Manor is like (recommended for kids aged 8+ during the day, and after 8pm for ages 12+) and they thought it looked awesome, you can watch it here to decide if you think this is something for your family. [due to low lighting I was unable to take any decent photography]

In our party of eight (two mums and six kids) we did have a 6-year-old but she was fine – she did admit it was a little scary but I think all the bigger kids with her made it less intimidating.

As we entered the Haunted Manor Ghost Tour we were each handed a glowstick – we were told to wave this around if we felt scared and then the people inside wouldn’t spook us.  The kids, just by the nature of being excited and in a group, were madly waving their glowsticks around and they raced ahead.

My friend and I were split from the herd (our glowsticks were in our handbags).  So naturally us mums were given the proper scare treatment – which involved people jumping out of doorways and screaming in our ears (in almost complete darkness) or just walking up to us in the dark, unseen, and hissing… my friend was just ahead of me screaming her head off which made it even more terrifying – but we were laughing-screaming (laughing at ourselves for getting spooked).  Some of the performers just stood silently in a room of objects and just as you walked past they would suddenly move.  The makeup and costumes were awesome.

The props, the effects, the soundtrack and the performers were all impressive – we came out the end after about 10 minutes, (I thought it was 15 but the kids say it was only 5 so I am going for the middle ground here… to be honest I have no idea, the experience was a little disorientating) I was slightly shaky – but the kids wanted to know if they could go again!

The Halloween Festival happens in the gardens out the front of the St Kilda Town Hall and it’s lots of affordable fun.  The kids had as much fun trying out some games as they did climbing in the huge trees – we also stopped for some Truck food, and the Wizz Fizz Trick or Treat trail was a huge winner.  All up we spent about two hours hanging out – and the people watching was awesome, so many fun costumes (even some parents got in on the act).

Spooktober is lots of fun – and you can decide if you want to brave the Haunted Manor or just soak up the atmosphere outside!