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Halloween Events in Knoxville

Halloween Events in Knoxville

It’s Halloween week (Halloweek, if you will😉) witch means there is plenty to boo in Knoxville, Tennessee! Whether you want to hit as many spooky events as possible or you need to oh-so-carefully select your one golden extroverted opportunity, here are a bunch of Halloween events for all ghosts and goblins to check out this week!

SOUTH KNOXVILLE:

Halloween Crawl
Hit up the south side on Saturday, October 30th! Grab your punchcard at SouthSide Garage and then head to all your favorite spots for drink specials, prizes, and other spooky goodies. Alliance, Hi-Wire, South Coast Pizza, Simpl, Printshop, Landing House, Trailhead, and Redbud Kitchen are all participating! (There are drag shows happening at Simpl, just sayin.)

Halloween Market
Head back the next day for the Halloween Market! From 2-6pm, you can enjoy local shopping and trick or treating with all the vendors. Costumes encouraged!

NORTH KNOXVILLE:

Monster Mash Dance Party
Xul Beer Co. is throwing a Monster Mash Dance Party on Friday, October 29th from 10pm-2am! If there’s a business perfectly calibrated to throw an amazing Halloween party, it’s the dark and elegant Xul Beer Co. They’ll have a DJ, a costume contest, a limited Halloween draft menu – everything you need for a spooky night out!

Zombeer Crawl
North Knox has their own spooky beer crawl going on! It’s worth participating for the rad pun alone (zombeer? c’mon that’s good😂), but you can also enjoy drink specials, raffles, and beer releases. Hit up all your fave North Knox spots (everyone from Hops & Hollers to Crafty Bastard to The Donut Shop and Next Level) from 6-11pm on Saturday!

DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE:

Five Thirty Lounge
The Five Thirty Lounge (the rooftop bar above the Hyatt) is hosting A Tarantino Production on Saturday, October 30th! You can sip on specialty themed cocktails while streaming Tarantino movies overlooking Quentin Tarantino’s hometown. PRO-TIP: Come dressed as your favorite QT character for a chance to win a $150 Five Thirty Lounge gift card.

The Vault
If you’d rather head underground, The Vault is throwing a Halloween Party in their elegant basement bar on Saturday from 8pm-1am! Dress in costume to get a complimentary drink at the door, then enjoy dancing and spooky cocktails all night long.

Sunsphere Sunday
Want to hear something super scary? Halloween is also the very last Sunsphere Sunday show at World’s Fair Park! St. Paul and the Broken Bones always put on an incredible show and Halloween is sure to make it even better! Gates open at 5pm, music starts at 6, and costumes are encouraged – duh!

WEST KNOXVILLE:

Graveyard Gala
Let’s be honest, Token Game Tavern has been gearing up for Halloween all year long. You didn’t think they’d stick to just one party, did you? No, they’re throwing a three night celebration of all things Halloween. Friday is all things Beetlejuice, Saturday is Zombie Prom, and Sunday’s theme is iconic Hollywood horror movies. You’re going to want to dress up for these because these guys don’t play around!

Crafty Bastard – West
If you’re lookin’ for more chill brewery vibes this Saturday, the folks at Crafty Bastard West are throwing their own Halloween Party! They’ve got live music from Zero Point Covers on Saturday (dancing highly encouraged), a costume contest, and a couple beer releases. Yes, yes, and yes.

Monster Mash Halloween Party
Orange Hat Brewing Co. is holding down the freaky fort in Hardin Valley! They’ve got costume contests for everyone from couples to puppers, a DJ slingin’ spooky songs, and themed beers and ‘bucha. Should you be there? You ‘bucha! 😉

Halloween in Market Square

Whether you want to party the night away or hand out tootsie rolls in your footie pajamas, we hope you have a great time celebrating in the Scruffy Spooky City! Be safe and have fun, kids! 😉

Not enough Halloween content for ya? Discover Knoxville’s Most Haunted Spots Here! Or keep up with other Knoxville Events here!

7 Most Haunted Spots in Knoxville

7 Most Haunted Spots in Knoxville

Have you ever been walking through the Old City and felt a chill… on an 80 degree night? What about attending a concert at the Bijou, when a stall slams in an otherwise empty bathroom? Knoxville was once a place riddled with battles, riots, and subsequent deaths. Some of those who walked our streets in times passed seem to have unfinished business… and they are said to haunt Knoxville to this day. (oooOOOOooo!) That’s right – Knoxville’s haunted.

We sat down with author, history bluff, and founder of Knoxville Walking Tours, Laura Still, to hear about the top haunted places in Knoxville, get thoroughly spooked out, and in turn let you know all about these haunted spaces so you too can get spooked at your leisure.

1.) City County Building

Right near the Gay Street Bridge, this site was the location of multiple hangings and hundreds of murder trials. In fact, the entire block was full of criminal activity and conviction. Nowadays, people don’t like to work at the City County building after dark due to the haunted activity. They’ve seen shadows on the way to their cars, heard doors slamming after everyone else has gone home, and heard footsteps when no one was there. While this does seem like an efficient way to maintain a work/life balance – we prefer not being kicked out of our office by actual ghosts 😬 We’re just getting started, pals. Keep reading to learn about the most haunted spot in Knoxville!

2.) The Old City

Back in the day, the Old City was known as the saloon district. Laura says, “If every person who died there had a ghost, they wouldn’t need air conditioning; it would be cold all the time.” Um, OKAY. Back then there were dive bars, brothels, and a lot of poverty. Attendees on Laura’s tours often experience dodging shadows and the feeling of being watched/followed – but to top that, people have seen the ghost of a little girl in a white dress crying. Laura suspects that this ghost is related to the 1919 race riot. Spooky for SURE.

Here’s One Haunted Old City Story:

There used to be a bar down on Jackson Ave. owned by a woman named Nettie. One night, her good friend Jack McPherson came in, already very drunk. Nettie denied him another drink (understandably) and he became enraged. Jack ended up being hanged – but rumor has it he still roams Jackson Ave. looking for Nettie so he can apologize to her. If you’re ever grabbing a drink at Pour or Post-Modern Spirits, be aware of any ghostly-sightings or feelings. It’s probably Jack! At least he’s sorry? 🙃

3.) Old Grey Cemetery

We had to include at least one cemetery on a list of haunted places! What can we say? We’re purists 😉
Laura’s self-proclaimed favorite ghost (she even dedicated her book to him) haunts the Old Grey Cemetery: Abner Baker. Abner was lynched by Union soldiers, and was eventually hanged on a tree by the river in 1865. The area around the tree was so haunted, sixty years later when it fell, people were so sure it was haunted that no one would even salvage the wood. These days Abner haunts his gravesite – if you sit quietly near his grave on a full moon, he shows up after the clock strikes midnight. You can count us out for that!

4.) Blount Mansion

William Blount (Blount County’s namesake) lived in this mansion until his death in 1792… UNLESS HE STILL LIVES THERE? Tour go-ers have seen William staring out the mansion’s windows and some have even taken pictures of his silhouette. Boo-yah, that’s creepy. (Get it? Boo-yah? Like Boo, theres a ghost? Okay, moving on…)

5.) The Craighead-Jackson House

This historic home has several stories. A particularly ghastly one happened in 1818 when one of their servants fell into the fire and burned to death. As a house servant, her duties included opening doors and windows to keep the air fresh. Current employees say she still likes to do that today. Often they’ll lock up the house for their lunch break or close up at the end of the night – only to return to open doors and raised windows. It must be pretty chilling (literally 😉)

6.) Gay Street Bridge

The illuminated glory of the Gay Street Bridge has some haunting history as well. In 1815, a man was running from a lynch mob and ended up falling off the bridge. Today he plays with the electricity on the bridge. For over one hundred years, the third light on the bridge has continually gone out, no matter what the city does to prevent it. In the early 2000s, the city of Knoxville went so far as to completely re-wire the electrical system, but this ghost won’t be stopped. The third light still flickers and goes out to this day. When Laura is leading tours and mentions how the third light doesn’t flicker “as much anymore,” it often starts to flicker right then, as if he’s saying “Hey look, I can still make the light go out if I want to.” We get it, man. Everybody deserves some rest from their ghostly duties – especially after a hundred years. Flicker when you want to and not a moment more.

7.) Bijou Theatre

THE MOST HAUNTED PLACE IN KNOXVILLE

There are not one, but two known ghosts haunting this landmark! Before it was a theatre, the Bijou was a hotel during the Civil War. General William Pitt Sanders died there in the Bridal Suite… but people today still hear his footsteps, feel things touch them, and hear unexplained noises. Later, the Bijou had a well-known theatre director named “Smiley” who has now died. Several members of the public today have seen his ghost as well. Let’s just hope (for everyone’s sake) he’s as smiley in the after-life as he was before!

Sooooo which Scruffy City spooky spot are you heading to first?? Thank you again to Laura Still for sharing all of Knoxville’s spooks & giving us plenty of fuel for our nightmares this season! 😆