Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary returns on Friday, Sept. 19, running select nights through Nov. 8. Halloween Nights features several brand-new experiences alongside many returning favorites.
Halloween Nights transforms the 10-acre penitentiary complex into an immersive experience, featuring five haunted houses, historic tours, themed bars, live entertainment and more.
The season introduces several major additions and improvements designed to enhance the visitor experience, including:
• Dark Tides: A new attraction set in a seemingly abandoned fishing village where secrets linger beneath the surface. From the shadows under the docks, an otherworldly presence stirs, its siren’s call masking a deeper mystery.
• Apocalypse Pass: A brand-new outdoor scare zone where containment has broken down, giving way to an unpredictable outbreak. This corner of the festival introduces a tense and atmospheric environment with scares emerging at every turn.
• Expanded food and beverage: Local fair chance Philadelphia vendors Triple Bottom Brewing and Down North Pizza return to the festival, joined by Bao & Bun Studio and two new additions — Corneey’s Corn on the Cob and Gourmet Popcorn and Hardy Funnel Cakes.
• Enhanced set design: Larger, more detailed environments have been constructed throughout the complex, incorporating cinematic staging and interactive elements to heighten immersion.
• Signature characters: A new lineup of characters expands the festival’s overarching storyline through Shadow of the Veil, an evolution of the optional, immersive experience that engages audiences across multiple attractions.
Redesigned event flow: This year’s festival features a new hybrid design that blends guided storytelling with free exploration. Guests will experience four acts — two open-flow and two in sequence — making the journey smoother and more immersive. Instead of waiting in multiple lines, visitors enter once and move seamlessly through the haunted houses, with fewer interruptions and more time to enjoy the penitentiary’s historic grounds.
Halloween Nights continues its option to “opt in” for a more intense experience. If they choose, visitors can pick up a glow necklace at the entrance to the festival. Anyone wearing a glow necklace may be grabbed, sent into hidden passageways and even temporarily separated from their group.
“Each season of Halloween Nights is the result of months of creativity, planning and innovation, and every year we push ourselves to go further,” said Erin Davis, director of Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary. “For 2025, we’ve raised the stakes once again with Dark Tides and Apocalypse Pass, two all-new experiences that redefine the scale and intensity of the festival. Paired with expanded food and beverage offerings, a redesigned event flow and enhanced sets and characters, this year’s event will deliver our most immersive, cinematic and unforgettable Halloween Nights yet. From the moment visitors step through Eastern State’s front gate, they’ll be transported into a world of spectacle and surprise.”
Halloween Nights is a cornerstone in supporting the historic site — funding preservation, education and workforce development programs.
Tickets are available at https://easternstate.org/halloween.
More information and frequently asked questions can be found at HalloweenNights.org. ••
