Halloween week brings one of the biggest events of the fall — the Greater Gulf State Fair — plus ghost tours, costume races, ballet and a full slate of trick-or-treat alternatives across Mobile and Baldwin counties for Oct. 27 through Nov. 2, 2016.
The fair is back
The Grounds hosts the 62nd annual Greater Gulf State Fair from Friday, Oct. 28 through Sunday, Nov. 6, with 30 adult rides, 30 kids’ rides and more than 40 food and beverage vendors.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home presents Boo at Bellingrath on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a day of spooky family fun in the gardens.
Halloween happenings
The Mobile Mystery Mystics lead a ghosts-and-strange-happenings tour of downtown Mobile on Halloween night at 7 p.m.; tickets are $45 and reservations are required. The Mobile Witches Ride rolls Sunday, Oct. 30 — a slow-paced three-mile bicycle loop around downtown and DeTonti Square starting at the Blind Mule at 4 p.m., costumes encouraged.
Swift-Coles Historic Home in Bon Secour hosts haunted storytelling Friday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. ($10), and Bicentennial Park in Stockton opens its Haunted Trail Oct. 28-29 from 7 to 10 p.m. ($5).
The Exploreum throws its family-friendly Monster Ball Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Mobile Medical Museum stages Frightful Friday with a children’s story reading and skeleton game ($5), and St. Mary Catholic School holds Trunk or Treat Thursday evening on its Lafayette Street campus.
The American Autism & Rehabilitation Center hosts its second Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat at its Daphne facility Friday from 4 to 6 p.m., designed for families with special needs who may find traditional festivities difficult.
Strange Journeys’ Bark and Boo costume tour Saturday night benefits pet-adoption group Krewe de Rescue, meeting behind Ben May Main Library, and the Mobile Museum of Art teams with AIDS Alabama South for “Night of the Dead Artists,” a free Day of the Dead-meets-Halloween party Thursday at 6 p.m.
Arts, culture and community
Mobile Ballet presents “Stars of American Ballet” for one night only Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Mobile Civic Center Theater. Mobile Mystery Dinners performs “The Masquerade Murder” Friday at the Battle House Hotel with dinner and wine included, and Live from Avalon features the Excelsior Band Thursday at 7 p.m. in Bernheim Hall at the Mobile Public Library.
The Leinkauf Historic District holds its Fall Residents Meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. at First Christian Church Community Hall, BayouClinic in Bayou La Batre teams with more than 30 agencies for a free community event Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Satsuma Public Library hosts author Mary Palmer’s book signing on “George Wallace: An Enigma” Tuesday, Nov. 2, at 11 a.m.
Ongoing museum options include “Filming the Camps” at the History Museum of Mobile through Jan. 16, “Treasures of NOAA’s Ark” at GulfQuest, the Exploreum’s guitar exhibit through Jan. 1, free Thursdays at the Mobile Museum of Art and the Fairhope Museum of History’s Tuesday tea series, with Bellingrath’s Tom McGehee speaking Nov. 1.
Races, tournaments and workshops
The Movember-themed MOpen Championship tees off Friday at Spring Hill College’s golf course ($100 per person), while the seventh annual Dog River Ghost Chase and Goblin Gallop runs Saturday at 5 p.m. from Dockside Marina.
Anglers compete in the Salty Worm Brackish Classic and Delta Bash Saturday at the Bluegill Restaurant on the Causeway benefiting pancreatic cancer research, St. Mary’s memorial golf tournament plays Sunday at Spring Hill, and the All’s Swell Classic surf contest raises funds to relocate Dauphin Island’s historic Red School House.
ALDOT’s Mobile River Bridge bicycle and pedestrian crossing workshop meets Thursday evening at the James M. Seals Jr. Community Center, Eastern Shore Ace Hardware hosts a furniture-painting workshop Thursday in Spanish Fort ($39), and the West Mobile Farmer’s Market runs Tuesdays through Nov. 24 on Grelot Road.