Brisbane's Halloween Weekend Is Quieter Than Usual, Except Where It
With October 31 landing on a Saturday, the whole weekend pulls toward a handful of rooms in the Valley, West End, and down the highway on the Gold Coast.
October 31 actually lands on a Saturday this year, which removes every excuse you usually have for phoning in an outfit on a Tuesday.
Continue reading the guideThat's enough for now
The calendar is leaner than you might expect for a three-day run, so you aren't sprinting between ten clubs, you are picking a post and committing to it. Most of the city's centre of gravity sits squarely on Saturday night at 
The Wickham (opens in a new tab), though a surprising amount of the heavy lifting is happening in West End and down the M1.
The Valley and West End
Saturday in Fortitude Valley means Nightmare at The Wickham (opens in a new tab), which is free entry and runs a marathon ten-hour shift starting at 5PM. You do not need to be there at 5PM — nobody looks good in full monster paint while the sun is still up over Aldi — unless you want a table before the courtyard fills to capacity. The actual reason to be in the room kicks off at 9PM, when the Halloween shows put together by Ja'mie Displays take over the stage and carry the place through toward the 3AM finish.
Over in West End, 
Come To Daddy (opens in a new tab) is pulling a strange, ambitious double shift across the weekend with INKUBUS. Friday night is The Night(mare) before Halloween (opens in a new tab), a $10 Melt Festival dress-up party running a very civilised 6:30PM to 10PM with INKUBUS and their Ghoulfriends. Then, for reasons known only to people with far better stamina than me, they are listed back in the same room on Saturday for The Night Before Halloween Masquerade Ball (opens in a new tab), a free-entry session slated for 4:30AM to 8AM with INKUBUS, IAM, and Sylvester Noir, where they're selling a limited run of masks at the door for charity.
Down the highway
If you are already on the Gold Coast, or willing to share an Uber down the highway, Saturday's biggest drawcard on paper is actually in Bundall. Halloween Hotel (opens in a new tab) at 
Gold Coast Tavern (opens in a new tab) is pulling the most eyes of anything on the list this weekend, setting up a haunted lobby for a drag fundraiser from 7PM to 9:30PM. Tickets are $38.37, which is delightfully specific, and gets you Luna D'Lux, Terry Daktyl, I AM, and Elle Would.
And because a 9:30PM finish is really just a warm-up on a Saturday, you can head straight over to Mermaid Beach afterwards. Hairy Mary's is throwing Scary Mary's Halloween Party (opens in a new tab) from 7PM until 3AM, and it won't cost you a cent on the door. DJ Adam Cox and Dirty Versace are on the decks all night between the production drag shows and the costume comp, and the room usually gets very cosy well before midnight.
Zero fake blood required
Maybe you hate spirit gum. If the thought of sweating through a cheap polyester cape makes you want to stay home, start your Saturday early in New Farm instead. 
Brisbane Powerhouse (opens in a new tab) has a one-night-only development showing of Katie is a Marker Sniffing Lesbian (opens in a new tab) from 6PM to 8PM, put on by East and Under Theatre Co. It's a $10 darkly funny play about a girl on track to dux her school until she starts slinging glow-in-the-dark Sharpies out of her locker — which reminds me that the Powerhouse deck is still the best spot in Brisbane for a quiet drink before a show, provided the bats stay in the trees. You'll be out by 8PM, ten dollars lighter, with the rest of your Saturday night still intact.