Follow the Marolles After Dark
Start in the Marolles, where the city's Halloween programme runs from 26 October to 1 November. Mexican-style altars appear in the streets, and the neighbourhood fills with parades, flowers, fireworks, workshops and concerts. The centrepiece is a large candle-lit altar open to public offerings, so bring something to leave. Much of the programme is built for children, which means you can move through it at an unhurried pace and still catch the evening's loudest moments.
Ride the Funfair at Tour & Taxis
From 16 October to 8 November, Tour & Taxis turns into a funfair for 24 days. The site holds a haunted house and the V-Max, a thrill ride that lifts you 60 metres up. Between rides you can join pumpkin carving, face-paint and make-up workshops, and a costume competition. It is the largest single concentration of Halloween activity in the city, and it rewards an afternoon rather than a quick stop.
Walk Between Graves and Crime Scenes
Guided cemetery tours run through Brussels, Laeken, Molenbeek and Dieweg, leading you between graves with an emphasis on art, history and heritage rather than fright. In central Brussels, Brussels by Foot runs a storytelling tour on criminal cases all year, including the Devil's Corner legend and the crime of place Saint-Géry; it is written for ages 12 and up and requires booking. Both are ways to spend a daytime slot on the city's older, stranger stories.
Spend a Day Indoors with Skeletons and Mummies
The museums assemble their own Halloween programmes. At the Art & History Museum, nine American rooms hold the mummy that inspired Hergé's Rascar Capac, the Peruvian Ai Apaec known as the Beheading God, and the Aztec god Xipe Totec. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium display James Ensor's "Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring" and run a special Halloween tour on satyrs and nocturnal creatures. The Musée de la Médecine shows Dr Auzoux's écorché anatomical model alongside wax casts of diseases and deformities, glass eyes and old jars. The Fantastic Art Museum, from 17 October to 1 November, offers a themed tour of its collections and a mini-golf course. World of Mind at Tour & Taxis, from 17 to 31 October, stages Halloween-themed sets with a wandering magician, and its grand finale sessions run 30–31 October, 11:00–17:00.
Mark the Fixed Dates
A few events sit on exact days. Autoworld holds its Halloween Night on 30 October, 18:30–20:30, with stories told through a car maze and pumpkin soup served; advance registration is required. On 31 October, 17:00–21:00, Schaerbeek Municipal School No. 16 opens its Halloween at School evening with underground passages, a haunted house and a fancy-dress competition, also by advance registration. Mini Europe, from 17 October to 8 November, decorates its models with zombies, witches, pumpkins and giant spiders on the Eiffel Tower, plus a ghost train and stilt-walking pumpkin characters.
Check the visit.brussels agenda as autumn approaches, then book the events that require registration — Autoworld, the school evening and the guided tours — before you plan the rest of your days around them.