Halloweekend in London: spookiest raves in the city
From Honey Dijon’s four-hour séance in Greenwich to an all-day ghost trip in Canning Town. We've rounded up the best raves worth staying up for this weekend.
XOYO Halloween: In The Field with Jamie Fielding
XOYO is back in the game: the Old Street club reopened in January after a refurb and new ownership, and Halloween is its first big test. Colchester-born Jamie Fielding, one of UK tech house’s fastest risers, plays a four-hour extended set in the renovated basement, with Will McCann warming up.
Cirque Du Soul: Halloween Special
The travelling party that made dressing up a dress code. Cirque Du Soul’s formula is burlesque, bass and bohemia: top hats and canes, corsets and glitter, performers roaming the room, house and club bangers until late. For Halloween, it takes over the Canning Town warehouse the night before The Cause’s own festival.
The Cause: Halloween Festival
Sixteen hours, the whole venue. Modeselektor headlines, Deetron goes back-to-back with Zenker Brothers, and Gabber Eleganza brings The Hakke Show, its hardcore dance troupe. Queer collectives Kylie Wears Berghaus and Haute Mess host rooms, Hannah Holland plays, and drag performers keep the floor in check.
Wiggle Halloween Spookathon
Wiggle has been throwing parties in London since the 90s, and it still treats the dancefloor like a family reunion. Terry Francis and Eddie Richards lead a line-up of underground house and techno lifers at Gaffe, a club that grew from illegal raves to a Soho barber’s basement to a railway arch, and now lives in a 450-capacity warehouse in Edmonton.
Origins: The Ghost (All Day Long)
The weekend's most fitting booking: a DJ called The Ghost, playing all day on Halloween. It’s their fourth outing at FOLD, the artist-run club above a print factory on an industrial estate, famous for its custom sound system and strict no-photos policy. Six hours of deep, rolling house in a room where nobody films anything.
The Hydra presents Honey Dijon
Chicago’s queen of house music, now a Londoner, takes over Magazine for a four-hour Halloween set. Honey Dijon has played everywhere from Berghain to fashion week after-parties, and she DJs like a history lesson in Black and queer club culture. Early start, early finish, maximum glamour.
Release Halloween: 28 Raves Later
The name alone deserves a ticket. Ida Engberg, Bontan, Matthias Tanzmann and Nick Curly play eleven hours of tech house at the riverside club. Dress code is unofficial but obvious: blood-spattered scrubs, empty-London survival chic, the infected look.
fabric: Rødhåd, FJAAK
No fake blood or zombie dancers here, just Halloween night at one of the most famous clubs in the world. Berlin heavyweights Rødhåd and FJAAK take the techno main room, Demi Riquisimo hosts Semi Delicious in Room Two, and Next Door Records holds Room Three. For people whose costume is all black anyway.
elrow Horroween
After a two-year break, elrow brings its horror universe back to north London for 15,000 people. Expect three rooms, costumed monsters, roaming performers and surreal installations around every corner, plus 240Km/h, a stage devoted to hard techno. Part rave, part theatre.
