Top 10 Halloween events this weekend to give your family a scarily good time

There’s plenty still to be enjoyed however – even for those not looking for traditional Halloween fun – and here are our latest top picks of the family-friendly events you can get stuck into across the West Midlands and Shropshire over the next few days.

Trentham Monkey Forest

The team at Trentham Monkey Forest have found it spooky how quick their babies have grown up this season– with the nine babies born in the summer already starting to grow their first thick winter coat ready for the colder temperatures.

So, this Sunday only, especially for Halloween, Trentham Monkey Forest is treating your little cheeky monkeys by allowing them to go in for free if they visit in fancy dress.

Monkey Forest want their family visitors to make even more life-lasting memories at the park as the arrival of their nine little ones has made for an even more special experience.

The attraction closes for the season on Monday (November 1), so it will be the last chance to see the nine baby monkeys until next year in February.

Visit www.monkey-forest.com

Cadbury World

For fans of spooky fun, there’s plenty on offer at Cadbury World for the next few days, as families can experience a brand-new stage show and enjoy a day choc-full of tricks and treats.

Up to and including this Sunday, visitors are invited to roll up to Freddo’s Ghoulish Gameshow and be entertained in this spooktacular stage show hosted by Freddo the frog.

Guests will be challenged to beat the clock in ‘Count Dracula’s Conundrum’, guess the answers in ‘Freaky Fortunes’ and spot the mystery characters hiding in ‘Spook Am I?’. The 20-minute show will also give families the chance to win petrifying prizes.

Young ghouls are encouraged to don a hauntingly good costume for the daily fancy dress competition, where brave judges will be handing out prizes to the scariest of visitors.

Visit www.cadburyworld.co.uk

Stokesay Castle

English Heritage has joined forces with award-winning author Cressida Cowell for some really wizard family days out this week, and the fun is continuing until the end of the weekend.

The author’s bestselling The Wizards of Once series is the inspiration for a series of brand new Halloween trails at historic sites across the country, including Stokesay Castle near Craven Arms.

Set in a fantastical, ancient Britain, The Wizards of Once books are full of wizards, warriors, witches, giants and sprites – and are packed with thrilling adventure. The challenges of Xar, a wizard boy with no magic, and Wish, a warrior girl with a magical secret, have inspired the English Heritage quests, created in partnership with Cressida Cowell. Will you find the ingredients for the spell to get rid of witches and uncover the location of the Cup of Second Chances?

Plus, come along in frightful fancy dress and snap a picture to enter the competition on social media. It’s set to be a really wizard day out!

Visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/halloween/

Park Hall Countryside Experience

Park Hall Countryside Experience upped the ante with an order of 3,000 pumpkins for its annual Pumpkinfest event this year, and all the fun can still be enjoyed until the end of the weekend.

Every paying child receives a free pumpkin to carve in the site’s huge pumpkin shed, which they can take home at the end of the day.

Halloween activities on offer include Pumpkin Alley, The Witches Cavern, The Little Scare House and singing pumpkins. Lots of fun and games including ‘Pass the Pumpkin’ are set to delight all families who visit, and there is currently a daily Halloween fancy dress competition running.

All of the usual farm activities are also available to enjoy so visitors can meet the animals, explore the play areas, ride on the barrel train, see the pig race, and more. Tickets for Pumpkinfest must be purchased in advance at www.parkhallfarm.co.uk

Coalbrookdale Museum Of Iron

Magic and mayhem are all currently on the menu for visitors to the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron.

Up to and including this Sunday, budding witches and warlocks can take part in the museum’s magical potion trail. The eerily fun event sees jars of creepy ingredients hidden around the attraction, with guests challenged to find them all, before writing a spell for resident witch Freya to cast with her cauldron.

Visitors can also get creative with another event currently running at Coalbrookdale and other museums across the Ironbridge Gorge. The Big Draw invites guests to collect an art pack and follow a drawing trail, which can be done at any and all of the gorge’s museums. This activity is based on the National Big Draw Festival, but with an Ironbridge twist!

Visit www.ironbridge.org.uk/

West Midland Safari Park

This week West Midland Safari Park has been holding a pumpkin-packed Halloween celebration with its annual Spooky Spectacular event, and there is still time to get in on the fun.

Visiting families will be able to meet ‘Patch’, a pumpkin-headed scarecrow, who is hosting his very own Pumpkin Party live stage show, at selected times each day up to and including this Sunday.

This 20-minute interactive show includes spooky games, eerie magic and lots of dancing, ensuring everyone is set for a fang-tastic time. Following the show, guests will have the chance to meet Patch and snap a spooky selfie with him, which can be used to enter the park’s photo competition to be in with the chance of winning a family annual pass.

The park’s Discovery Trail has also been transformed with cobwebs, spooky scenes and over a thousand pumpkins, some of which make up Patch’s Pumpkin Patch, where guests can take more photos to enter the photo competition.

As well as the Spooky Spectacular, the park’s brand-new Lantern Festival has also now begun. Running solely on evenings until December 5, the festival sees the park magically illuminated by the light of over a thousand lanterns, including a Halloween scene especially for the spooky season.

Visit www.wmsp.co.uk

Shrewsbury Motocross Club – Shropshire Prestige Veterans Championship

For those looking for an exhilarating bit of fun this Sunday but without the traditional spooky tropes of Halloween, Shrewsbury Motocross Club will be holding the final round of the Shropshire Prestige Veterans championship at their meeting at the fast and exciting Long Lane track.

This championship is open to riders over 50 with some still enjoying competition well into their 70s. With points still to be won and positions fought over together with a full supporting programme this looks set to be a day not to be missed!

The track is 2 miles north of the Shawbirch island on the A442. Parking is free together with a complimentary programme. With visitors of all ages able to enjoy excellent viewing of the action, practice starts at 9am with the first race at 10am.

Sea Life Centre

The Sea Life Centre Birmingham has been transformed from aquarium to ‘ascarium’ this half term, and there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the spooky action.

An immersive in-tank trail, celebrating the creepiest creatures of the deep, coupled with spell casting with a sea witch and a trick or treat surprise, is running at the city centre attraction up to and including this Sunday.

Follow the immersive trail to find the Sea Witch’s missing potion ingredients hidden throughout the depths of the tanks, where you will also discover some of the spookiest creatures of the sea and you might also receive a treat (or trick)!

Not only is there this excitingly eerie trail for visitors, but guests are also able to tackle visual activities and have a supernatural snap with the witch’s cauldron.

Visit www.visitsealife.com/

Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre

There’s plenty of fun to be had this weekend at the Shropshire Hills discovery centre, with a fantastic Bonfire and Firework display planned for Saturday, and a Halloween Crafts event set to delight the little ones on Sunday.

With thanks to Britpart for their sponsorship, the Discovery Centre’s charity fundraiser bonfire is back this year with a big bang!

With hot and cold refreshments as well as fairground rides, this could be the ideal family night out with which to round off the October half term.

Gates open at 5pm, with the bonfire lit at 7pm and fireworks set to start at 7.30pm.

Then, the following day on Halloween itself, spooky fun is set to delight all attendees with a trail of spooky crafts and activities between 11am and 3pm. Booking is essential.

Visit www.shropshirehillsdiscoverycentre.co.uk

Echills Wood Railway

Plenty of Halloween fun will be coming to Echills Wood Railway, Sutton Coldfield, on Saturday, with visitors able to ride the ‘Scream and Steam’ Express!

Are you brave enough to to take a train ride through Kingsbury woods in the dark? What horrors will haunt you on the scariest night of the year? With plenty of ghoulish entertainment assured, visitors can watch out for spooky witches and scary surprises over this 2km ride.

Visit www.ewr.org.uk