Putting a spooky spotlight on Manitou Springs, Estes Park, Longmont and Fort Collins

By Steve Graham

Get Out of Town is our weekly roundup of recommended events across Colorado, mostly focusing outside of Denver, to help everyone enjoy the entire state. For more happenings, check out our events calendar.

This week, we’re making it worth the trip to a few Colorado towns, with several pre-Halloween events in each spot.

Monstrous fun in Manitou

When Halloween falls on a Thursday, it really becomes a weeklong affair, with events starting the weekend before (and earlier).

The Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Festival return to Manitou Springs this weekend. The legendarily wacky day of fun honors Crawford, whose coffin was carried to the top of Red Mountain, only to come racing down the mountain years later (see more crazy history here). Now costumed teams race coffin crafts up Manitou Avenue. The event also includes a parade, live music and more.

Before the festival, the Cliff House at Pikes Peak in Manitou will celebrate Emma Crawford with an Alfred Hitchcock Wine Dinner. And Friday is the last chance for this year’s Ghost Stories of Old Manitou walking tour. The one-hour tours are hosted by the Manitou Springs Heritage Center and THEATREdART, which will conjure the spirits of Zebulon Pike, Dr. Bell, The Homicidal Hairdresser and more.

Lurching through Longmont

You can spend a packed Saturday in Longmont, starting with a downtown Halloween parade and trick-or-treat street starting at 10 a.m. Follow that with the Feria del Tamal (Tamale Fair) from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. Tickets start at $23, and the event includes tamales from various regions, live music, lucha libre and more.

Finally, at 7 p.m., the Longmont Museum hosts “Secrets,” the fall dance showcase for David Taylor’s acclaimed Zikr Dance Ensemble. It includes an expanded version of Taylor’s “Ripples in the Sand,” set to Hans Zimmer’s “Dune” film score.

Frightening fun in Fort Collins

We are pretty sure that Gnebriated Gnome Distillery is Colorado’s only DnD-themed and rum-focused drinking spot. Sounds like a year-round excuse to dress up and play a character. To that end, the Old Town Fort Collins distillery hosts a vampire ball and murder mystery party on Sunday night.

Before that, thirsty ghouls can enjoy one of two competing downtown bar crawls on Saturday night. The “Official Halloween Bar Crawl” starts at 4 p.m. at Bondi Beach Bar and Grill, and the “FoCo Boo Crawl” starts at 7 p.m. at the Exchange, with an after-party from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Eerie in Estes Park

The YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park hosts a family-friendly Halloween haunted house at its mountainside lodge on Saturday night. The immersive tour includes a new not-so-creepy chapter of a ghost story in each room.

Back in town, the cinematic offerings at the historic Park Theatre are decidedly less family-friendly. Tonight, it will screen an unrated 20th anniversary version of “Saw.” Then, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” will be shown from Friday through Halloween. The movie is based on a Stephen King book famously inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar.