Halloween is a children’s holiday — but a horror festival is not automatically a children’s event. Here is what suits which age, what it costs and when to come.
The short answer
Sunday morning. If you have children under ten and you can choose, Sunday 1 November from 10:00 is clearly the best option: the venue is empty, the two children’s workshops are in the morning, and you have no evening crowd to fight.
What there is, by age
Three and up
Face painting has no age limit and costs nothing beyond admission. The same goes for the Witch Hunt: you take the leaflet, you look for the witches who have hidden the festival’s monsters, and anyone who finds them all goes into a prize draw. It works like an orienteering game — it keeps the little ones busy for as long as it takes you to walk the market.
Six and up
The two workshops the organisers explicitly mark as kids friendly are on the Sunday:
- 10:30 — Make felt ghosts · €12
- 12:00 — Make your own spooky mouse ears · €25
Both have limited places and are sold in advance on more.com. A ticket for any activity includes admission to the festival, so you do not pay twice.
Ten and up
This is where pumpkin carving opens up (€16, in hourly shifts on all three days). It needs a knife and supervision, which is why we do not recommend it for younger children. You leave with your pumpkin.
What to watch out for
The Horror Museum is not for small children. It is set up as an abandoned museum with effigies of famous horror figures, in low light. An eight-year-old might love it, or might never sleep again — you know that better than we do. The same applies to some of the costumes you will meet in the venue: the standard of the cosplayers goes up every year, and that also means more convincing monsters.
The film screenings are not all for children. The programme marks them hour by hour — have a look before you sit down.
What it costs, in practice
One parent with two children, on Sunday morning, with a workshop for one of them: three €5 admission tickets and one workshop — and the workshop covers its own admission. Everything else that day (face painting, the hunt, the museum, the Grangel exhibition, the board games) is included at no extra charge.
If you book no workshop at all, the day costs exactly what the admission tickets cost. There is nothing inside that “unlocks” with an extra payment, apart from food and shopping.
Practical notes
- Pushchair: the venue is on one level, so it gets through. At Saturday’s peak hours you will struggle.
- Food: there is a themed food zone and a sweet corner inside the venue.
- Costume: not compulsory, but half the children around you will be wearing one. Factor that in.
- Getting here: Kerameikos metro, two minutes on foot — easier than hunting for parking in Gazi.
If you are coming with a school rather than with your family, there is a separate page for school visits.