Weekend Spotlight: Halloween concerts, CRT art, haunted manors and more

Weekend Spotlight is a round-up of the five best events to check out in Delaware over the coming weekend, curated by Arts + Culture Editor Cannon Taylor. This edition covers Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2026. What should be on our radar for future editions? Let us know!

Macabre Middletown

Learn the lore of Frightland

Through Saturday, Nov. 7. 309 Port Penn Road, Middletown. 6-8:30 p.m. Thurs., Fri., Sun., 6-9:30 p.m. Sat. Tickets: $45 Thurs., Fri., Sun,, $55 Sat.

There’s still time to scare your pants off at Frightland, Middletown’s most iconic haunted attraction, and one with a surprising amount of lore. Learn the story of Dr. Thaddeus Idalia, a local doctor driven insane by his daughter’s suicide in the family barn. 

There are many spooky locations to explore. Some are tropey, like a dilapidated manor. Others are surprisingly unique, like “Zombie Town” — a mining town of undead cowboys who were slowly killed off when Idalia’s father poisoned their well water. 

It may be a little packed on Halloween night, but if you don’t mind visiting after the spooky season, Frightland will be open until Nov. 7.

Dark Bloom

Ladybug founders launch new Halloween music festival

Saturday, Oct. 31. Trolley Square, Wilmington. Noon-6 p.m. Free.

In 2012, couple Dr. Dan Young and Jill Slader-Young launched the Ladybug Music Festival with the mission of celebrating women in music. Fourteen years later, they’re launching a new Halloween music festival, Dark Bloom.

The festival brings 21 musicians performing on five stages in Trolley Square in Wilmington. Keeping with the spirit of Ladybug, each act features women musicians. There will also be “art battles” (contestants duking it out with their paintbrushes, not their fists) and Halloween activities throughout the day.

The best part? Dark Bloom is completely free. 

Coastal Cinema

Film festival returns to Rehoboth Beach, Lewes 

Sunday, Nov. 1 through Sunday, Nov. 8. Various locations in Rehoboth Beach and Lewes. All day. Tickets: $18 per screening block.

A group of Deaf friends gather in Maryland for a crab feast gone wrong (“Crab Theory”). A stop-motion mouse plays board games with the wind (“A Game of Chance”). A woman’s relationship with her partner is upturned after he brings home a pet penguin from Antarctica (“Penguin”). 

That’s just scratching the surface of the more than 100 films being shown at the Rehoboth Beach International Film Festival. 

Taking place at various venues in Rehoboth and Lewes, the 28-year tradition draws in more than 5,000 attendees yearly over its seven-day run.

For the locals, this year will feature two Delaware documentaries: “Citizen Photographer,” filmed by André Wright Jr. and commissioned by the Delaware Art Museum, and “Lewes, DE: Drawn by the Sea.” There are also plenty of international offerings to enjoy. 

Monster Mash

Dover Art League benefit show features CRT art, local bands

Saturday, Oct. 31. 21 W. Loockerman St., Dover. 8 p.m. Tickets: $5-25. 18+.

The wails of phantoms will sound through Dover Art League on Halloween during its “Phantasm” benefit show. Well, “wails” and “phantoms” might be false advertising — in fact, five bands will be performing in the space.

There will also be a costume party and live “video art.” For the uninitiated, projectors and CRT TVs will create visual art so entrancing you’ll want to climb inside the screen like the girl from “The Ring.”

The show is sliding scale, $5-25, and all proceeds benefit the Dover Art League. 

Do the Time Warp Again

Celebrate ‘Rocky Horror’ in historic theater

Saturday, Oct. 31. The Everett Theatre. 47 W. Main St., Middletown. 11:30 p.m. Tickets: $22. 

While I’d usually get angry if someone started singing along in a movie theater, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is an exception. There has never been a normal screening of this bizarre film. Fans dress as Meat Loaf or Tim Curry’s iconic Frank-N-Furter and walk up to the screen, acting along with the cast of the 1975 film like they have top billing. 

There’s no better place to do the time warp again, 51 years after the original film was released, than the historic Everett Theatre in Middletown. And, given Tim Curry’s death a couple months ago, this screening will be a particularly heartfelt tribute.

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