From Stilt Walkers to Spooky Photo Booths
If you work in the Houston event industry long enough, you quickly learn that the holiday rush doesn’t start in November or December. It starts in October.
Halloween parties, school fall festivals, country club events, corporate celebrations and Día de los Muertos events make October one of our busiest times of the year at The Trade Entertainment. And one of our favorite things about fall events is how creative you can get with the entertainment.
A stilt walker can become a spooky Halloween character. A roaming photo booth can interact with guests in costume while capturing photos throughout the party. A living table can become part of the décor while serving Halloween-inspired hors d’oeuvres. Even aerialists, contortionists, dancers and champagne skirts can be completely transformed to fit the theme.
Whether you’re planning something spooky and sophisticated or a family-friendly fall festival, here are some of our favorite Halloween and fall festival entertainment ideas in Houston.
Stilt Walkers: One of Our Favorite Halloween Entertainers
There’s a reason stilt walkers continue to be one of our most requested entertainers. They make an immediate visual impact. Guests see them as soon as they arrive, they’re fantastic for photos, and their costumes can be customized to work with almost any Halloween theme. For a family-friendly event, they can be colorful, whimsical or playful. For an adult Halloween party, the look can become darker, more dramatic or even a little creepy.
They’re also perfect for large events because they can move throughout the crowd and be seen from across the room.
If you’re looking for Halloween stilt walkers in Houston, we always recommend booking early. October dates, especially the weekends closest to Halloween, can fill much earlier than people expect.
Turn Your Photo Booth Into Part of the Entertainment
Traditional photo booths are always fun, but for Halloween events we especially love strolling photo booths. Instead of guests having to walk over to a stationary photo booth, the photo booth comes to them.
Even better, the strolling photo booth attendant can become part of the Halloween theme. Imagine a costumed Halloween character moving through your event, interacting with guests and taking photos along the way. It works especially well for cocktail parties, corporate events and larger celebrations where you want the entertainment circulating throughout the room. It’s an easy way to combine entertainment and photography without taking guests away from the party.
Make the Food Part of the Experience With a Spooky Living Table
A living table is another great option when you want something guests aren’t expecting. Rather than simply setting appetizers on a traditional catering table, a costumed performer becomes the centerpiece of the display.
For Halloween, we can create a spooky character surrounded by Halloween-inspired hors d’oeuvres, desserts or drinks. It becomes part décor, part entertainment and part food presentation.
Living tables and strolling tables are especially fun for cocktail hours and adult Halloween parties because they’re interactive without requiring guests to stop what they’re doing and watch a formal performance.
Fall Festival Entertainment for Kids and Families
Not every October event needs to be scary. We’ve worked school fall festivals and family events where the goal is simply to keep kids entertained and give families plenty to do throughout the event.
Some of our favorite fall festival entertainment ideas include:
- Face painters
- Balloon twisters
- Stilt walkers
- Hula hoop entertainers
- Magicians
- Jugglers
- Bubble performers
- Family-friendly DJs
- Roaming photo booths
- Caricature artists
For school and community fall festivals, we often recommend combining several types of entertainment. For example, we’ve provided face painters, balloon twisters and stilt walkers for school fall festivals. Each entertainer creates a different experience, which helps spread guests throughout the event rather than creating one central attraction with a huge line.
At country club events, the entertainment mix might look completely different. A family-friendly DJ can keep the music going while a hula hoop entertainer interacts with the kids and roaming performers circulate through the crowd.
That’s one of the reasons we don’t believe there’s a single formula for fall festival entertainment. The best combination depends on your venue, number of guests, age range and the atmosphere you’re trying to create.
Halloween Entertainment for Adults
Adult Halloween parties give us the opportunity to take things in a completely different direction. Instead of face painting and balloon twisting, think dramatic visual entertainment and performers who become part of the atmosphere.
A few possibilities include aerialists, contortionists, magicians, fortune tellers, living statues, roaming characters, themed dancers, stilt walkers, living tables and strolling photo booths.
For a sophisticated corporate Halloween party, you may want entertainment that feels theatrical rather than scary. For a late-night private event, you can take the costumes and performers much further. That’s where customization becomes especially important.
We don’t believe Halloween entertainment has to come out of a standard costume catalog. We can work with the colors, décor and overall concept of the event to create entertainment that feels like it belongs there.
Día de los Muertos Entertainment in Houston
One thing guests never notice at a great event is the timeline. That’s because everything feels effortless. Behind the scenes, though, there’s usually a detailed schedule keeping everyone on track.
Entertainers need setup time. Musicians need sound checks. Aerialists need time to rig equipment. Vendors need to know where they’re supposed to be and when.
Even a small delay can create a ripple effect throughout the evening. The more organized the timeline is, the smoother everything feels for both your guests and your event team.
Mistake #5: Not Trusting Your Entertainment Team
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is one of our favorite celebrations to design entertainment around because there are so many creative possibilities. Many of our entertainers can be transformed with Día de los Muertos-inspired costumes and
makeup.
Imagine a skeleton contortionist creating incredible shapes throughout the evening, Día de los Muertos stilt walkers greeting guests, or dramatic skeleton GoGo dancers for a nighttime celebration.
Living tables and strolling tables can also be customized to the theme, turning food or drink service into part of the visual experience.
For an upscale celebration, even a champagne skirt can be transformed with Día de los Muertos-inspired costuming.
The important part is making the entertainment fit the style of the event. A daytime family celebration will naturally look different from a late-night corporate or private party. That’s part of the fun.
Choose Entertainment Based on How You Want Guests to Experience the Event
One of the first things we consider when helping a client choose entertainment isn’t simply, “What performer do you want?” It’s how do you want your guests to experience the event?
If you want guests greeted with an immediate wow factor, a stilt walker or costumed character near the entrance can make an impact from the moment they arrive. If you want people interacting and mingling, strolling entertainment works beautifully. If children are a big part of the guest list, face painters, balloon twisters, bubbles, hula hoops and interactive entertainers can keep them engaged. If you’re planning an adult cocktail party, a living table, roaming photo booth, fortune teller or specialty performer can add entertainment without interrupting the flow of the evening.
And if you’re planning a large event, sometimes the best solution isn’t one entertainer at all. It’s a combination.
Don’t Forget the DJ, Music and Production
Specialty entertainers may create the wow moments, but music can completely change the energy of an event. A great DJ can take a Halloween party from background music early in the evening to a full dance floor later at night.
And if your event requires both entertainment and production, coordinating everything through one company can make planning much easier. At The Trade Entertainment, we don’t fit into one small entertainment niche. A client may need a DJ, stilt walkers and a roaming photo booth for one event. Another may need specialty performers, live musicians and a complete sound crew. Being able to coordinate several pieces through one company means fewer vendors, fewer contacts and fewer moving parts for the person planning the event.
When Should You Book Halloween Entertainment in Houston?
Earlier than you think. One of the biggest misconceptions we hear is that the busy holiday event season begins in November and December. For us, it starts in October. Between Halloween parties, fall festivals, corporate events, school events, country clubs and Día de los Muertos celebrations, popular October dates can fill quickly.
If your event falls on a Friday or Saturday close to Halloween, booking early is especially important. Waiting until October to start looking for Halloween entertainment can mean that your first-choice performers are already committed to other events.
Halloween & Fall Entertainment Throughout the Houston Area
The Trade Entertainment works with events throughout Houston and the surrounding areas, and we can travel farther when the event and budget allow. From intimate private parties to school fall festivals, country clubs, corporate events and large-scale celebrations, the entertainment should feel like it was selected specifically for your event rather than added as an afterthought. That’s where having lots of options helps.
You don’t necessarily need to know exactly what entertainer you want before contacting us. Tell us about the event, the guests, the venue and the atmosphere you’re trying to create, and we can help put together ideas.
Planning a Halloween Party or Fall Festival in Houston?
Whether you’re looking for Halloween stilt walkers, fall festival entertainers, a strolling photo booth, living table, face painters, balloon twisters, DJs, Día de los Muertos performers or something completely customized, we’d love to help bring the idea to life.
