16 Bars Are Coming Together for Saturday’s Halloween in Chinatown

With Hallowbaloo canceled, Chinatown bar owners plan a night of drink specials, music, dancing and a costume contest.

October 23, 2023

Mari Taketa,

map of halloween parties in honolulu chinatown

Image: Courtesy of @halloweeninchinatown

Amid questions about whether Chinatown’s annual Hallowbaloo street festival was happening this year, Proof Social Club owner Jasmine Mancos got tired of waiting. A call last week to Mark Tarone, the event’s founder, confirmed her fears: Hallowbaloo, the busiest night of the year for Proof and other Chinatown bars, was canceled. “I just started calling all the bar owners I knew and went around to everyone else the next day,” Mancos says. “We were all on the same page about wanting to get the message out that Chinatown will still be a great neighborhood party that weekend.”

Within days, Mancos had put together a new event. Unlike Hallowbaloo, which closed down city streets for live music performances, a craft beer festival, costume contest, food vendors and other attractions, Halloween in Chinatown is more of a self-guided pub crawl among 16 popular bars this Saturday, Oct. 28. Seven will have drink specials and no cover charge, while nine more will offer live music, dance parties and a $15 wristband at their doors that will get you into all nine:

Bar 35*
Black Shamrock
Dash of Sazon*
Dragon Upstairs*
Encore Saloon
EP Bar
Hank’s Cafe*
J. Dolan’s
The Lei Stand
Manifest*
Nextdoor*
Nighthawk
The Other Side*
Proof Social Club*
Smith & Kings
The Walkin*

*Included in $15 wristband; no cover at the rest

Photo: Joe Marquez

Nextdoor is hosting a Midnight Costume Contest—check in by 11:45 p.m., no entry fee. At The Other Side Diner and its speakeasy, The Walk-in Lounge, there will be “spooky drink and food specials all night,” co-owner Michael Grey says. “Not having [Hallowbaloo] is honestly making me go back to the drawing board and make significant changes to how we do business. I don’t think the powers that be realize how many people are affected, from security to bartenders to food vendors.”

Hallowbaloo, which came back from pandemic hiatus in 2022 and draws up to 10,000 revelers to Chinatown businesses, missed the deadline for city permits this year over disputes about admission and drinking on public streets. “All small businesses really need all the help we can get right now,” Grey says. “I’m really frustrated about this. It was our biggest night of the year.”

16 eclectic bars banding together with different specials and attractions is a huge and promising pub crawl. Halloween in Chinatown takes place from 5 p.m. Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday, with start times varying by venue. Check @halloweeninchinatown for updates.