Get the lowdown on Halloween fun, and catch a crowd-pleasing dog show this weekend
Halloween happenings
Halloween, Oct. 31, falls on a Friday this year, and there are abundant ways to celebrate. Among the options:
• LoveOly Downtown for Halloween invites kids to celebrate the holiday before dark. Many shops will have treats for costumed kids from 3 to 6 p.m., and the Olympia Downtown Alliance will host a pet costume contest, photo booth, and kids’ activities from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Fifth Avenue and Washington Street intersection.
• Halloween at Harlequin — a play about Edgar Allan Poe, written by Bryan Willis and performed by Bradford Farwell, and a new scary story by Jim Lynch — happens at 7:30 p.m. at the State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $25.
• The Olympia Film Society is screening the cult classic “Donnie Darko” followed by a Q&A with James Duval, the actor who played Frank the Rabbit. The screening is at 7 p.m. at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, with doors opening at 6. Tickets are $33.25-$38.25.
• Samba Olywa’s Bone Gang will be drumming and dancing beginning at 7 p.m. in the South Capitol neighborhood, an area known for elaborate Halloween decorations that attracts trick-or-treaters from around the area. (The roving samba show will be cancelled if the weather is wet, which looks very possible.)
• Hands On Children’s Museum’s Boo Bash wraps up on Halloween. Special activities include a straw-bale maze, pumpkin decorating, making paper marigolds and more. The museum, at 414 Jefferson St. NE, Olympia, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Boo Bash fun is free with museum admission ($3-$18.95 and free for museum members and babies 17 months and younger).
Dogs have their day
There are more tricks in store on Saturday, Nov. 1: Chris Perondi’s “Stunt Dog Experience” returns to Olympia for two performances. The traveling show features some two dozen rescue dogs jumping through hoops, balancing on their front paws, navigating obstacle courses and more. The family-friendly shows — which Queen Latifah proclaimed “pawtastic” — happen at 2 and 6 p.m. at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St.. SE, Olympia, Tickets are $20-$45.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore talks with DJ Michael Stein about what’s happening around town on KGY-FM’s “Oly in a Can,” on the air at 2 p.m. Fridays.