In 2009, David Pierce, the executive director of Denton’s Day of the Dead Festival, decided to bring his love of music and Halloween together to create a themed musical titled Cirque du Horror in Denton. Two years later, he launched the first Denton Day of the Dead Festival, which combined American Halloween lore with Dia de los Muertos themes.
The three-day festival is one of the biggest attractions to Denton’s monthlong Halloween festivities and takes place during the final full weekend in October.
In 2025, Pierce said the festival brought in 30,000-35,000 people for that Saturday, the event’s busiest day. Now the city of Denton, community members and local businesses are involved in an annual celebration that boosts the local economy.
“The businesses started realizing this was going to be one of their best days of the year,” Pierce said. “It grew into their best day or weekend of the year, which has grown into the 31 Days of Denton Halloween.”
Two-minute impact
In 2024, Denton launched a city-sponsored Halloween celebration. During the 89th Texas Legislature in May 2025, Denton was named as the Halloween capital of Texas.
The city reported during the Halloween season in 2025, which runs from the end of September to the beginning of November, there were about 800,000 visitors. During the same timeframe in 2024, the number of visitors was almost 700,000 people.
Tim Stoltzfus, who owns More Fun Comics & Games, said the city’s decision to build on Denton’s Halloween traditions has brought in guests from around the country.
“That first year, I know we had one sale of a bunch of Disney statues that had nothing to do with Halloween [from people] who were from Las Vegas,” he said.
By the numbers
The month of October brings in a lot of traffic to Denton with Halloween festivities, events from the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University, conventions and athletic events, Denton Chief Financial Officer Matt Hamilton said.
October 2023 to October 2024 saw a sales tax increase of 18.71%, according to data from the city. While there are many contributing factors outside of Halloween to October’s sales tax revenue, Hamilton said the greatest financial benefit of Halloween in Denton is the support of small businesses.
“While Denton Halloween only represents a small part of the city’s overall tax revenues, there is a meaningful boost to small businesses and their revenue receipts,” he said.
Stoltzfus said More Fun Comics & Games, which has been located on the square for 13 years, always experienced high foot traffic during the Denton Day of the Dead Festival. However, the Halloween events over multiple weeks have been a money generator for the city and the businesses.
“The percentage difference for the month of October in sales from 2023 to 2024, we were up 34%,” he said. “From 2024 to 2025, we were up 48%.”
Ben Esely, who owns The Bearded Monk, a local bar and event space, said people told him they heard of Denton specifically because of its Halloween celebrations. He said the craft beer and cocktail bar experiences weekend sales during the weekdays in October.
“Everybody gets this energy and this excitement around Halloween,” he said. “[People are] making their costumes, planning their decorations, writing stories, making paintings, so it’s just high energy.”
Zooming in
Denton has a $250,000 budget for its 2026 Halloween events and is funded through its hotel occupancy tax, which is evaluated annually then allocated to city events.
From October 2024 to October 2025, HOT revenue increased by 27.58% from Denton visitors. Those funds go toward marketing, decor and city-sponsored events, Denton Chief Communications Officer Kayla Herrod said.
Local nonprofits like the Downtown Denton Foundation, Greater Denton Arts Council and Paper Chair Studios also work with businesses to help with Halloween promotion. In August, the Downtown Denton Foundation gave out $7,000 in grants to 20 businesses that applied for facade decor.
Hannah Burks, who co-owns beer garden Harvest House, said their team will use their grant money for an interactive spooky photo booth.
“It’s a bigger expense to build something like that,” she said. “Using the funds … we can build this photo booth experience where our guests can come in and share with their friends.”
Going forward
Pierce said the Day of the Dead Festival is working with the Greater Denton Arts Council to have a zone with new experiences, like an inflatable maze. He said the success of the festival in 2025 allowed him to donate $20,000 to charities like Serve Denton, which he wants to do again.
Denton officials also have new events and services, such as the Hickory Street Light Show and a park-and-ride option, according to previous reporting. Several businesses, like The Bearded Monk, are working with Paper Chair Studios’ Denton Halloween Artist Mentorship Program to showcase unique Halloween artwork from Denton-based artists.
“Our local artists, small businesses and community organizations are at the heart of this celebration, putting Denton talent front and center while welcoming people … to experience what makes our city so special,” Denton Mayor Chris Watts said.
