After Eleven, & Beyond
Other Haunts.
Stillwell empties at eleven, but downtown Tucson keeps going. And for those who can stay a little longer, the city is just warming up.
After Hours
If the Night
Is Not Yet Done
All Hallows' Eve is downtown Tucson's biggest night of the year. Three places we'd send our friends, all within a short ride of Stillwell and the hotel block.
Live Music · Dancing · Séance
Hotel CongressA 1919 hotel that has hosted Tucson's nightlife for a century. John Dillinger was captured here in 1934. The building is famously haunted, with specific rooms cited by guests for paranormal activity. Their annual Halloweek programming runs through the holiday with costume contests, live music, DJs, and a recurring Victorian séance experience held in the only third-floor room to survive the 1934 fire. Check their calendar closer to the date for the 2026 lineup.
311 E. Congress St.
Cocktails · Quiet
The Owls ClubA cocktail bar in a former funeral home. Church pews became booths, the chapel became the lounge, the stained glass stayed. Whiskey list a hundred deep, candlelight, occasional live jazz. Rumored to be haunted by patrons who've heard voices from empty corners. The right place if you want a slow drink and quiet conversation rather than a dance floor.
236 S. Scott Ave.
Rooftop · DJs
PlaygroundA rooftop bar with views of downtown and the Catalinas, late-night kitchen, and DJs spinning until 2am on the SkyDeck. Less haunted, more electric. The right place if you want to keep dancing and don't mind trading atmosphere for altitude.
278 E. Congress St.
This City
A Heart That Never
Left Mexico
Tucson was Mexican before it was American. The Gadsden Purchase drew a line across the desert in 1854. Mexican-American life is not a thread woven through Tucson. It is the cloth itself.
We chose All Hallows' Eve because we have long loved this time of year. The last week of October and first week of November in Tucson is a stretch of nights when the air begins to cool, the veil thins, the altars are lit, and the city remembers its dead in public. As you prepare, please remember Día de los Muertos is not a costume. It is a centuries-old tradition rooted in Mesoamerican ritual and Catholic feast days, retained on this land by Mexican families and continuously practiced.
For Those Who Can Stay
All Souls Procession
The weekend after our gathering, Tucson holds one of the most extraordinary public ceremonies in North America — a civic ritual inspired by Día de los Muertos, shaped by this city, and offered every November to anyone who needs a place to grieve and to celebrate.
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Begun in 1990 by a Tucson artist grieving her father, the All Souls Procession has grown into a two-mile, human-powered ceremony that draws 150,000 participants. Floats, altars, sculptures, music, painted faces, hand-built costumes. It ends with the burning of an enormous urn filled with the names and offerings of the dead.
If you've already voted, and you can stay an extra week, this is one of the most beautiful things our city does. Honoring the dead. Celebrating the living. The same thread we'll be pulling together the week before, taken up by the whole city.
All Souls Procession →Mid-Week
A Birthday
in Between
On Saturday, November 7, our daughter turns seventeen. For anyone still in Tucson between the procession and our anniversary, you're invited to whatever shape the day takes. Twenty years of us, seventeen of her, one long week of love that will not die.