Save Austin's Cemeteries announces big change to its annual Halloween tour

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Oakwood Cemetery, one of Austin's oldest cemeteries, has featured local nonprofit Save Austin Cemeteries' annual "Murder, Mayhem, and Misadventure Walking Tour" each October for nearly two decades. But the nonprofit said it has made a big change to this year's event.

Tour participants walk from grave to grave, where they meet the "ghost" (a SAC member dressed in a period-appropriate costume) of one of Oakwood's residents. The spirit then tells visitors about their life and death. Each tour takes about 45 minutes.

SAC President Courtney Bartsch said that the tour is SAC's biggest fundraiser of the year. While the event is free, the public has been generous with donations in the past.

"We don't charge anything, but we do have a donations box," she said. "Those donations help fund a lot of the preservation of the cemeteries ... we support seven cemeteries within Austin."

But after receiving feedback from tour participants in 2023 and 2024, the group's members decided on a big change.

"Unfortunately, the last few years have been extra hot and it's just not. It's just not as great for an experience," Bartsch said. "So we've decided this year to move it be at night."

The Oct. 25 tour will now run from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., with the last tour starting at 8:30 p.m. The "ghosts" will also have microphones this year to help make the tour more accessible.

Another big change is that this year's tour will feature more actors and entirely new stories, Bartsch said. Without spoilers, she hinted that a local ghost will take time off from haunting the Driskill Hotel for the tour.

"The first question everyone always ask is, 'are those true? Is that real?'" she said. "We always tell real stories of the residents. We have an historian on the board and we have a lot of different people with access to records."

Her hope for tour attendees is that they'll gain a better appreciation of how much history is in the city's cemeteries.

"I don't think a lot of people realize the nuances of cemeteries either and how they're not this scary thing. You know, they're actually very peaceful. And if you're into history ... it's perfect for that," she added.