New Orleans has never needed permission to get strange. However, this Halloween, the city is turning up the volume.
Freaky Deaky NOLA will make its debut at Mardi Gras World on October 30 and 31, 2026. The two-night electronic dance music festival brings together three experienced local entertainment forces: Encore Entertainment, Amps Events, which operates Metropolitan NOLA, and Disco Presents.
Together, the promoters plan to create a new Halloween tradition filled with dance music, elaborate outdoor production, immersive décor and the delightfully unusual energy New Orleans wears so well.
Three Promoters Unite for Freaky Deaky NOLA
The collaboration combines more than 50 years of event-production experience. Each company has helped shape New Orleans nightlife and its long-running Halloween dance music culture.
James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal Jr., founder of Disco Presents, began producing underground events in New Orleans more than 30 years ago. For him, bringing Freaky Deaky to the city represents both a homecoming and an opportunity to honor its culture.
“There’s no place quite like New Orleans, especially on Halloween,” Estopinal said. “New Orleans is a part of my DNA.”
Ryan Roach, founder of Encore Entertainment and Boys of the Boot Inc., previously helped build Hell’s Gala into a destination event for Halloween travelers. Roach said joining Amps Events, Metropolitan NOLA and Disco Presents created an opportunity to imagine something even larger.
Rob Brunet of Amps Events also shares a history with Estopinal. The pair worked together on Freakfest in 1998, an outdoor festival at the UNO Lakefront Arena that welcomed more than 10,000 attendees.
Nearly three decades later, they are returning to outdoor festival production with Freaky Deaky NOLA.
Mardi Gras World Becomes a Halloween Playground
Mardi Gras World will provide an appropriately theatrical backdrop for the festival. The riverfront venue is best known as the home of enormous floats, sculptures and carnival creations. For Halloween weekend, it will be transformed into a sprawling electronic music playground.
Freaky Deaky NOLA will feature two stages, world-class electronic artists, costumed performers, themed experiences and local vendors. Organizers also promise the kind of large-scale outdoor production many New Orleans festivalgoers have missed since the departures of BUKU Music + Art Project and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience.
The inaugural lineup has not yet been announced. However, Freaky Deaky’s previous editions have featured artists including deadmau5, Excision, Kaskade, REZZ, Zeds Dead, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, Fisher and Gryffin.
Freaky Deaky NOLA Tickets Are on Sale
Two-day general admission tickets begin at $89. Payment plans are available with deposits starting at $23.
Quantities at the lowest price are limited. Fans who registered for the blind presale also received an opportunity to win two general admission passes.
Freaky Deaky NOLA is presented in partnership with Boys of the Boot Inc., a nonprofit organization supporting special-needs programs and law-enforcement organizations.
Whether festivalgoers arrive dressed as glamorous ghosts, neon creatures or something that has not yet been named by science, the invitation is simple: embrace the strange.
In New Orleans, Halloween was never going to remain quiet.
Event Details
What: Freaky Deaky NOLA
When: October 30–31, 2026
Where: Mardi Gras World, New Orleans, Louisiana
Tickets: Two-day passes start at $89
Payment plans: Deposits begin at $23
Website: freakydeakynola.com