On Halloween night in Flagstaff the witches take to the air. Book of Shadows: Nocturne is a full-length aerial and circus show from Momentum Aerial, produced with NAU SUN Entertainment, on Saturday, October 31, 2026 at Prochnow Auditorium on the Northern Arizona University campus. Doors open at 7 PM and the show runs 8 to 10 PM. General admission is $30, the first 400 NAU students are free, and tickets are on sale now through NAU Tickets. Freaky Foot Tours is a sponsor of the show, and this post is our pitch for why it should be your Halloween plan.
Looking for the full October calendar? Our guide to Halloween in Flagstaff 2026 lists every dated event with its source, and Howl-O-Ween, our own pet parade and costume contest, runs the Saturday before, October 24.
What Book of Shadows: Nocturne is
The premise, in Momentum's words on the ticket page: a coven of witches gathers every Halloween to perform an ancient ritual, guiding the souls lost that year across the veil and into the spirit realm. This year something goes wrong, and the spirits escape into the mortal world. The acts that follow draw on spiritualism, folklore, gothic romance, ghost stories and dark fairytales, told through harness dance, pole and flying pole, belly dance and the rest of Momentum's aerial and circus vocabulary.
Nocturne is year one of something bigger. Momentum Aerial intends Book of Shadows to become its annual Halloween production, with a new subtitle and a new story each year, the way its Valentine's cabaret has run for more than a decade. The show's creator and executive producer is Joanie Grant, co-owner of the studio, and the cast is Flagstaff's own aerialists and dancers. Joanie told us the company's last two full productions at Prochnow sold out the room, so do not wait on tickets.
- When: Saturday, October 31, 2026. Doors 7:00 PM, show 8:00 to 10:00 PM
- Where: Prochnow Auditorium, W Dupont Ave, on the NAU campus in Flagstaff
- Tickets: $30 general public, first 400 NAU students free, through NAU Tickets
- Dress code: costumes. There is a costume contest with prizes at the top of the show
- Produced by: Momentum Aerial with NAU SUN Entertainment
The costume contest, and what you can win
The show opens with a costume contest for the audience, so come dressed for it. Freaky Foot Tours is putting up the prizes: tickets to a Freaky Foot Tours walk for the winners, and prize bags with shirts, stickers and postcards from our sister shop, Weird & Wild West. A few seats in the house also have something taped underneath them. The MC will tell you when to look.
Our co-founder Nick Jones is slated to be on the mic for the contest, so if you have ever wanted to heckle a ghost tour guide in a full auditorium, this is the night. The plan as of this writing is that the contest runs first, before the witches arrive, so be in your seat by 8.
Why a ghost tour company sponsors an aerial show
Because we are an arts organization too, just one that performs on sidewalks. Freaky Foot Tours has told Flagstaff's stories since 2015, and from the beginning a share of what the tours earn has gone back to the people keeping the town's creative life alive. Our community and arts support page lists the part with letterhead: Creative Flagstaff, which named us a 2024 Viola Awards finalist for Community Impact, the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, Flagstaff Foundry, the performing arts incubator where a lot of this town's aerialists got their first crowd, and Culture Connection AZ. We are an official venue on the Flagstaff ArtWalk, the Howl-O-Ween artwork is a commission from Flagstaff artist Brigitte De Marco, and Howl-O-Ween itself sends 100% of its profits to High Country Humane.
Momentum Aerial fits that list exactly. It is locally owned, it trains Flagstaff performers in Flagstaff, and it is building a Halloween tradition for the town rather than importing one. When Joanie asked whether the local tour company would stand behind a first-year show with a first-year budget, the answer was easy. The research in the county archives, the buildings other people preserved, the performers who make a Saturday night in a mountain town worth staying in for: that is the supply chain of a storytelling company. Supporting it is not charity next to the business. It is the business.
How to plan Halloween night in Flagstaff around the show
Halloween 2026 is a Saturday, and downtown is busy before the curtain. The Downtown Flagstaff Trick or Treat Trail runs 4 to 7 PM from Heritage Square, free, with Aspen Avenue closed in front of the square. Prochnow Auditorium is on the NAU campus, about a mile south of downtown, so leave the square by 6:30 to park, find your seat and settle in before the 7 PM doors. Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet and a clear October night drops near freezing after dark, so a costume you can layer under is the smart one.
Our walks run on their standard Saturday schedule that night: the Downtown Flagstaff Haunted History Tour departs Wheeler Park at 7 and 8 PM, and Mountain Town of Madness, the 18+ version, at 9 PM. All three overlap the show, so the honest advice is to pick one for Halloween itself and give the other a different October night. Two pairings work well: the 21+ Spirits With The Spirits haunted pub crawl has one public night on Friday, October 30 at 6 PM, which makes a two-night weekend with the show on Saturday; or walk the ghost tour on Thursday or Friday and keep Halloween for the witches. Either way, the booking calendar shows which departures are open.
About Momentum Aerial
Momentum Aerial is an aerial arts studio at 1802 W Kaibab Lane in Flagstaff: aerial classes, private lessons and parties, summer camps, student showcases and a run of narrative circus productions that includes the Hungry Hearts Cabaret, now in its twelfth year. The affiliated Momentum Aerial Foundation funds scholarships for students who could not otherwise train. If the show sends you looking for a class, that is the point. Details at momentumaerial.org.
Questions people ask
How much are tickets to Book of Shadows: Nocturne?
$30 general admission. The first 400 NAU students get in free with a student login. Tickets are sold through NAU Tickets, the university's ticketing site, not through Freaky Foot Tours.
What time does the show start?
Doors open at 7:00 PM and the show starts at 8:00 PM on Saturday, October 31, 2026, running to about 10 PM. The costume contest is planned for the top of the show, so arrive before 8 if you want to enter.
Is Book of Shadows: Nocturne kid-friendly?
Momentum has not published an age guideline for Nocturne. It is a theatrical aerial show with a ghost-story plot rather than a haunted house with jump scares. If you are unsure about a younger child, ask the studio at info@momentumaerial.org before you buy.
Is Freaky Foot Tours running a ghost tour on Halloween night?
Yes. The Downtown Flagstaff Haunted History Tour departs at 7 and 8 PM and Mountain Town of Madness at 9 PM on the standard Saturday schedule, per the booking calendar. All of them overlap the show, so book the walk for another October night if Nocturne is your Halloween plan.
What else is happening in Flagstaff that week?
Our Halloween in Flagstaff 2026 guide carries the dated calendar: the Trick or Treat Trail on Halloween afternoon, the Pumpkin Walk and Rocky Horror on October 24, Celebraciones de la Gente at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and Howl-O-Ween 2026, our pet parade and costume contest at Heritage Square on Saturday, October 24.