Nightclubs lose out on a coveted Saturday Halloween

BOSTON — Halloween is typically one of the best and busiest nights of the year for many nightclubs. Not in 2020. They’re shut down by the state and that’s hitting many of them where it hurts. In their wallet.

Royale Nightclub in the Theatre District sits empty. No lines outside and nobody inside, which means no revenue on one of its most profitable nights of the year.

“Halloween is basically first or second, next to New Year’s. But the entire month of October is our busiest month of the year,” said Jamison LaGuardia, vice-president of Royale Entertainment Group.

Covid-19 has made Halloween a different kind of scary for the entire industry.

But not this year.

‘6one7 Productions,’ an event planning company, would typically put on about 10 events during Halloween week at different venues staffed with about 100 employees. Ace Gershfield estimates Covid-19 has cost his business about $200,000 just this week.

>> Trick or treat? Massachusetts cities, towns release guidance, tips for a safe Halloween

“Halloween sometimes can be seven to 10 days depending on where. This year Halloween fell on a Saturday. This was going to be a home run,” he said.

Instead, it’s a strikeout.

Royale has been closed since March 13. All employees have been either furloughed or let go. Halloween has been circled on their calendar for years, since it falls on a much coveted weekend.

“These are the weeks you look forward to, these years when you can double hit everything. It’s so popular on Saturday nights everyone and their mother comes out. It’s one of the biggest party nights of the year, not in only in Boston, but everywhere,” LaGuardia said.

With Halloween a bust, their biggest and most profitable night of the year, New Year’s Eve, also looks like it will be a bust.

Nightclubs are not permitted to open until Phase 4 of Massachusetts' reopening plan. That’s when a treatment or vaccine for Covid-19 is found.

Download the free Boston 25 News app for up-to-the-minute push alerts