Businesses providing bespoke Halloween experiences say there has been a surge in interest from adults and children alike, as the festival grows in popularity.
The weeks leading up to the 31 October are increasingly busy for small enterprises with spooky seasonal offerings, in some cases outstripping Christmas as the most hectic time of year.
Caroline Flaherty runs Galway Pumpkin Farm, near Ardrahan in the south of the county.
She came up with the idea after seeing how popular such initiatives were in the US and wondering how they might translate to Ireland.
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"This is our fifth year in business and we’re just grateful that people want to come and experience what we have here," she says.
"My husband looks after the pumpkin growing each year and I take care of the event side of things."
Those who travel to the farm can take part in a range of activities, mostly geared towards children aged between two and seven.
On its first weekend of operations, people have been flocking in their hundreds to take part and pick their pumpkin for Halloween 2023.
It is similarly busy at Maggie Concannon's pop-up costume shop in Galway city.
Ms Concannon, who runs the Retro Vintange secondhand clothes shop on Merchant’s Road opened the dedicated Halloween store on Thursday last.
It has been doing brisk business since and it is expected things will only get busier over the next fortnight.
"Halloween has come out of nowhere in the last couple of years and we were really shocked ourselves, so we’re just trying to meet the demand," Ms Concannon said.
Stock is sourced from across Europe and sold by weight, with one kilogramme of clothing selling for €10.
"We will easily sell a thousand kilos of clothes here in the coming days," she said.
"The turnover of costumes will be huge. We’ll be opening up new bales of clothing every day. As soon as there’s a free hangar, we’ll be putting something else onto it."
Michael Flaherty, who is working in the shop, puts the love of dressing up down to an American influence and the fact that people like "to be free and do something different" once in a while.
"People don’t make decisions too early about Halloween costumes," he said.
"Originally it had to be something scary but nowadays, you can be whatever you want. The happier, the more fun the better, [it] just needs to be something different.
"If you’re dressing up as you, then you’ve missed the point, but if you’re dressing up as anything else under the sun, moon and stars, then you’re doing it right."
Tourists visiting Galway are also entering into the spirit. Halloween related walking tours of the city have been drawing steady crowds.
Barry Hopkins is a guide with the Dark Tour of Galway City, which will run in the weeks leading up to 31 October.
He says the themes on the 90 minute walking tour around the city centre, sit well with the time of year.
"I try to make it as informative and as entertaining as possible, so that people get the spookiness and history of old Irish traditions, that spiritual stuff that’s so inherent in our culture," Mr Hopkins said.
"It’s done irreverently, where we have a bit of a laugh, kind of like Halloween itself, where we let go of our usual humdrum lives, and have a bit of fun."
