After two sold-out years at Union Station, LA’s immersive Halloween party moved to the blocks around ORIGIN on October 31. It rained, and after midnight the night carried on indoors at ORIGIN’s official afterparty, packed until the end.
After two sold-out years at Union Station, LA’s immersive Halloween party moved to the blocks around ORIGIN on October 31. It rained, and after midnight the night carried on indoors at ORIGIN’s official afterparty, packed until the end.Written by Eric B. Thornton
When I previewed THE MAZE last month, I wrote that the Arts District’s loading docks and half-asleep warehouses already feel like a set waiting for its cast. On Halloween night, THE MAZE moved in and handed out the scripts.
Then the sky joined the cast. For days, forecasters had been saying Saturday could be L.A.’s first rainy Halloween since 2014, and the rain came down on the Arts District too. It was still a nice night.
FROM UNION STATION TO IMPERIAL STREET
For its first two years, THE MAZE lived inside Union Station, and according to the organizers, both editions sold out. Last Halloween, Guy Gerber, Lee Burridge and Deer Jade were on the bill at the historic terminal. For year three, SBCLTR and Minimal Effort, the crew behind the Resolutions New Year’s parties, moved it to a block centered on 613 Imperial Street, home of ORIGIN, the indoor-outdoor club the same team opened on October 9. The plan was two stages, one outdoors and one indoors, from 5 p.m. to midnight.
This edition also came with real weight. Kavinsky, the French producer whose “Nightcall” opened the movie Drive and who performed it at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics with Angèle and Phoenix, was originally booked to play. He died in July at 50. Rather than quietly replace him, the organizers promised a special installation, themed areas and tribute content built around his music.
“His passing was an enormous loss.”
Cyril Bitar, Minimal Effort
THE BLAZE, ARCADE FIRE AND CLAUDE VONSTROKE
The poster ran the bill in order of appearance, starting with The Blaze live. The Paris cousins Guillaume and Jonathan Alric make their music and their visuals at the same time.
Next on the poster was the curveball, the slot added after Kavinsky’s death: an Arcade Fire DJ set with frontman Win Butler and touring member Paul Beaubrun, billed with live instrumentation. Butler isn’t new to the booth. He has DJed for years under the name DJ Windows 98, but on paper, this was a band built for arenas dropping into a costume party in a warehouse district.
It isn’t the band’s first costumed Halloween in this city, either. On October 31, 2013, two days after “Reflektor” came out, Arcade Fire played a Halloween show at the Hollywood Palladium, where most of the crowd showed up in costume and the band covered Devo’s “Uncontrollable Urge”.
Last on the poster, and billed by the organizers as the headliner, was Claude VonStroke, the Detroit-raised Barclay Crenshaw who founded Dirtybird in 2005.
After midnight, the night moved indoors to ORIGIN, and it stayed packed until the end.
INSIDE, UNTIL THE END
THE MAZE has always sold itself on more than its lineup. This year’s promise was hidden pathways, roaming performers and live actors, large-scale installations, open-air sets under the downtown skyline and warehouse rooms running on KV2 sound, with Porky b2b Bones, Valou, Araminta and Oren holding down support across both stages.
THE MAZE was billed until midnight. After that, the night moved indoors to ORIGIN for the official afterparty, and it stayed packed until the end. Halloween had one more trick, too. Daylight saving time ended at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, when the clocks fell back to 1 a.m., which handed everyone still dancing inside an extra hour.
SEE YOU IN THE MAZE
In three years, THE MAZE has gone from a train station to a whole city block. This year it rained, and it was still a nice night, with an extra hour on top. Start planning next year’s costume now, and make sure it’s one you can dance in.
THE MAZE: Arts District Halloween Block Party, presented by SBCLTR and Minimal Effort, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 613 Imperial Street, Los Angeles. Event info at RA.
CONNECT WITH THE MAZE
Event Info | ORIGIN | Arcade Fire | The Blaze | Claude VonStroke