What to Do in October in and around Nice – 2025
The Running of the Sheep (Transhumance) – Free – Sunday October 5, 2025. It’s quite a site to see the shepherds guide 1000 sheep on their yearly multi-day trek from their summer highlands to their winter lowlands. It all happens in Roubion, an hour and 15 minute drive from Nice (they run shuttles from the parking into the town.) Get there before 10:30am as the sheep arrive at 11:30am, and then it’s a big sheep celebration with folkloric music and dancing, sheepdog demonstrations, falconers, cow-milking, and lumberjack contests. They’ll send ’em back up in June…
Fete de la Sainte Reparate – Free – Sunday October 5, 2025. An all day celebration in Old Nice to celebrates its patron saint with a procession 10:30-11am from the Hotel de Ville to the Cathedral that bears her name, followed a mass in the Cathedral at 11am. At 3:30pm there is a free orchestra concert in this magnificent Cathédrale, followed by a free organ concert at 6pm. Cathedral Sainte-Reparate, Place Rossetti, tram stop Cathedrale. Read the horrendous story that made her a saint here.
Jogging Rose Sunday, October 5, 2025 Two very pink seaside runs, 5k and 7k, along the gorgeous Promenade des Anglais. Expect around 1000 participants, with the proceeds benefiting breast cancer research.
Eze Gourmand Festival October 18/19, 2025 Free entry, with demonstrations, tasting, contests, music, art, and a gourmet food court, but chef’s cooking workshops are 15-20€ each. Here are more ideas for your daytrip to Eze.
Stand up Comedy in English – Every Sunday Bobar Comedy Club in Old Nice does a stand-up comedy show (Spill the Tea) in English at 5:15pm and cover charge is just 8€ or 5€ students. 27 rue Benoit Bunico, tram stop Cathedrale.
Nice goes to the Dogs in Woofest, Nice’s newest festival dedicated to dogs and dog lovers, October 18/19, 2025, on the Prom, Albert 1 gardens, and beach. The featured event is a run/obstacle course, plus a festival village with food trucks, demos, workshops, and activities like a ball pool, and Doga (dog yoga) all weekend long. It’s FREE but you’ll need a free ticket (scroll down to get to the free section…)
Festival de Guitare October 23-25, 2025. Three nights of blues/rock, Irish, world music and manouche jazz. Espace Magnan (tram stop Magnan), tickets 17€
Oktoberfest in the Port – Free – Friday October 26, 2025 6:30pm to 11pm. German beer, food trucks, and finishing with a rock concert! Tram stop Port Lympia
October is a great month to enjoy the spectacular scenery from the Train des Pignes mountain train with peak autumn colors as the leaves turn.
Halloween in Nice
The unofficial mascot of Vieux Nice is the bat, and the ancient nickname for the Old Town was The Babazouk or ‘Monster’s Lair’… and this is the one night of the year when those narrow Medieval streets get even spookier!
Get in the spirit on Thursday, October 30 with the pre-Halloween screening of the campy cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with all the trimmings (iykyk…), and obviously costumes are encouraged. Here’s your chance to throw on that feather boa and dance the Time Warp! Starts at 8:30pm at Le Swing, a fun gay friendly bar at 10 rue Defly, tram stop Garibaldi. Tickets start at 13€ and this will sell out.
On Halloween night, trance dance with zombies in an ancient slaughterhouse! Le 109 is holding their annual Halloween techno-rave from 8:30pm until 2am. It’s kind of pricey (30€) and not that easy to get to (Vauban tram stop, then a 10-minute walk through an abandoned industrial area) but it always sells out, and the defunct slaughterhouse might be the most authentically creepy Halloween party venue ever. By the way, even the name of this converted art space, Le 109, is a play on its gory past that sounds like ‘new blood‘ in French…
If “techno rave in a slaughterhouse” is a little edgier than you want to go, head instead to the Nice Port for a Frenchy Halloween-hits mixtape dance-party at the new OceaNice Center. Easy to get to (tram stop Port Lympia, or just walk around the point from the Old Town), and you can dance the night away to all your retro Halloween faves like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Queen, and more from 7pm-1am. Cover charge 15€ in advance or 19€ last minute, and you must be over 16.
Halloween weekend, it’s a scare-fest at the Cinema Rialto with nighttime screenings of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Friday and The Evil Dead on Saturday… Boo! Both in English with subtitles in French, tram stop Alsace-Lorraine
And all afternoon/evening on Halloween Friday October 31st, the Belmondo Cinema (formerly Mercury) is throwing a Frission (‘Thrills and Chills”) Film Fest with scary movies but friendly ticket prices (6.50€ adults, 4€ for kids), free popcorn and candies at all showings, and make-up stands in the lobby for kids and adults. Two of their 3 theaters will be running a Tim Burton marathon but they’re mostly dubbed in French… except for the final Sleepy Hollow at 8pm, in its original English version with subtitles in French. …But the third (and smallest) screening screaming room is the place to be with back-to-back surprise horror flicks (16 years and over only) in English (with French subs) at 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm and 8:30pm. Advanced online ticket purchases advised. Tram stop Garibaldi.
October Music Series
Sunday Orchestra Concerts – FREE –Every Sunday in October at 3:30pm the Nice Orchestra d’Harmonie gives a free concert. On October 5, 2025 it will be in the Cathedrale Reparate in Place Rossetti in the Old Town, and on October 12 and 19 (29 tbd) in the Cimiez gardens (take the bus #5 Rimiez and get off at the Musee Matisse stop…. and you might as well visit the Matisse Museum or adjacent Roman Ruins as long as you’re up there!)
FREE Afternoon concert at the Holy Trinity Church – Free – 1-hour concert 2026 date tbd. 11 rue de la Buffa, tram stop Jean Medecin or Alsace-Lorraine
FREE Classical Concerts where the prestigious Nice Music Conservatory’s final-year students get to strut their stuff:
- 2026 season to come…
Classical Concerts in Nice’s fabulous Baroque Churches – These evening concerts are ticketed (usually around 20€ish but also often have senior/student discounts)
- 2026 season to come…
Each month, The Nice Opera features a major symphony and a big theatrical or ballet production.
This months main events:
- 2026 season to come…
Insider Tips for an affordable Night at the Opera:
- Half-Price Last-Minute Ticket Line It’s called ‘Ticket Happy Hour’… just line up at the ticket booth 1-hour before the major performances and any unsold seats drop to half-price!
- Half-Price for under-30s If you are in your 20s, ALL performances are always half-price, no standing in line needed.
- Avoid the temptingly cheap tickets in the ironically-named ‘Paradise’ section: You enter through a decidedly unglamorous side-entrance and march all the way up to the attic section via a narrow winding stairwell. The seats are long benches, and if you are seated on the sides but not on the front row you will see nothing. The acoustics are actually good: the music rises… but so does the heat, so by the second act you will be peeling off layers and mopping your brow.
Besides the big productions, The Nice Opera also has all kinds of outreach events going on all month long… click here for this month’s complete schedule.
Jazz/Blues/Rock Concerts in Nice Besides nightly concerts at local jazz clubs and rock bars, there is also a robust monthly concert schedule with Nice Music Live; the concerts at Theatre de Verdure, Black Box, and Stockfish, all have easy tramway access.
Most of this month’s Candlelight Concerts are at the Chateau de Cremat winery, which is a beautiful venue but hard to get to if you don’t have a car. Better to attend the Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Candlelight Concert on October 25, 2025 under the fresques at the majestic Hotel Westminster right on the Promenade des Anglais. Tickets start at 41€
Bargain Hunters:
English Book Sale – Saturday October 25, 2025, from 9am-3pm. The small but overflowing English-American Library holds a semi-annual book sale to trim down their stacks. All books are in English and just 1€! Find the sample table in the garden of the Holy Trinity Church 11 rue de la Buffa, and from there they will show you the way to the historic hidden library, where you’ll find hundreds more books for sale for just 1€. This hidden library has been delighting English-speaking expats since 1862.
The Holy Grail of flea markets, Monaco’s Grande Braderie de la Croix-Rouge, Saturday October 25, 2025, where one of the richest countries in the world empties the contents of their fabulous closets for charity. 9am-7pm, held under the big-top circus tent in Monaco’s Fontvieille district.
Grande Braderie de Saint Tropez October 24/25/26 2025. The last weekend of October is one time of the year when a Saint Tropez day trip is a bargain! All the shops pull their wares onto the sidewalk and mark it all down to clear-out prices. Even the the boat to Saint Tropez, normally closed in winter, runs a special boat on this weekend, ferrying boatloads of bargain hunters to the shores of normally trop cher St Trop.
Flea Markets/Car Boot Sales/Neighborhood Garage Sales October is prime season for Vide Greniers, which means ’empty your attic’ …and empty it they do, with all kinds of oddball stuff trading hands at bargain basement prices. One person’s trash is another one’s treasure, and believe me, ‘treasures’ abound at these local sales. Click here to find one near you.
See Related Pages:
- Weekly Open-Air Markets – don’t miss the famous Monday Antique Market at Cours Saleya, and great shopping for Italian wares at the sprawling Friday Market in Ventimiglia
- Nice by Nite – concerts, jazz clubs, salsa and tango venues, pub quiz nights, English-language theater and movie venues, and a few surprising ideas…
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Photo credit: Opera and Bobar by Best of Nice