Throughout the years, Hulaween has remained a mainstay in Florida for its relentless commitment to both art and music alike. Easily the largest annual festival at the Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak, Hulaween plays host to everything from jam bands, EDM, rock, and rap. In its rapidly approaching next iteration, Suwannee Hulaween is once again preparing to transform the park into a technicolor dreamscape of sound, art, and magic.
Now entering its 12th year at its current location, Hulaween has evolved far beyond a festival—it’s become a tradition, a pilgrimage, and an essential part of Halloween weekend for many. From its immersive Spirit Lake art installations to the kaleidoscopic lineup of artists, Hulaween 2025 looks to raise the bar yet again.
Paul Levine, co-founder of Hulaween and owner of Purple Hat Productions, checked in to share what makes this year’s edition special. From fresh creative collaborations to massive production upgrades, Levine and his team continue to find new ways to make the woods come alive.
At the heart of Purple Hat Productions’ story lies the memory of Rachel Morningstar Hoffman, who died when police asked her to take part in a drug bust. Her life and spirit continue to guide the company’s mission. A dear friend to many and music lover through and through, her tragic loss inspired the creation of Purple Hat Productions. Morningstar’s legacy endures through every show, every gathering, and every moment of joy the park brings. Her passion for music and community is woven into the very soul of Hulaween, a reminder that art and love can grow from even the darkest situations.
Read our Q&A with Levine below.
For those just getting into Hulaween, can you share a version of its history?
Well, it started a long time before it came to the park. I started doing shows with String Cheese Incident in Colorado. Our first year might have been ’96, maybe ’97. We did our first show together and we’ve kept working together over the years. And so I moved to North Florida and started doing shows at Spirit of the Suwanee.
We did some shows and some members of String Cheese played our events, and whenever I saw the guys, we’d talk about having the band come to play at the park sometime and maybe create some sort of annual event. I remember meeting with Mike Luba, one of their managers, in Asheville at the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam one year. He suggested, “Well, why don’t we have Hulaween at the Spirit of Suwanee?” And that’s kind of how it happened.
Hulaween had happened before at other locations. It was kind of the String Cheese Incident Halloween event, but once it came together with the Suwanee Music Park, it took it to a new place.
What’s the theme this year?
There’s four different costume themes, forgive me for not knowing them all off the tip of my tongue. They’re pretty elaborate. But you can find that on our social media pages.
The theme at Spirit Lake is The Radiant Veil and it has a lot to do with light and shadows and reflections and just lots of looking at the world in different ways and through different lenses. So hopefully it makes people think and come up with some really interesting stuff.
It’s different every year, what can we all look forward to at Spirit Lake in 2025?
It is. There’s gonna be a lot of old friends, but also a lot of new friends. I think the thing that a lot of us are really excited about is just that we’re taking the visual aspect of things over the lake to another level, with some of the finest visual artists out there creating content that will be much clearer and much, much more visible than it ever has been before.
I think that experience is going to be incredible. I think people will find that this year we spent a lot of time working on getting everything right with the volume of Spirit Lake, making sure that the sound is good for everything and not overlapping each other. I just think a lot of the flow and the logistics of things are going to be a lot smoother.
Well, speaking of Spirit Lake, do y’all have things like Incendia and Frick Frack coming back? I know y’all like to add new big wooden installations each year, too.
Yeah, Incendia will be back and The House Of Lost will be back. The bird houses will be back. A lot of installations that people are familiar with and plenty of new ones as well. There’s going to be some different things, not that in particular, but some other large scale installations of that sort, just a little bit different.
I’m not as intimate with that side of things this year, so I’m gonna be surprised by what we have as well.
I’ve noticed a lot of times Hulaween artists tend to blow up right after they play. Is there anyone you’re excited about in particular?
Sometimes it’s like that, and you can tell it’s coming, and then sometimes you just don’t know. Sometimes you book something and by the time it gets to Hulaween it’s a lot bigger than when you booked it. Sometimes it’s the other way around. It’s hard to say who’s blown up and who hasn’t already, you know? It’s just different in different ways. Grace Bowers is a good example of that on the band side. She’s a lot bigger now than when we booked her.
How many stages do y’all have this year?
Five stages plus performance art spaces and stuff like that.
So, you’re still with the Purple Hat Productions, right? When was the last time that Purple Hatter’s Ball went on?
Yeah, but Purple Hat doesn’t really do as much anymore. It’s been almost 10 years now so maybe something like that, ’17, ’18? I’d have to look. It’s been a few years. I miss that. I still see Margie and there’s kind of a nod to Margie and Rachel at Hula this year. One of the days is a purple day.
I was going to ask if y’all still do anything related to that.
Yeah, we still make sure to give them a nod. People, I think, associate the park with her, you know? At least through that, through the Purple Hatter’s Ball. I think people that went to the Purple Hatter’s Ball, or knew about it, kind of think about her when they come to the park. No matter what show it is.
There’s a lot of young people at Hulaween that, hopefully, can relate to her and learn from that horrible experience.
What is your favorite part as an organizer about putting on something like Hulaween?
Well, I come from very much the hospitality side of things. So it’s always satisfying for me to actually interact with and help people have the best experience that they can. Sometimes it’s helping somebody that’s stressed out about whatever, and the logistics or whatever, and I can help them through that. And then the satisfaction of working with the team and to try to help people have a great time. In the end, it’s the music. And, of course, working with artists, getting to know them, and helping them to further their careers is amazing too. There’s a lot to it. It’s usually about the team and the people you’re working with and doing things with them and seeing people thriving. That kind of stuff.
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This article appears in Oct. 16 – 22, 2025.