THIS is what Halloween looked like when we could mingle with spooky strangers.

As local witches, vampires and other ghoulish entities heated their cauldrons, sharpened their fangs and got ready for the scariest night of the year, Daily Echo photographers flew from venue to venue to grab scary snaps.

Revellers caked in their nightmarish make-up and garbed in Halloween attire would always be happy to have their pictures taken - even if the vampires’ image didn’t come out.

Props would often make the shots and ranged from pumpkins to fangs, tombstones to cobwebs.

These pictures were taken at a variety of Halloween events over the years.