Arcade Fire’s Win Butler Steps In for Kavinsky at LA’s The Maze Halloween Party

Win Butler is trading arena anthems for a DJ booth this Halloween. The Arcade Fire frontman will play a rare DJ set at The Maze Halloween block party — October 31, 2026 — in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, according to the event’s announcement. And the story behind the booking makes this one hit different.

Butler is stepping in for Kavinsky, the French synthwave icon behind “Nightcall” who was originally slated to headline before his death in late July at age 50. Rather than quietly reshuffling the bill, organizers say they’ll honor him throughout the event. “Kavinsky was an artist we deeply admired… His passing was an enormous loss,” event producer Cyril Bitar said, confirming the party will feature special installations and themed areas dedicated to the late producer.

If you’ve never caught Butler behind the decks, he performs as DJ Windows 98 — a moniker he’s carried for years of club sets around the world — spinning a mix of disco, funk, hip-hop and early electronic music. This won’t be a laptop-and-headphones situation either: he’s bringing Arcade Fire touring member Paul Beaubrun along, blending traditional DJing with live instrumentation. It’s a loose, sweaty, percussion-heavy thing, which honestly sounds about right for a block party.

The rest of the bill holds its own, too. Dirtybird boss Claude VonStroke brings the wonky house grooves, while French duo The Blaze — whose cinematic live shows have made them festival favorites — round out the announced names so far.

There’s something fitting about the whole thing. Kavinsky’s music always lived at the intersection of electronic music and cinema, from the “Drive” soundtrack to his blue-skinned zombie persona — he even performed “Nightcall” at the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony. A Halloween street party in downtown LA, headlined by an indie-rock star moonlighting as a DJ and dressed up in tribute installations? That’s a sendoff with the right amount of weird.

Tickets are available now via Eventbrite. If you’re in LA and torn between this and the usual warehouse options, consider that one of the biggest frontmen in rock playing disco records on a closed-off street corner is not something that comes around every spooky season.