Buffalo, 1896: innovation is booming, a reform-minded mayor is dead, and the suspects include Nikola Tesla. That’s the premise of Death at the Silos, the immersive murder mystery dinner that sold out every show in 2025 and returns to Buffalo RiverWorks this fall. The September 11 date runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and organizers noted limited availability across the run at the time of publication.
About the Show
Guests step into a fully staged storyline set in Gilded Age Buffalo, where the death of a reform-minded mayor has upended the city. Live actors play a cast of suspects — Nikola Tesla, a corrupt Irish cop, a boat captain, and a madam — and the experience is interactive: you’re interrogating characters, gathering clues, and competing for a prize if you correctly identify the killer. Woven into the storyline is a demonstration of a Tesla-inspired “electric ray gun” that fits the era’s appetite for scientific spectacle.
The investigation eventually moves inside the venue’s historic grain silos — light walking and standing required once that portion of the evening begins. You’re working through a mystery inside a piece of Buffalo’s industrial past, which is a different kind of event setting than a ballroom or a black-box theater.
Dinner is included with admission, served buffet-style: honey basil chicken breast, beer-braised pot roast, six-cheese bow tie pasta, garden salad, smashed red potatoes, seasonal vegetables, dinner rolls, coffee, and hot tea. Additional beverages are available for purchase separately.
Venue & Logistics
Buffalo RiverWorks sits on the Ganson Street waterfront in Buffalo and operates as a waterfront entertainment destination — multi-use complex, recreation hub, and events venue. The Silo Events Center is built around the property’s original grain silos, which now function as both infrastructure and set: for Death at the Silos, guests move through them as part of the investigation rather than just watching from a seat.
The event carries regional tourism recognition from Visit Buffalo Niagara and the New York State tourism portal (iloveny.com), and Step Out Buffalo has covered multiple nights of the 2026 run. Across western New York, those fall dates have built a track record: the 2025 run sold out every show, and the 2026 calendar — August 21, August 30, September 4, September 11, and September 25 — has been drawing comparable demand.
Tickets
Tickets are $66 General Admission, plus fees. The full buffet dinner is included in that price. Organizers reported limited availability across the fall dates at the time of publication — worth confirming ticket status before you build a trip around it. Buy tickets