Park Slope's Halloween 2026 Starts Hours Before the Parade

When does Halloween actually start in Park Slope this Saturday? The Civic Council parade leaves Seventh Avenue and 14th Street at 6:30 p.m., but the first car-free block on the Slope opens at 10:30 that morning.

Last year Halloween fell on a Friday. The parade started at 6:30 p.m. then too, and most of the day before it went to work and school. This year October 31 is a Saturday, and the neighborhood has filled the whole day. The first permitted car-free block in Park Slope opens at 10:30 a.m., and the last one closes at 10 p.m. Nearly all of those permits went to block associations and neighbor-run open street groups, not to a business district. The parade is the finale. The neighbors organized the rest of the day.

The Car-Free Clock, Block by Block

NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets program is in its fifth year. It turns Open Streets, plazas and other corridors into car-free space all through October, building up to what the agency calls "one of the busiest nights of the year for NYC's streets." Here's the Park Slope part of the DOT Trick-or-Streets list for Saturday, October 31, 2026, sorted by opening time:

1. 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Polhemus Place, Garfield Place to Carroll Street, run by the Polhemus Place Block Association.
2. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Montgomery Place, Prospect Park West to Eighth Avenue, run by Montgomery Place Open Streets.
3. Noon to 9 p.m. 17th Street, Eighth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, listed as "Halloween 2026 on 17 Street" by the 17th Street Block Association.
4. 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. 11th Street, Prospect Park West to Eighth Avenue, the 11th Street Block Association's Halloween Block Party.
5. 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. 8th Street, Eighth Avenue to Prospect Park West, the 8th Street Block Association's Halloween Block Party.
6. 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Garfield Place, Eighth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, under the Polhemus Pl Open Street permit.
7. 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. 21st Street, Seventh Avenue to Sixth Avenue, listed as "Halloween on 21st Street."
8. 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Seventh Avenue, Third Street to 14th Street, for the Park Slope Civic Council Halloween Parade.

Compare the top and bottom of that list. Polhemus Place is car-free for ten and a half hours. The parade closure on Seventh Avenue lasts two and a half. Garfield Place opens at 3 p.m. and runs to 10 p.m., so it's the last Park Slope closure still going after the parade has broken up.

The list also has a geography. The early blocks cluster in the North Slope around Garfield and Carroll: Polhemus, Montgomery and then Garfield, all within a short walk of each other. 8th and 11th Streets sit at the park end, between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West, and both open at 1 p.m. The South Slope has 17th Street from noon and 21st Street from 3:30. A family on 21st Street and a family on Montgomery Place can each have a full Halloween without ever crossing paths until Seventh Avenue fills up at dusk.

Late Morning and Midday Belong to the Park

The early block parties line up with the daytime programs in Prospect Park, which sits right at the top of 8th Street, 11th Street and Montgomery Place.

The Prospect Park Alliance's Creepy Crawly Halloween runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 31 at the Audubon Center at the Boathouse. It's free, with a nature-detective activity, owl-pellet dissection, something called Nature Chef's Surprise, and two creepy-crawly walks. It starts half an hour before Polhemus Place goes car-free, which makes it the earliest Halloween program on the Slope's side of the park.

The Haunted Carousel at Children's Corner runs noon to 5 p.m., Thursday, October 29 through Sunday, November 1. That means it opens the day this post goes up and keeps going through the weekend. Rides cost $3 each or $13 for five, and qualifying Alliance members ride free. Five single rides would cost $15, so the five-pack only saves money if your group uses all five tickets.

The Fall Festival at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside covers the whole season, October 8 through November 30. It's open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends, and prices vary by activity, per the Prospect Park Alliance's Halloween page. Because Halloween is a Saturday, it keeps weekend hours that day and stays open as late as Garfield Place does.

So a resident can spend most of the daylight hours between the park and the blocks that border it. The carousel closes at 5 p.m. and the Audubon program at 4 p.m., just as the later block parties are getting going.

The 4-to-6 Window on Seventh Avenue

There's a gap between the park closing up and the parade lining up. The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music fills it.

Boo!KCM: Live Music & Trick-or-Treating runs 4 to 6 p.m. in the Conservatory's garden at 58 Seventh Avenue, and it's free. That address is up at the Lincoln Place end of Seventh Avenue, while the parade gathers at 14th Street, so leave yourself walking time if you're doing both. Conservatory musicians also show up at the other end of the night, which we'll get to.

Trick-or-treating on the avenues happens at the same time. Brooklyn Bridge Parents' 2026 guide to Brooklyn trick-or-treating streets points to businesses along Fifth and Seventh Avenues. It also names Third Street from Fifth to Seventh Avenues and Seventh Street from Fifth to Fourth Avenue as good residential stretches. No merchant event or set store hours are listed, so expect the storefronts to work like any year, one door at a time.

Two stops are worth fitting in while it's still light:

• The giant pumpkin on an Eighth Avenue stoop near Union Street is on display through Saturday, October 31, according to Brooklyn Bridge Parents' Halloween guide. It's someone's home, so enjoy it from the sidewalk.
• The Brooklyn Spooky Stoops Map 2026 from Park Slope Pulse covers Park Slope and nearby neighborhoods. Pulse has been adding submitted stops daily, and the post links to a form if your own stoop belongs on it.

The Parade Ends at the Old Stone House

Here's how the Park Slope Civic Council describes its Annual Children's Halloween Parade for this Saturday:

• Theme: The Haunted Forest of Brooklyn.
• Line-up: by 6 p.m. at Seventh Avenue and 14th Street if you plan to march.
• Step-off: 6:30 p.m., led by an orange-and-black vintage Ford.
• Route: down Seventh Avenue, left on Third Street, ending at the Old Stone House and Washington Park.
• Finish: spooky music from the Brooklyn Conservatory.

The Civic Council's announcement gives no registration step. Marchers just need to arrive by 6 p.m.

The route follows Seventh Avenue from 14th Street to Third Street, crossing the ends of several blocks that have been car-free since the afternoon. Then it turns onto Third Street toward the Old Stone House at 336 Third Street. The Conservatory has invited the public to a Halloween singalong outside the Old Stone House at 7:15 p.m. So the same musicians from the 4 p.m. garden event at 58 Seventh Avenue close out the night at Washington Park.

If you're driving or parking, the closures matter as much as the route. DOT has Seventh Avenue car-free from Third Street to 14th Street from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Brooklyn Bridge Parents also lists 14th Street, Eighth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, as car-free 6:30 to 9 p.m. for the parade. Add Garfield Place until 10 p.m., Polhemus Place and 17th Street until 9 p.m., and 21st Street until 9 p.m. Between 6:30 and 8 p.m., most of the Seventh Avenue spine and many of the streets feeding into it are closed to cars at once.

Building a Saturday Out of It

Put the pieces in order and you get a full Park Slope Halloween:

1. 10 a.m. Start at the Audubon Center at the Boathouse for Creepy Crawly Halloween.
2. Noon to 2 p.m. Ride the Haunted Carousel at Children's Corner, then walk out of the park to Montgomery Place or Polhemus Place, both already car-free.
3. 1 to 4 p.m. Drop by the 8th Street and 11th Street block parties at the park end, or 17th Street if you live in the South Slope.
4. 4 to 6 p.m. Boo!KCM in the Conservatory garden at 58 Seventh Avenue, with trick-or-treating along Seventh and a sidewalk look at the giant pumpkin on Eighth Avenue on the way.
5. 6 p.m. Line up at Seventh Avenue and 14th Street.
6. 6:30 p.m. Follow the vintage Ford along Seventh and onto Third Street.
7. 7:15 p.m. Singalong outside the Old Stone House.
8. After that: Garfield Place stays car-free until 10 p.m. for anyone not ready to head home.

If you only make the parade, you'll still have a good night. Coming out earlier means you also catch the block parties that more than half a dozen groups of neighbors went through DOT's permit process to put on, at the hours they picked, on the blocks where they live.

Saturday is also a good chance to see how much one block association can put together on its own street. If you'd like to talk about any of those streets, from Polhemus Place to 21st Street, The Valvo Team is glad to have that conversation. If you already live on one, request a free home valuation and we'll show you what your block is worth today.