What does Park Slope's Halloween look like when Fifth Avenue is closed to cars for the whole evening? This year we get to find out. October 31 falls on a Saturday. Saturday is the one day of the week the 5th Avenue Open Street closes Fifth from Union Street to 4th Street, from 2 to 10 p.m. NYC DOT's schedule for that closure runs May 2 through October 31, 2026, so Halloween is also its last day of the season.
The Park Slope Civic Council's Children's Halloween Parade steps off on Seventh Avenue at 6:30 p.m. that same evening. In most years the parade is the whole show. This year the afternoon and the late evening happen on Fifth, and the parade fills the stretch between them on Seventh.
The last car-free Saturday on Fifth
The Open Street is run by the 5th Avenue Open Streets Merchants Association. It's a full closure, not a local-access street, so the roadway between Union and 4th Street belongs to pedestrians for eight hours. The Park Slope Open Streets calendar has October 31 marked "Halloween," but as of today the program is still listed as TBA. The calendar also says all programming depends on weather and may change. The weekend before is better defined: October 24 is the Movement & Health day, billed as "Dancing, Movement and More!"
One piece of Fifth stays car-free after Halloween. NYC DOT lists 4th Street, from Fifth Avenue to its dead end, as a separate daily closure from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., run by the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID through December 31, 2026. When the Saturday closure ends at 10 p.m. on the 31st, that short block keeps its status for two more months.
How the day runs, hour by hour
The Park Slope Civic Council describes the parade as perhaps the largest children's Halloween march, held every year since 1986. It also notes that merchants on both Seventh and Fifth Avenues hand out candy to costumed kids "in the late afternoon and into the evening." In 2025, Brooklyn Bridge Parents put store trick-or-treating on both avenues at 4 to 6 p.m. Those are last year's hours. No 2026 merchant schedule had been announced as of mid-October. The table below lists only the times confirmed for 2026.
| Time | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Noon to 4 p.m. | Old Stone House | Regular public Open Hours |
| 1 to 2 p.m. | Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza | El Día de Muertos con Mexico Beyond Mariachi, free |
| 2 to 10 p.m. | Fifth Avenue, Union St to 4th St | Open Street, final day of the season |
| 4 to 6 p.m. | BKCM garden, 58 7th Ave | Boo!KCM live music and trick-or-treating, free |
| 6 p.m. | Seventh Ave and 14th St | Parade lineup |
| 6:30 p.m. | Seventh Ave, heading north | Parade steps off |
| 7:15 p.m. | Outside Old Stone House | BKCM Halloween singalong |
| 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. | Freddy's Bar | Halloween dance party with costume contest |
The Central Library's mariachi program is first come, first served, and no RSVP is needed. That makes it an easy early stop before Fifth Avenue fills up.
Seventh Avenue at dusk
The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music holds its free Boo!KCM garden party from 4 to 6 p.m. at 58 7th Ave. The Conservatory promises live music, candy, water, and "places to sit and take a quick break on your trick or treating path." It also jokes that its 144-year-old Victorian mansion "may be haunted." The party ends just as parade lineup begins.
Lineup is at 6 p.m. at Seventh Avenue and 14th Street. The 2026 parade starts at 6:30 behind an orange and black vintage Ford. The theme is "The Haunted Forest of Brooklyn." The route runs up Seventh, turns left on 3rd Street, and ends at Old Stone House and Washington Park, with spooky music from the Brooklyn Conservatory at the finish.
Where the parade meets the Open Street
Third Street is one of the cross streets inside the Open Street's stretch of Fifth, one block before its southern end at 4th Street. So the parade's last leg heads toward a part of Fifth Avenue that is still closed to cars and will stay that way until 10 p.m.
BKCM's singalong starts at 7:15 p.m. outside Old Stone House, and the Conservatory bills it as part of the parade itself. Once it wraps, families get roughly two and a half more hours of car-free Fifth Avenue on the walk home. In a weeknight year, the parade's end would put everyone back on sidewalks next to traffic.
Later on, Freddy's Bar hosts a free Halloween dance party with DJ Evil Dee and Ben the Beyonder from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., with a costume contest and prizes.
New places to eat along the route
Several of this fall's openings sit on the two avenues the day uses. None were open last Halloween.
- Caputo Bagels, 81 Fifth Avenue, opened October 5 with hand-rolled sourdough bagels, sandwiches, pastries and coffee, Brooklyn Paper reported. It's the earliest stop of the day.
- AOKŌ Matcha, a matcha café and gelateria in the former Kyu Ramen space at 155 Fifth Avenue, was open by the end of September, according to Brooklyn Magazine.
- Apapachó, a Mexican restaurant at 191 Fifth Avenue near Berkeley Place, opened August 2, per Brooklyn Bridge Parents. Berkeley is the block just north of Union Street, where the Open Street begins.
- NAYA, at 311 Seventh Avenue in the former Dave's Hot Chicken space, opened September 16, WhatNow reported.
Brooklyn Magazine also reported that The Bramble, a community space for young-family events, was open at 459 Sixth Avenue by the end of September. It's worth keeping in mind for the weeks after the costumes go back in the closet.
The brownstone blocks between the avenues
The streets between Fifth and Seventh, and from Seventh up to Prospect Park West, hold the residential displays. These come from 2025 coverage, and decorations change every year, so treat this list as a starting map rather than a promise. Last October, Brooklyn Bridge Parents named four Park Slope blocks for their decorations:
- 9th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
- 10th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues
- 6th Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets
- 11th Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West
With the lineup at 14th Street and Seventh, the southern blocks on that list fit nicely into the hour before 6 p.m.
The run-up to the 31st
If your household starts Halloween early, the lead-up calendar mostly happens at the same two places that close out the parade.
- October 18, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Old Stone House hosts a free Halloween Puppet Pop-up.
- October 25, 1 to 2 p.m. Old Stone House holds a Halloween Costume Showcase and Mini-Parade, a lower-key dry run on the grounds where the big parade ends.
- October 30, doors at 6 p.m. BKCM's Halloween Movie Night honors Tim Curry with a double feature. Clue plays in the new Concert Hall at BKCM Prospect Park West, 963 President Street, and a gentler option runs in the community space for younger viewers. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children under 18.
- Through November 1. The Fall Festival at Lakeside in Prospect Park runs October 9 to November 1, with pumpkins, a corn maze and carnival games. One Prospect Park Alliance page gives a November 30 end date, but the festival's own page lists November 1, the day after the parade.
Prospect Park also has free Halloween-day programming. Creepy Crawly Halloween runs at the Boathouse on October 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Haunted Carousel runs October 29 through November 1, noon to 5 p.m. A morning at the Boathouse still leaves time to reach Fifth Avenue by 2 p.m.
When the Open Street wraps at 10 p.m. on the 31st, Fifth Avenue goes back to traffic for the season. The 4th Street block off Fifth stays closed to cars every day through December 31.
At Heather Cooper, we follow these neighborhood details closely, because they shape what living on a given street is like. If you're thinking about where your next home in Park Slope or Brooklyn might be, schedule a complimentary market consultation and we'll go block by block together.
