Anaheim Halloween Parade 2026: What to Do Before 7 p.m.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, the Anaheim Fall Festival closes at Center Greens. The first float doesn't move until 7 p.m., at the corner of Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway. That leaves three hours with nothing on the official schedule, just around the corner from the route, on the busiest night downtown has all year.

The gap comes from how the event is put together. The Halloween Parade is a volunteer production, and since 2012 it has been rebuilt float by float. The daytime festival and the nighttime parade are two separate pieces of that work. What fills the time between them is whatever downtown Anaheim already has open within walking distance. This post covers both halves of the day and the time in between.

A parade that thinned out, then got rebuilt by hand

The tradition began in 1923, when downtown merchants tried to turn Halloween mischief into games and costume contests. A nighttime parade followed the next year. PBS SoCal dates that first procession to October 30, 1924. Baseball stars Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson led it.

The crowds were huge in the parade's early decades. Community interest began to wane in the 1980s. By the early 2000s only a few entries were left in the parade. Former Anaheim city manager Frank Fieldhouse founded the Anaheim Fall Festival nonprofit in 2003 and 2004, and it first hired outside event planners. The Anaheim Historical Society got involved in 2012 and helped revive the parade with historical floats built by the community. PBS SoCal credits Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily with that revival. It also reports that the volunteers work unpaid and fund the parade through donations and fundraising all year.

The parade kept going even in 2020, as a drive-by. Spectators stayed in their cars and watching on foot was not allowed. In 2024 it was promoted as the 100th parade. Mickey Mouse was children's grand marshal, and the Andy Anaheim, Old Grump Tree, Rocket Witch and Bisabuela floats all rolled down the route. The production crew that year was more than 200 volunteers.

The 2026 parade page still calls it "a beloved hometown tradition run by local volunteers." It says the volunteers work with organizations across Anaheim to celebrate Halloween, Día de los Muertos and the harvest season. That explains the two-part day. The festival is a daytime market and family program in a park. The parade is a nighttime show on the streets. The two run on separate schedules, about a block apart.

Two venues, one afternoon

The festival is back at Center Greens, which its organizers describe as "the city park in the heart of downtown Anaheim just around the corner from our parade route." The park itself is relatively new. It debuted on September 28, 2024, after $6.5 million in improvements to a 3.5-acre site. The work added an 8,000-square-foot skate park, a youth challenge course, a tot lot, a butterfly garden and a shaded plaza. Those joined a playground built in 2022 with help from the Anaheim Ducks and KaBOOM!. So the park still has things to do after the vendor booths are packed up.

Here is how the day lays out, based on the organizer's current pages:

1. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fall Festival at Center Greens. Free. The listing includes local artists and small businesses, costume contests for kids and dogs, live performances and a scavenger hunt. Visit Anaheim's October guide also lists kids' crafts and a classic car show.
2. 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., no official programming. This is the gap.
3. 7 p.m., Halloween Parade. It starts at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway, turns onto Center Street Promenade, then follows Broadway west to end at West Street.

The car show has a history of its own. Visit Anaheim's listing for the 2025 event said the Classic Car Show was back for the first time since 1957. It featured American-made cars from 1923 through 1975. The 2025 listing also had the festival opening at 11 a.m. This year's festival page says 10 a.m. The festival page also says "check back in October for more details," so stage times and contest schedules may still change.

Parking. Organizers point to the Center Street Parking Garage on Center Street, across from the Anaheim Downtown Community Center, which is free. Center City Parking CarPark 3 is also free. Anaheim Parking Center CarPark 4 is paid. The parade page warns of "many road closures the day of the event." If you park in one of these structures by mid-morning, you can stay there through the parade without moving the car once the streets close.

Where the three hours actually go

Everything below is a few blocks from Center Greens and the route. The Anaheim Packing District's own directory asks visitors to check each business for its hours, and the Downtown Anaheim Association's directory doesn't list hours at all. Confirm before you count on any one spot for dinner at 5 p.m. on a parade Saturday.

Anaheim Packing House, 440 S. Anaheim Blvd. The Packing House sits on Anaheim Boulevard, the street where the parade starts. Tenants in the district directory include:

• 206 BCE for Cajun food
• ADYA for Indian food
• Black Sheep GCB for grilled cheese
• Blue Bowl
• BXCR for wine and spirits
• Chippy Fish & Grill

Farmers Park and the Packard Building. The same directory lists Poppy and Seed at Farmers Park, and Monkish Brewing and En Familia in the Packard Building. It marks Aris Thai at Farmers Park as "Coming Soon," so don't plan a parade-night meal around it.

Center Street Promenade. The Downtown Anaheim Association lists these businesses on the Promenade, which the parade runs down after its first turn:

• Craft by Smoke & Fire at 195 W. Center Street Promenade
• Lazy Bird
• K&A Downtown Cafe
• Lazeez Eats
• House of Chimney Cakes
• Okayama Kobo Bakery
• Good Food Hall, which includes Thai Belly and The Taco Shop
• Windsor Browns, which serves sandwiches with beer and wine

Lemon Street. The same directory lists Colony Wine Merchant at 280 S. Lemon Street.

These groups sit at different points along the route. A Packing House table keeps you near the start at Anaheim and Broadway. The Promenade businesses sit on the middle stretch. The end at Broadway and West Street is farther west. Wherever you eat is likely to be close to wherever you end up watching.

MUZEO puts the parade's own history in the gap

If you'd rather spend the late afternoon indoors, MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center has the most fitting option. Visit Anaheim's 2026 Halloween guide lists the exhibition "Hallowe'en Greetings and Tricks, Treats, and Traditions" as running through November 3. The guide describes it as tracing how Halloween began and changed over time, with a focus on Anaheim's long connection to the holiday. The exhibit is in the Carnegie Gallery inside the historic Carnegie Building. MUZEO's own page shows a different date than Visit Anaheim's guide, so check the museum's hours and the closing date before you go.

MUZEO members have a second option. The museum is holding a members-only Fall Festival parade-viewing party on October 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. It costs $45 and includes refreshments, specialty cocktails and reserved street seating at the parade's starting point. It's a ticketed event, not a public waiting area. For members, it covers the last half hour of the gap and the start of the parade.

The museum's October calendar also lists events on other nights:

The rest of Halloween week

The parade isn't the only Halloween event in the city that week.

• Sunday, Oct. 25: Anaheim Plaza holds its Halloween Treat Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It has trick-or-treating, a DJ, raffle prizes and face painting.
• Saturday, Oct. 31: A community calendar lists Northgate González Market's Día de los Muertos 5K at Angel Stadium from 8 a.m. to noon. Confirm registration details with the organizer.

As of early October, the organizers' pages haven't named a 2026 grand marshal. The homepage carries the line "Here We Grow!" The festival page lists sponsor booths from the City of Anaheim, Raising Cane's, Dr. Lili & Associates, Funeraria del Angel Anaheim, Disneyland Resort, Anaheim Public Utilities, Marconi Automotive Museum, The Frida Cinema and OC Vibe. The parade page also has an application for groups that want to march, which is how the volunteers fill the route each year.

At Tony Real Estate Group, we follow downtown Anaheim closely, including the blocks around Center Greens and the parade route. If you own near downtown and want to know how your street compares with recent sales, ask us for a free home valuation. We'll walk you through the numbers before the floats line up on Broadway.