Lake View Halloween 2026: Your Guide to Haunted Halsted

Halloween lands on a Saturday in 2026, and the Northalsted Business Alliance is using the timing to change how the neighborhood observes it. For the 30th Haunted Halsted, the organizers are adding a daytime fest that leads into the parade. They call the result "an all-day affair."

The parade has always been the main event. It runs from 7 to 8 p.m., with more than 300 costumed marchers, and Northalsted bills it as Chicago's only Halloween night parade. This year the hour sits inside a much longer day. The first barricades go up before breakfast and the last ones come down at 2 a.m. Meanwhile, on the other side of the neighborhood, Gallagher Way is already being turned into a Christmas market.

A Parade Becomes a Day

The new piece is the Haunted Halsted Fest, which runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the five blocks of Halsted from Aldine to Brompton, 3300 to 3526 N. Halsted. For those seven hours the street is pedestrian-only. Northalsted's event page lists a kids' zone with games, Halloween crafts and inflatables, trick-or-treating at more than 25 Halsted businesses, more than fifty vendor booths, live music and street performers. Beer, spirits and fall toddies are sold to guests 21 and over.

The trick-or-treating is the clearest sign of the change. Last year Northalsted held its trick-or-treat as a separate event on Saturday, October 25, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This year the daytime trick-or-treating is part of the Fest on Halloween itself, so it shares a date with the parade. One heads-up on that Northalsted page: one line describes the Fest as reaching Addison. The detailed schedule says 3300 to 3526 N. Halsted, which ends at Brompton.

Saturday, October 31, Hour by Hour

Put the posted times in order and the whole day looks like this.

1. 7 a.m. Parking restrictions start on Halsted between Belmont and Addison and on the side streets listed below. Northalsted's notice says violators will be towed.
2. 10:30 a.m. Cars are banned from the same stretch.
3. 11 a.m. The Haunted Halsted Fest opens on Halsted. The Little Monsters Crawl starts in Lakeview East at the same hour.
4. 2 p.m. The Little Monsters Crawl ends. Parade check-in opens at the registration tent at 3211 N. Halsted, on the east side of the street, and runs until 6:15 p.m. Day-of costume entries are accepted.
5. 6 p.m. Fest crowds are moved off the street and onto the sidewalks, behind the barricades, so the route can be set.
6. 7 p.m. The parade steps off at Halsted and Belmont and heads north to Brompton. It goes ahead in rain or snow.
7. 8 p.m. The costume contest and post-parade party start in the NoHa parking lot at 3514 N. Halsted.
8. 10 p.m. The official program ends.
9. 2 a.m. Sunday Traffic and parking limits lift.

The parade costs nothing to watch and is open to all ages. Entering the costume contest costs $5. The prize pool is $4,000, split across five categories: Character, Creative, Scary, Group, and Youth for children under 13. Each category pays $500, $200 and $100 for its top three, and contestants must be present to win. Groups announced in the lineup so far include the Chicago Full Moon Jam fire performers, the Windy City Jeep Club, Chicago Thriller, the Lakeside Pride Marching Band, the Windy City Rollers and the Chicago Spirit Brigade. Full Moon Jam closes the parade with fire performances.

Two Daytime Crawls at the Same Hours

The Fest is not the only daytime option for families. The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce is running its Little Monsters Crawl the same Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children trick-or-treat at participating businesses along Broadway, Belmont and Clark. It works like a house-to-house route, except the stops are storefronts. Some businesses will hand out treats inside and some will set up tables on the sidewalk. The chamber says dogs are welcome too.

Those three hours overlap the first stretch of the Halsted Fest, on a different commercial street. As of the chamber's September 30 post, the list of participating businesses and the route map were still "coming soon." So a family can plan the morning around both streets, but the Broadway stops won't be known until the chamber publishes them.

The Blocks That Lose Their Cars

The closures cover more than Halsted, and that matters most to residents of the side streets. Northalsted lists every affected block. The no-parking rule starts at 7 a.m. and the traffic ban at 10:30 a.m., and both run until 2 a.m. Sunday, November 1.

The notice applies to both sides of Cornelia, Roscoe, Buckingham and Aldine, out to the nearest alley. Vendors are set up on those cross streets, not on Halsted itself, so they can keep selling through both the Fest and the parade. That puts booths on the same side streets that lose their parking. Leashed or carried pets may march in the parade or watch it.

The Saturday Before Has the Same Pattern

October 24 follows the same model, two events back to back on one Saturday.

The 12th annual Northalsted Halloween Pup Crawl runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dogs and their owners walk the sidewalks from Aldine to Cornelia, stopping at Northalsted businesses and pet-focused vendors. Check-in is at the corner of Halsted and Aldine starting at 10 a.m. Advance registration is $5 and includes a tote bag, a raffle entry and extra swag for your dog. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Miss Foozie's photo booth is free for registered pets, with photos by Ken Brown posted online in the following weeks. The Lark Pup Patio Brunch at 3441 N. Halsted, near Cornelia, starts at 11 a.m. Raffle drawings begin at 2 p.m. at the after-party on the Lark patio, hosted by Miss Foozie. Costumes are encouraged.

At 1 p.m. the same afternoon, the Pumpkin Party opens at Gallagher Way and runs until 5 p.m. It is free. The week leading up to it is busy in Wrigleyville too:

• Saturday, October 17: The Beer Garden at Gallagher Way, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Sunday, October 18: Pumpkins & Pigskins, outdoor football viewing from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 20: Game Nights with Stewpendous Productions, free music bingo from 6 to 8 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 21: A free outdoor screening of Hocus Pocus, 6 to 10 p.m.
• Thursday, October 22: Lucky Dorr Presents: Pups Halloween, 4 to 9:30 p.m., free.

With the Pup Crawl on Halsted and Lucky Dorr's event two days earlier, dogs get two Halloween outings in one week.

Then Wrigley Changes Seasons

The Pumpkin Party is Gallagher Way's last fall event. Starting Monday, October 26, the park is closed to the public from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day through Saturday, October 31, while crews build out Christkindlmarket. So on Halloween, as Halsted runs its longest day of the year, the plaza beside Wrigley Field is already closed to the public for the Christmas market buildout.

The Christkindlmarket in Wrigleyville opens November 20 and runs through December 31. Regular hours are 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Holiday hours vary:

Gallagher Way says the plaza, Christkindlmarket included, is free and open to the public. Tickets are needed only for attractions inside Wrigley Field. That leaves 19 days between the end of Haunted Halsted on Sunday morning and the market's opening.

If Halloween weekend is also when your household starts thinking about the coming year, Lissa Weinstein knows these blocks on Halsted, Broadway and Southport. Request a confidential consultation and we can talk through your plans for your Lake View home before Christkindlmarket opens.