The Anaheim Halloween Parade starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway. Earlier that day, the Fall Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Center Greens, and the Classic Car Show runs on Center Street over the same hours. The festival and the parade are both free to attend. Volunteers run it, working with organizations across the city.
That arrangement has stayed the same for more than a hundred years, and this year it's easier to see than usual. The parade is charging entries a registration fee for the first time. Float crews meet every Sunday morning. And the blocks along the route have more new places to eat and more scheduled events this month than in a typical October.
It started with merchants and soaped windows
According to the organizers' history, Halloween in early 1920s Anaheim meant pranks. Kids soaped windows, pulled up fences and damaged property, and residents and businesses had to deal with the mess. In 1923, the local merchants association created a Halloween festival with games and costume contests to give kids something better to do. It worked well enough that a nighttime parade was added the next year. OC Weekly's 2018 account tells the same story. The City Council and local shops used the event to turn Halloween mischief into something the whole town could take part in.
The idea came from businesses, and the work has always come from volunteers. The organizers' history says the event has grown over the past century thanks to "the dedication and hard work of volunteers and local businesses." The Center Street businesses near the route today play the same role the 1923 merchants did.
The decades it nearly slipped away
The tradition hasn't always been steady. The Orange County Register's 2023 coverage places a decline in the 1980s. A Daily Pilot story from the parade's 2024 centennial says KTLA had broadcast the parade for years, but that run ended in the early '90s.
Sources disagree on when the revival began. In 2023, the Orange County Register dated the revitalization to 2011. The Los Angeles Times says volunteers Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily got involved in 2012, and OC Weekly gives 2013 as the year the two were inspired to bring the tradition back. The dates may simply describe different stages of the same effort, from preserving old floats to building new ones. Either way, the parade came back because volunteers chose to bring it back.
Recent years show where that effort has gone. The Register's 2025 preview described a Día de los Muertos "Bisabuela" float, a candy-box float, and a trolley serving as Mayor Ashleigh Aitken's official float. The same story said the classic car show was returning for the first time since 1957. This year it's on the schedule again, on Center Street.
What 2026 asks of the people who put it on
The clearest change this year is on the application page. For the first time, the organizers are charging a registration fee, which they describe as "a small registration fee to help keep the Anaheim Halloween Parade running year after year." The fees are:
- Nonprofits, school groups and marching bands: free
- Festival sponsors: free
- Business or promotional entries: $250
- All other entries: $150
Approved entries must pay by Oct. 15 or lose their place in the lineup. School bands and community nonprofits still march for free. The fees fall on businesses using the parade to promote themselves and on other entrants. That's a reasonable way to fund an event that charges spectators nothing.
The float work runs on volunteer time. The Register reported on Sept. 24 that volunteers meet every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. to build new floats and fix up existing ones, and will keep doing so until the Oct. 24 events. That leaves three more Sundays: Oct. 4, 11 and 18. If you've ever wanted to see how a parade float is made, contact the organizers through the address listed in that Register brief.
The announcers are volunteers too, and they call the parade in two languages. The English announcer is at the Car Show Stage at Lemon and Center Street Promenade. The Spanish announcer is in front of CarPark 3 on Center Street Promenade. If you like hearing the floats introduced as they pass, choose your spot near one of them.
Planning Oct. 24 around the closures
The parade starts at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway, turns left onto Center Street Promenade, and then follows Broadway to its end at West Street. The festival at Center Greens is close by, next to Anaheim City Hall and the Downtown Anaheim Community Center. Many roads close that day, so where you park matters more than when you arrive.
- Center Street Parking Garage: free, on Center Street across from the Anaheim Downtown Community Center.
- Center City Parking, CarPark 3: free, near the route on Center Street Promenade.
- Anaheim Parking Center, CarPark 4: paid.
- Anaheim High School overflow lot: opens at 5 p.m. for people watching along Broadway, about a 10-minute walk south to the route.
- Anaheim City Hall parking: available, but you can't drive in or out between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. because of road closures. If you park there for the afternoon festival, your car stays put until after the parade.
The organizers also note that many nearby neighborhoods allow permit parking only, and they ask visitors to be respectful of residents. If you live in one of those permit areas, expect more cars than usual circling your block that evening.
The rest of October on the same few blocks
The Packing District and Center Street Promenade are a short walk from the parade route, and both have a full October calendar. In date order:
- Monster Movie Nights, Mondays at 7 p.m.: free screenings at Farmers Park, 412 S. Anaheim Blvd. "Beetlejuice" plays Oct. 5, "Casper" Oct. 12, "The Addams Family" Oct. 19, and "Hocus Pocus" Oct. 26.
- Makers Hive Market, Halloween Edition, Saturday, Oct. 10, noon to 4 p.m.: at Farmers Park.
- Figure 8 Market, Saturday, Oct. 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: on Center Street Promenade. The Downtown Anaheim Association gives 201 W. Center Street Promenade as the GPS address for its events.
- Fall Festival, Classic Car Show and Halloween Parade, Saturday, Oct. 24: festival and car show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., parade at 7 p.m.
- Ari's Thai Eatery grand opening, Sunday, Oct. 25: this date is tentative, according to the Packing District.
Both Oct. 10 markets run during overlapping hours, a few minutes' walk apart. You can visit both in one afternoon without moving your car.
New restaurants are also opening near the route. Ari's Thai Eatery soft-opened Sept. 26 at 430 S. Anaheim Blvd. in the Packing District's Farmers Park area, with an opening promotion running through Oct. 4. On Center Street Promenade, the Orange County Business Journal reported on Oct. 1 that Torikizoku planned to open its first U.S. fast-casual, to-go restaurant on Friday, Oct. 2. The menu includes chicken teriyaki bowls, curry, ramen and skewers. Torikizoku was founded in 1985, has nearly 700 locations in Japan, and opened its first U.S. dine-in restaurant in Torrance. We haven't seen confirmation that it opened on schedule, so check before you go. Its neighbors on the Promenade, according to the same story, are Lazy Bird, Craft by Smoke and Fire, and Okayama Kobo Bakery.
Much of Anaheim's recent development news has been about OCVIBE near Honda Center. Its Katella Commons food hall is planned for early 2027, and its 5,000-capacity concert hall is set for March 2027. This October, the restaurant openings and scheduled events are downtown, on the same streets where merchants started the festival in 1923.
At Jin Hong Team, we follow Anaheim's calendar the same way we follow its homes, one street at a time. If you live near the parade route and wonder how downtown activity like this affects your home's value, ask us for a free home valuation. We'll give you a clear, unhurried answer.
