Haunted Halsted Starts at 11 a.m. This Year, and Lake View's Whole Halloween Moves With It

What time does Halloween start on Halsted this Saturday? In recent years, the honest answer was "after dinner." This year it is 11 in the morning.

Halloween falls on a Saturday, and the Northalsted Business Alliance is marking the 30th anniversary of the Haunted Halsted Halloween Parade by turning it into what it calls "an all-day affair." That one change puts Lake View's family events, its street festival, its parade and its bar crawl on the same calendar square. They're spread across four corridors, and each one hands off to the next.

What used to happen, and what changed

Halloween on Halsted has long been an evening event. Block Club Chicago's 2024 Halloween guide listed the 27th annual event as a 6:30 to 10 p.m. parade, awards show, performances and dance party. Last year's weekend roundup showed the same 6:30 to 10 p.m. window, on a Friday.

For 2026, Choose Chicago's fall release puts it plainly: "New this year, a daytime block party will fill five blocks of North Halsted Street." Starting at 11 a.m., Halsted from Aldine to Brompton becomes a pedestrian-only block party. It's free and includes a kids zone with games, crafts and inflatables, daytime trick-or-treating at more than 25 Halsted businesses, more than 50 vendor booths, a 360-degree photo setup, live music and street performers. Beer, spirits and fall toddies are for sale to guests 21 and over.

The added hours put Halsted's afternoon in direct overlap with the family programming a few blocks east, and that overlap shapes the rest of the day.

The day, hour by hour

Late morning belongs to the kids, on two streets at once

The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce runs the Little Monster Crawl from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kids trick-or-treat from business to business along Broadway, Belmont and Clark instead of door to door, and the chamber notes that pups are welcome too. The Clark Street stops near Addison come with specifics. Almost Home Tavern & Grill at 3801 N. Clark has candy and hot cocoa for kids and 10% off the menu for adults. Uncommon Ground at 3800 N. Clark has candy plus Greenstar Organic Oktoberfest beer samples. Rizzo's at 3658 N. Clark is serving soft-serve to kids and a complimentary draft or cocktail to adults.

In past years, a family finishing the crawl at 2 p.m. had a long gap before anything happened on Halsted. This year the block party is already three hours in by then, with its own trick-or-treating route and a dedicated kids zone. A morning on Broadway and Clark can roll straight into an afternoon on Halsted without going home first.

The 6 p.m. turning point

At 6 p.m., Halsted is cleared for the parade, and fest attendees move to the sidewalks behind the barricades. Northalsted encourages people to visit vendors and Halsted businesses during that hour before picking a viewing spot. The fest is promoted as running 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., but the street-festival part effectively ends when the street is cleared.

So everyone who spent the afternoon in the middle of Halsted ends up on the curb at the same time, an hour before the first costumed marcher steps off. The parade starts at Halsted and Belmont and ends at Halsted and Brompton. The south end is where it starts, so the earliest sidewalk spots there will see the parade first.

Anyone marching has a deadline. Costume check-in runs from 2 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. at a registration tent on the east side of Halsted near Belmont, and day-of entries are accepted at 3211 N. Halsted. Spectators watch free, and contest entry costs $5. Northalsted says the parade goes on in rain or snow.

The parade itself has more than 300 costumed participants. The lineup includes decorated vehicles from the Windy City Jeep Club, the Lakeside Pride Marching Band, the Chicago Thriller flash mob, Chicago Spirit Brigade and the Windy City Rollers, and Full Moon Jam closes it with fire performers. Northalsted bills it as Chicago's only Halloween night parade and notes that Fodor's Travel ranked it among the top ten in the US.

After the parade, the night moves north

At 8 p.m. the crowd heads to the NoHa parking lot at 3514 N. Halsted for the costume contest and post-parade party. Judges pick finalists in five categories: Character, Creative, Scary, Group and Youth, for ages 13 and under. They compete for $4,000 in total prizes, with $500, $200 and $100 going to the top three in each category. DJs, live music and drag performances close out the night there, and Halsted venues keep their own Halloween events going after that.

By then Wrigleyville is three hours into its own night. The Wrigleyville Halloween Crawl starts at 5 p.m. at more than 20 venues, including the Cubby Bear and Murphy's Bleachers, according to Block Club Chicago's 2026 guide. The ticket listing runs it until 1 a.m. with check-in at 3554 N. Clark.

The Lakeview East chamber's spooky-season guide lists several more late-night options. Level Sporting Club is hosting its first Halloween party, Dolloween, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., with a 9 p.m. costume contest. The River's Grave Rave runs 9 p.m. to midnight, with $20 early-bird wristbands and a $40 second tier. Smartbar opens its doors at 10 p.m. for The Hot B!tch Halloween Party, with advance tickets from $20 to $25.

So the day starts with candy on Clark Street at 11 a.m. and ends at bars a few blocks north on the same street around 1 a.m.

Getting around when two sets of streets are closed

Parking matters more this year because the event starts so much earlier. Northalsted's posted notice bans street parking from 7 a.m. Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday on Halsted between Belmont and Addison. The same ban covers Brompton, Cornelia, Newport, Roscoe, Buckingham, Aldine and Melrose to the nearest alleys, and Northalsted says violators will be towed. Vehicle traffic on those same streets is banned from 10:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. A car left on Roscoe overnight Friday has to be moved before 7 a.m. Saturday, well before any costumes are out.

The closed zone, Belmont to Addison, is also larger than the festival footprint, which runs Aldine to Brompton. Halsted's side streets are affected for blocks beyond where the vendor booths stand.

West of Halsted, Wrigley Field's bollard project is already blocking some walking routes into Wrigleyville. The 44th Ward's October 15 newsletter lists these closures:

• Sheffield Avenue: closed to vehicles from Addison to Waveland, with the west sidewalk closed to pedestrians, from October 12 through early December
• Waveland Avenue: closed to westbound traffic between Clark and Sheffield, with the south sidewalk closed, from October 12 through early March
• Addison Street: north sidewalk closed to pedestrians from October 22 through mid-January

Anyone walking from the parade route to the Wrigleyville crawl should plan to cross on the south side of Addison.

Twenty days later, Wrigleyville switches to the holidays

Wrigleyville's next big event opens 20 days after Halloween. Christkindlmarket Wrigleyville opens at Gallagher Way, 3635 N. Clark, on November 20 and runs through December 31. 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. It closes early on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve and is closed Christmas Day. The market is part of Winterland at Gallagher Way, whose 2026 page lists a November 20 start with more details still marked "coming soon."

The market opens during the last phase of the bollard work. The ward newsletter says the east sidewalk of Clark Street will be closed to pedestrians from mid-November through mid-December. Walking routes to the market will need the same planning as Halloween night.

Two days after the market opens, the Lakeview tree lighting is Sunday, November 22, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln and Wellington, with carolers, goody bags and a North Pole visit.

Big neighborhood events like Haunted Halsted, from street closures to a corner suddenly full of foot traffic, are part of the day-to-day knowledge we share with clients who live here or are thinking about it. If you'd like to talk through how Lake View's event calendar plays out on a particular block, Chloé Ifergan is happy to set up a private consultation and build a plan around what matters to you.