Brevard's Halloweenfest Ends at 5. October 24 Keeps Going.

Heart of Brevard's Halloweenfest takes over downtown from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 24. The published calendars then hand the day off. The Heritage Museum's ghost tours start an hour before the festival wraps up, and by 6:30 p.m. the library, Silvermont, the Cradle of Forestry and Pilot Cove each have their own evening event going. Taken together, the listings look less like a street fair with an after-party and more like one long Saturday that changes organizers at 5 o'clock.

This is how the day fits together, using the schedules as they're posted today, October 11.

The morning belongs to the market

The day starts before the festival does. On Halloweenfest's own schedule, the Transylvania County Farmers Market runs 9 a.m. to noon, with produce, meats, baked goods and other local goods. It's one of the last Saturdays on that schedule. The market's weekly page, updated October 9, lists winter hours of 10 a.m. to noon from November through April. So if your Saturday routine starts at 9, it moves an hour later once November arrives.

Craft and food vendors open at 10 and stay until 5. The food list includes Bear's Smokehouse BBQ, Village Bakery, Grand Olde Station, Jenny's Minis Donuts, Munchy's, The Sweet Retreat and Cosmic Cotton Candy. For anyone who would rather skip parking, the Brevard Bike Alliance is running a free bike valet in the Territory parking lot at 110 E. Main St. all day.

Midday is built around kids, costumes and pets

From late morning through mid-afternoon, something is scheduled almost every half hour, and most of it happens near the Gazebo, on Main Street, or on S. Broad and Gaston.

The costume contest is presented by the Transylvania Community Arts Council and Champion Comfort Experts. Pets who pre-register for the pet contest get a goody bag. Earth Mountain Bicycle, Purrrfect Bark and BrevardBeagle.com sponsor that parade.

The 1 o'clock hour is the busiest on the schedule. Trick-or-treating, the second flash mob, pet check-in and the balloon twister all start then, and the pet parade follows at 1:30. If your household includes both a costumed kid and a costumed dog, plan on splitting up for that hour.

The handoff starts at 4, before the festival is over

The Heritage Museum at 189 W. Main St. is what connects the daytime festival to the evening. Its Daytime Haunting for ages 3 to 12 runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. At 4 p.m. it switches audiences and starts its "Tell Me A Ghost Story" tours, which run until 7. Each tour takes about an hour and requires a reservation. Admission is $10, and children 12 and under get in free with a paying adult.

So one downtown building hosts the children's program, then the older-audience program, and the two overlap the festival's last hour. The 4 p.m. family bike ride from Earth Mountain Bicycle covers that same window for families who would rather be moving. Both options fill the time between the vendors packing up and the 6 o'clock start of the evening events.

The evening splits two ways: walkable or a drive out

Once the street festival is over, the evening events are spread across separate venues and run by different organizations. Three are at downtown addresses on Main and Gaston streets. Two are out in Pisgah Forest.

Downtown, on foot:

1. "Dark Turn of Mind," the Halloweenfest Concert. Transylvania County Library's free concert runs 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the library amphitheater at 212 S. Gaston Street. If the weather turns, it moves into the Rogow Community Room.
2. Pumpkin Fest at Silvermont Park. Open 6 to 9 p.m. at 364 E. Main Street, with admission listed at $7, price varies. A Brevard tradition since 2015, it has a short walking trail lined with lit, carved pumpkins, plus local musicians, food trucks, games, storytelling, face painting, a White Squirrel scavenger hunt and tours of the Silvermont Mansion.
3. Ghost story tours at the Heritage Museum, with the last start time leaving you done by 7, as described above.

A short drive into Pisgah Forest:

• Folklore in the Forest at the Cradle of Forestry, 11250 Pisgah Hwy. FIND Outdoors bills it as a Halloween-inspired evening of Appalachian storytelling and ballads. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30. Tickets are $25 for ages 13 and up, $13 for ages 5 to 12, and free for age 4 and under. Parking is free.
• Harvest Moon Fest at Pilot Cove, 319 Gateway Junction Dr., an evening of rock music from 6 to 11 p.m., with admission listed at $20.

The library concert, Pumpkin Fest and Folklore in the Forest all begin within half an hour of each other, so choose one. The library concert is the only free option of the three and is done by 8, which leaves time for the last hour at Silvermont before it closes at 9. Harvest Moon Fest runs latest and is the only one on the list that goes past 9.

The surrounding week keeps the same split

The nights around October 24 follow the same pattern. Some events are aimed at families and pets, some at adults, and they're spread over several weeknights.

Thunderween is the big one for adults. The 10th Annual Thunderween listing promises a costume contest with prizes, live funk from The High Flying Criminals, and an intermission performance at around 9:30 by Pisgah Thunder, which the listing describes as an all-male, semi-synchronized dance troupe. All proceeds go to the Cindy Platt Boys and Girls Club of Transylvania County. The listing calls the event family friendly, but shows are 21 and up unless the guest is with a parent. In good weather, a garage door behind the stage stays open so people can watch from inside or outside.

Friday the 30th has its own sequence. The headwear workshop at Sunshine Creative Reuse ends at 6:30, half an hour after Pumpkin Fest opens its last night, and Thunderween starts an hour after that. A family can make a costume accessory in the afternoon and wear it to the pumpkin trail. The adults can go on to King Street later.

What isn't confirmed yet

Heart of Brevard's Halloweenfest page still says "More details to come," so the schedule above is the version currently posted and could change. Street closures for this year haven't been posted in readable form yet. For comparison, the City's notice for the 2025 festival closed sections of Main, Broad, Jordan, Gaston and Johnson streets from 6 a.m. until about 6 p.m., and kept Main between Broad and Rice closed until about midnight. That was last year's plan, published in the City of Brevard's 2025 Halloweenfest notice, so check the City's alerts the week of the festival before you count on any particular route or parking spot. We also haven't found official City guidance on trick-or-treat hours for Halloween night itself, Saturday, October 31.

After Halloween, downtown's calendar moves to the holidays. The Holiday Windows Competition on Main Street runs November 28 through December 31 on Explore Brevard's listing, though one Heart of Brevard page gives a November 27 start, and Heart of Brevard has its Light Up the Night tree lighting on the calendar for December 5.

At Petit Properties, we're Brevard locals who keep this calendar too. If family is visiting for Halloweenfest weekend and you're deciding between staying downtown for the evening or driving out to the Cradle, give us a call. We're happy to help you plan the day.