The Anaheim Halloween Parade starts at 7pm on Saturday, October 24. The day starts at 10am. The Fall Festival at Center Greens and the Classic Car Show on Center Street Promenade both run from 10am to 4pm, and the parade comes three hours later. That leaves a gap in the evening. Separately, the City Hall parking lot shuts its entry and exit at 3pm, before the festival closes.
The parade gets the attention, but it's the last hour of a ten-hour day spread across a few downtown blocks. Your plan for the afternoon decides how the evening goes. That's how the event was set up from the start.
A Merchant Idea From 1923, Still Run Block by Block
The organizers' own history says Anaheim merchants created a festival in 1923 to keep children busy with something other than Halloween pranks. A nighttime parade was added the following year. PBS SoCal dates the first parade to October 30, 1924, and reports that Babe Ruth was the grand marshal.
The parade never fully disappeared. According to that same PBS SoCal account, interest dropped as the city grew and residents moved away from downtown, and the parade kept going on a much smaller scale. In 2012, former Disney art directors Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily helped relaunch it with local businesses, community members and Disney. Today it's run by Anaheim Fall Festival, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the organizer calls the parade "a beloved hometown tradition run by local volunteers" that celebrates Halloween, Día de los Muertos and the harvest season.
The merchants' original idea still shows in how the day is laid out. Everything happens on downtown streets and in a downtown park, so where you park and where you eat between events matter as much as the parade.
10am to 4pm: A Park and a Promenade
The festival covers both Center Greens and Center Street Promenade. Center Greens is the city park next to Anaheim City Hall and the Downtown Anaheim Community Center, just around the corner from the parade route. Admission is free.
The organizer's festival page also says to "check back in October for more details," so the lineup below may still change. Right now the page lists:
- Live performances by King Kukulele, Bob Baker Marionettes, The Deadbeats and My Safe Harbor Folklorico, plus a drawing session with Rene Pompa
- Hands-on activities, including painting wooden ornaments with Jack Knight, piñata making with Piñata Design Studio, the Anaheim Public Library STEAM Van, MUZEO, Halloween scratch art with the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim, and monster-making with Altrusa International
- Wild Wing from the Anaheim Ducks, silent films with live music at Davey B. Gravey's Tiny Cinema, and origami butterflies you fold to add to the Bisabuela parade float
- A scavenger hunt for parade floats the organizers have "hidden" around the festival and downtown
- Kiddie and doggie costume contests
The Classic Car Show runs on Center Street Promenade during the same hours. It's free to watch, and the $65 registration for entrants has sold out. Marconi Automotive Museum is the title sponsor and Pete Wittenberg is the special guest judge. The car show's music schedule lists The Tone Slingers, J.P. McDermott & Western Bop, Tequila Worms, and Trevor Kelly & Mr. Man, and the show also has a beer garden.
The scavenger hunt runs all over downtown, so the daytime part doesn't stay in the park.
3pm: The Deadline That Sets Your Parking
The organizer warns of "many road closures the day of the event." Because of the parade closures, the Anaheim City Hall lot has no entry or exit from 3pm to 9pm. If you park there at 11am for the festival, your car stays put until 9pm.
Every parking option the organizer lists, and when it's useful:
| Lot | Cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Center Street Parking Garage | Free | On Center St. across from the Anaheim Downtown Community Center |
| Center City Parking, CarPark 3 | Free | Near the parade route on Center St. Promenade |
| Anaheim Parking Center, CarPark 4 | Paid | Near the parade route on Center St. Promenade |
| Anaheim City Hall Parking | Listed as available | No entry or exit from 3pm to 9pm |
| Anaheim High School overflow lot | Listed as overflow | Opens at 5pm; about a 10-minute walk south to the Broadway part of the route |
The organizer also points out that many neighborhoods near the route are permit-parking only. That makes the lot schedule more important. If you're coming early for the festival and staying for the parade, a free garage is the easy choice. If you're only coming for the parade and plan to watch from Broadway, the Anaheim High lot is the one that opens when you need it.
4pm to 7pm: Dinner on the Street Where the Parade Starts
The festival and car show end at 4pm and the parade starts at 7pm. The parade lines up at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway, on the same boulevard as the Packing District restaurants. That makes those three hours easy to fill without moving your car.
There's something new to try there this year. Ari's Thai Eatery at 430 S. Anaheim Blvd. reported a soft opening on Saturday, September 26. It tentatively planned a grand-opening celebration for Sunday, October 25, the day after the parade, so check before you plan around that date. Inside the Anaheim Packing House, Marrakesh Restaurant opened in January at 440 S. Anaheim Blvd., Suite 103. The Daily Pilot reported that it turned the former Cook's Chapel event space into a Moroccan-style lounge.
Neither restaurant has been through a parade night before. Both are within walking distance of the starting point, and the restaurants have been there far less time than the route itself.
7pm: Pick Your Spot by Which Announcer You Want to Hear
The parade follows a route with three parts:
- It starts at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway.
- It turns left onto Center Street Promenade.
- It continues down Broadway and ends at Broadway and West Street.
Volunteer announcers give commentary in English and Spanish, and each has a set location. The English announcer will be at the Car Show Stage at Lemon and Center St. Promenade, and the Spanish announcer will be in front of CarPark 3 on Center St. Promenade. In the organizer's words, "you don't need to be able to hear one of the announcers to have a great time at the parade."
That sets up a few choices. The Promenade has the announcers, the free CarPark 3, and the Lemon Street corner where the car show ran all day. The Broadway part of the route is the one the organizer connects to the Anaheim High overflow lot. The Bisabuela float you helped decorate with origami butterflies that afternoon will come by either way.
The organizer hasn't posted a 2026 theme, grand marshal or number of parade entries yet. Its home page uses the line "Here We Grow!" without calling it a parade theme.
The Same Blocks, Before and After
The Downtown Anaheim Association's calendar has two more October events in the same area. The Figure 8 Market sets up on Center Street Promenade on Saturday, October 10, from 11am to 4pm. An outdoor Opal Pilates class meets at the Lemon Street Parklet on Saturday, October 17, from 8 to 10am. If you go to the market, you'll be walking part of the parade route two weeks early.
The big development closer to the Honda Center won't be part of this fall. OCVIBE's 5,000-capacity concert hall is targeted for March 2027, and the Katella Commons market hall for early 2027. Roy Choi's Best Friend is targeted for fall 2027, according to the OC Register. In October 2026, downtown's Center Street Promenade, Center Greens and the Packing District are still where the city's Halloween happens, as they have been since a group of merchants organized it in 1923.
If you'll be downtown on October 24 and want to know how your street fits into Anaheim right now, IMPACT Realty Group is based just up the road in Placentia, and our Anaheim neighborhood page covers the city block by block. If you're curious what your home is worth, start with a free home valuation and we'll walk you through the numbers.
