At 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 31, the 48th Ward Halloween Parade starts lining up at Bromann Park, 5400 N. Broadway. It steps off at 10:30, and its last stop is Clark and Farragut. That corner hosts Fright on Farragut, the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce's Halloween street event. As of the Chamber's September 30 update, the parade route was still listed as "to come." The start, the end and the clock are already set.
For the rest of October, Halloween in Andersonville happens on the edges. The pumpkin patch is at the north end of Clark. The kid-friendly garden party is west of Ravenswood. A Halloween event at a park even lands in West Edgewater. Most events happen once, at their own address, with no link to the others. Then on October 31, the schedule pulls everything onto one block of Farragut for five hours. If you live here, it helps to treat the month as two calendars: the scattered warm-up and the single-corner finale.
October 31, hour by hour
The Chamber's Halloween page is the most complete version of the day. It was last updated September 30, 2026. Arranged in order, the events run back to back with only one real gap.
- 9 a.m. The Gethsemane pumpkin patch at 5739 N. Clark opens for its final day. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the patch's Saturday face and pumpkin painting runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Balloon artist Showtime Tony is also scheduled for October 31.
- 10 a.m. Parade participants gather at Bromann Park, 5400 N. Broadway.
- 10:30 a.m. The 48th Ward Halloween Parade departs and heads for Clark and Farragut.
- 11 a.m. Fright on Farragut opens at Clark and Farragut with costumes, creepy games, candy and DJ Lexie. Business-district trick-or-treating starts at the same time. Every business on the Chamber's map hands out candy, toys or prizes.
- 1 p.m. Trick-or-treating ends. The Chamber's map keeps changing until the day itself because businesses are added as they sign up.
- 2 p.m. GUS® presents Spooktacular!, a free dance show at Clark and Farragut. Company dancers from the Original Gus Giordano Dance School perform hip hop and jazz, and the show ends with a large cast performing Thriller.
- 3 p.m. The Gethsemane pumpkin patch closes for the season.
- 4 p.m. Fright on Farragut wraps up.
Trick-or-treating ends at 1 p.m. and the dance show starts at 2. That leaves an hour with nothing scheduled at the corner, while the street event itself keeps running. Lunch on Clark fits in that hour. So does the walk up to the pumpkin patch before it closes at 3.
The parade and the trick-or-treating window also connect. The parade leaves Broadway at 10:30 and Fright on Farragut opens at 11. Families who march arrive at the corner as the candy starts. The trick-or-treat window lasts two hours, so the business map is worth checking the morning of October 31 rather than a week ahead.
The Saturday before is the busy one
Fright on Farragut is the biggest single event. The busiest day on the calendar is Saturday, October 24. Four separate events land on that date, each at a different address.
- 10:30 a.m., Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark. Chicago's Official Drag Story Hour returns to the bookstore for a Halloween reading with stories and songs.
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Gethsemane, 5739 N. Clark. The Fall Children's Festival starts with balloon art from Showtime Tony. Next come a GUS® youth dance performance, the Cielito Lindo Family Mariachi Band and animal time with Scale's & Tale's Traveling Zoo.
- 5 to 6 p.m., West Andersonville Community Garden, east side of Balmoral and Ravenswood. West Andersonville Neighbors Together hosts its annual Ghostly Garden, described as a non-scary, kid-friendly costume event with games, treats and prizes.
- The Swedish American Museum holds a talk on All Saints' Day in Sweden the same day.
On a map, those addresses cover the neighborhood's corners: the south end of the Clark corridor, the north end of it, and the residential blocks west toward Ravenswood. The next afternoon, Sunday, October 25, West Edgewater Area Residents host "Boo! at the Park" at Park 599, 1623 W. Edgewater, from 2 to 5 p.m. It offers pumpkin decorating, crafts, games with prizes, treats and drinks.
Different groups run these events. Gethsemane, a bookstore, two neighbor associations and a dance school each run their own piece. The Chamber's Halloween page lists all of the Halloween events together. The museum's talk appears only on the museum's own calendar. The parade is the only piece designed to connect one address to another.
The pumpkin patch runs all month. It's open daily October 3 through 31, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with pumpkins, photo spots and a straw maze. Face and pumpkin painting runs every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Showtime Tony's balloon art is scheduled for October 17 and October 31.
The museum keeps its own October
The Swedish American Museum runs a separate October calendar. Most of it has nothing to do with costumes.
It started today, Sunday, October 4, with Cinnamon Roll Day and a knitting group. An exhibition of ceramicist Carl Mankert's work opens Friday, October 9. A "Binge" knitting lecture and workshop runs October 10 and 11, with a Scandinavian Jam on the 11th. The documentary "Kings of Kubb" screens with a discussion on Thursday, October 15. A Viking Breakfast follows on Saturday, October 17.
The second half of the month is busier. The Chicago Swedish Mixed Chorus gives its fall concert Sunday, October 25. Cookbook author Nichole Accettola talks on Tuesday, October 27. The museum leads an Andersonville neighborhood tour on Wednesday, October 28. Hejsan! children's story-and-craft sessions run October 29 and 30.
Friday, October 30 is where the museum's calendar comes closest to Halloween. That night it holds a late night with an aquavit tasting and a haunted-art workshop. That puts an adult Halloween-adjacent evening on Clark the night before the family-focused day at Farragut. The museum's online book club meets October 31 and doesn't compete with the street events.
A new dining room on Clark, in time for the busy stretch
De Colores, a sit-down Latin-fusion restaurant at 5403 N. Clark St., is set to open in mid-October. That would put its first weeks in the busy run-up to Halloween. The space was home to Cescas Margarita Bar & Grill for 10 years before it closed in late 2025.
Owner Patricia Guerrero also owns Edgewater Tacos at 5624 N. Broadway. She told Block Club that De Colores will showcase food from her mother's side of the family: Ecuadorian, with Cuban and Colombian heritage. Edgewater Tacos reflects her father's Mexican heritage. The menu highlights she listed include ropa vieja; a stuffed piña, a hollowed-out pineapple filled with shrimp, red pimento, crema and melted cheese; tostones rellenos with carnitas; and both Ecuadorian and Colombian empanadas. "I've lived on the same block for 53 years, so Edgewater and Andersonville is my home," Guerrero told Block Club.
The restaurant held a preview event on September 23. As of the September 28 report, the opening was still described as mid-October, with no specific day announced.
November 1 starts a different calendar
The day after Fright on Farragut, the Chamber's 2026 events calendar shifts from Halloween to food. It lists Autumn Restaurant Week for November 1 through 15. The Chamber says its dates are subject to change. Its 2026 Restaurant Week page hadn't published menus or a list of participating restaurants when we checked. Treat the window as planned until the lineup is posted. For a sense of scale, last year's first edition ran November 1 through 9, according to Block Club. The 2026 listing nearly doubles that window.
Another opening is on the November schedule. The Fifty/50 Group lists Sin & Tonic, which it describes as "A Neighborhood Cocktail Bar," as opening in Andersonville in November 2026. The group hasn't published an address.
Other dates on the Chamber's calendar before the holidays:
- Tuesday, October 13: Bingofesten
- Sunday, November 22: Photos with Santa at The Guesthouse Hotel
- Saturday, November 28: Small Business Saturday
The Chamber's holiday tree lighting and a Late Night Andersonville are listed for December 4, a full month after Restaurant Week begins.
Living close to Clark and Farragut means October 31 is the busiest day of the season on your own block. If your home sits on or near the parade route, Halloween weekend can also tell you how your block works for visitors, parking and foot traffic. That's useful to know before a sale or a move. If you're curious how a home near the Clark corridor would be valued this fall, Blume Group can walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation.
