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A dirt road under the oaks in late October, the leaves down and the light low. The island’s color peaks in the Halloween week, two or three weeks after the mainland’s.
Halloween on Martha's Vineyard, town by town: Edgartown's Happy Haunting on the Sunday before (October 25, 2026), Vineyard Haven's puppet parade at 4 PM and William Street trick-or-treating with the roads closed, Oak Bluffs on Circuit Avenue and in the Campground, the museum's Halloween on the Hill, the fire-department parties up-island, the haunted house, and how to come for it off-island.
Halloween on Martha’s Vineyard is a small-town holiday done with the whole island’s energy, and it runs for a week, not a night. Edgartown does its trick-or-treating from shop to shop on the Sunday before, in daylight. Vineyard Haven does a puppet parade down Main Street at four o’clock and then closes William and Spring Streets for the biggest door-to-door night on the island. Oak Bluffs makes a Saturday of it on Circuit Avenue and in the Campground, and the fire departments in Chilmark and Tisbury turn out with pizza, cider and a haunted house. In 2026 Halloween falls on a Saturday, which makes it the easiest year in a while to come for the whole thing. Here is how the week runs, town by town, from the 2025 program, which the towns repeat closely each year; the 2026 postings arrive in mid-October and we update this page as they do.
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Know Before You Go
Happy Haunting: trick-or-treating shop to shop along Main Street, 10 AM to 1 PM in 2024 and 2025, whatever the weather, organized by Visit Edgartown. The FARM Institute at Katama runs Barnyard Boo the same weekend morning, and the Edgartown Yacht Club has held a costume cocktail party for members and guests.
The haunted house at Martha’s Vineyard Screenprinting, 426 State Road, on both nights (a kid-friendly hour from 4, the scary version after 5; $5 for children ten and under, $10 adults, for the Tisbury Fire Department). On the 31st: the library’s afternoon craft and film, the Chamber’s Bark and Boo dog parade at noon, the puppet parade at 4 from the Mansion House down Main Street with trick-or-treating and a costume contest, then William Street from 5:30 with the roads closed until nine.
Halloween on the Hill at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven, 4:30 to 6 PM in 2025, free with donations welcome: trick-or-treating with candy and non-candy options, popcorn, games, crafts and a sensory-friendly quiet room. Parking is very limited; walk or bike up the hill.
Halloween in Oak Bluffs on Circuit Avenue and in the Campground: trick-or-treating at the businesses, the costume parade and contest, free films at the Strand, the school’s pumpkins. In 2025 the Ritz added a costume party with $500 in prizes on the night. Vineyard Avenue closed to cars from 4 to 8 PM for the door-to-door crowd.
The West Tisbury library party from 3 to 5 with treats and hayrides, the Agricultural Hall from 6 with pizza, games and cemetery hayrides after dark, and the Chilmark firefighters’ party at the Chilmark Community Center from 5, pizza and mulled cider for a packed room of costumes. Circuit Arts has staged a Halloween show at the Grange Hall the two nights before.
Main Street in Edgartown under the trees, flags out and the shops open. On the Sunday before Halloween the sidewalks fill with costumes from ten in the morning and the shopkeepers hand out the candy.
The week sits in the off-season, which is the point: the ferry has room, the rooms are 40 to 60 percent below August, and the island is in full color. The Steamship Authority is on its fall timetable through October 22 and its winter one from the 23rd, so every boat lands at Vineyard Haven, roughly every 75 minutes, and a car is a flat $127 each way in October and $79 from November 1; walk on for $11 and ride the fare-free bus, which reaches all three Halloween towns. The Vineyard Haven parade is a few blocks from the terminal, Oak Bluffs is a bus ride or a bike path, and Edgartown’s Sunday is the Route 1 bus. Our ferry guide has the timetable, the fall guide the closures, and this weekend on the island will carry the confirmed times as the towns post them.
Edgartown Town Hall on Main Street in November, the garlands already up. Halloween week is the hinge: the pumpkins come down and the lights go up within days.
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Know Before You Go
The towns confirm their Halloween programs in mid-October, and the Oak Bluffs celebration has been held on the Saturday before Halloween in some years and on the day in others. Check the town and library pages, or this page, in the last two weeks of October.
Vineyard Haven closes Spring and William Streets from the parade until about 9 PM, and Oak Bluffs has closed Vineyard Avenue from 4 to 8. If you are staying on either, park before four.
Sunset is about 5:40 in the last week of October, and the door-to-door streets have no streetlights to speak of. Reflective tape and a torch are the island parents’ rule.
The Chamber’s Bark and Boo in Vineyard Haven is the dog event; the parades and the Campground are crowded and loud, and most families leave the dog at the house.
The clocks change on November 1 and sunset drops to 4:40. If Halloween is the trip, add the Sunday: the island is at its quietest and cheapest, and the October guide and the Christmas in Edgartown guide cover what comes before and after.
Step 1 · WhenMonth PickerTwelve months compared on NOAA numbers, crowds, prices and what is open. 
Step 2 · DaysDay-by-Day Trip PlannerMorning, afternoon and evening sketched for every day, events dropped in, emailed to you. 
Step 3 · CostTrip Cost CalculatorFerry, beds with the rooms tax, meals, getting around and activities in one honest range. Our own footage from the town that hosts the island’s biggest Halloween night.
Edgartown’s Happy Haunting is Sunday, October 25, trick-or-treating shop to shop on Main Street in the morning. Vineyard Haven’s puppet parade and street trick-or-treating, the museum’s Halloween on the Hill, Oak Bluffs’ celebration on Circuit Avenue and the up-island parties are on Saturday, October 31. Confirm the times in mid-October; the towns post them then.
Vineyard Haven: the puppet parade leaves the Mansion House at 4 PM and William Street trick-or-treating starts at 5:30, with Spring and William Streets closed to cars until about nine. Oak Bluffs’ Circuit Avenue businesses and the Campground are the other big one, with Vineyard Avenue closed for the door-to-door crowd.
Martha’s Vineyard Screenprinting at 426 State Road in Vineyard Haven runs one on October 30 and 31, with a kid-friendly hour from 4 PM and the scary version afterward, $5 for children ten and under and $10 for adults, benefiting the Tisbury Fire Department.
Yes: the island is in peak color, rooms are 40 to 60 percent below August, the ferry has room and the towns put on a week of free events. It is the off-season, so plan meals around the year-round restaurants and check what is open.
The parades, the street trick-or-treating, Happy Haunting, Halloween on the Hill, the library parties and the Chilmark and West Tisbury parties are free. The haunted house charges $5 to $10, and the Ritz costume party is a bar night for adults.
Event times and street closures are from the Vineyard Gazette’s and Martha’s Vineyard Times’ Halloween coverage of October 2024 and October 2025, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s 2025 event page, the Gazette calendar’s Happy Haunting listing and Visit Edgartown; the 2026 dates are the calendar. The towns publish their 2026 programs in mid-October and we update this page when they do. Ferry fares and dates are the Steamship Authority’s 2026 schedule.
Island tip of the day Transport No. 11 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
Uber and Lyft operate on MV but surge hard in peak season. Local taxis are often steadier: a typical cross-town ride runs about $28, van-pool style, and airport pickups add a small rideshare surcharge.
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