Halloween weekend in the Triangle: where to go Saturday, and what to do with the pumpkins after

Our street in Cary has been in full costume for a week, and with Halloween on a Saturday for the first time since 2020, the whole weekend is spoken for. Here is where I'd point you on Saturday around Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and Durham, nearly all of it free, and then the four things I do around the house on the Sunday after, because the clocks change and the pumpkins start to sag at about the same time.

What is going on in the Triangle on Halloween Saturday?

Sunset in Raleigh is 6:20 p.m. and it is properly dark by about 6:45, so the daytime events below are the warm-up and the porches are the main event.

Holly Springs

• HollyFest, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jefferson L. Sugg Farm at Bass Lake Park, 2401 Grigsby Avenue. Free, rain or shine, and it doubles as the town's 150th anniversary party: local artists and food vendors, beer from local breweries, line dancing on the hour, a scavenger hunt through the HollyQuest app, fire engines and yard waste trucks to climb on, and a mini pumpkin for the first 1,000 kids. Parking on the neighborhood streets next to Sugg Farm is prohibited and the Hopper shuttle is not running, so use the event lots off Grigsby, Blooming Meadows and Teal Lake, or get dropped off beside the field and picked up at Womble Park.

Raleigh

• Day of the Dead 5K and Street Festival, downtown on Wilmington Street at Centro, 106 S. Wilmington St. The 5K starts at 9 a.m. and runs through historic Oakwood Cemetery; the street festival with altars, dancers, food and a costume contest is free and runs until about noon. It is the event's 14th year and proceeds go to the Fox Road Boys & Girls Club.
• Trick or Treat at North Hills starts at 10 a.m. at the shops along Main at North Hills Street. Free.
• Halloween Harvest Festival at Triangle Town Center, noon to 7 p.m., free admission.
• Halloween at Hogwarts with the North Carolina Symphony at Meymandi Concert Hall, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Ticketed, costumes encouraged.
• Trunk or Treat and Pumpkin Parlor at John P. "Top" Greene Park, 3 to 6 p.m., and Halloween Village at Lafayette Village in North Raleigh, 3 to 5 p.m. Both free.
• Carolina Ballet's Dracula closes its run this weekend at Fletcher Opera Theater, with performances Saturday and a Sunday matinee. Ticketed.

Cary and Apex

• Neither town sets trick-or-treat hours. Cary's Halloween page simply says to review its safety tips "before you head out for trick-or-treating on October 31," and Apex has always kept it on the 31st whatever the weekday. In practice porch lights come on around 6 and most streets are done by 8:30.
• Scarecrow Row at Apex Community Park, 2200 Laura Duncan Road, is up through Halloween, and the park is open until 10 p.m. Apex's Tour of Frights map of decorated homes is the town's other tradition; the current map lives on the Seasonal Tours page at apexnc.org when it is posted.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie party at The Cary Theater on East Chatham Street has its final showing Saturday at 8 p.m.

Durham, Garner and beyond

• BooFest at the Museum of Life and Science, 433 W. Murray Avenue, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Included with admission ($24 adults, $19 ages 3 to 15, members free): science demonstrations, crafts and animal encounters across the campus.
• Not So Scary Trunk or Treat at the Hope Valley Farms YMCA in Durham, 1 to 4 p.m., free, and Maplewood Cemetery Halloween Tours at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• Trick-or-Treat the Trail around the one-mile loop at White Deer Park in Garner, 3 to 5:30 p.m., free.
• Halloween at The Plant in Pittsboro, 4 to 9 p.m., free: costume contest, night market, parade and live music, if you want to make an evening of it on the Chatham side.

Times and details come from the organizers' pages and the weekend guides linked in the sources. Outdoor events can shift with weather, so check before you drive.

What is there to do on Sunday, November 1?

The clocks fall back at 2 a.m., so you get the hour back and a slow morning. If you want to leave the house: the Cary Underground Market at Bond Brothers Beer Company on East Cedar Street runs noon to 4 with vendors and bands, free; Day of the Dogs pet parade and costume contest at Crank Arm Brewing in Raleigh is 2 to 5 p.m., free; and the Pirates and Mermaids Holiday Market at Haven Farm in Knightdale is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., free. Carolina Ballet's Dracula has its closing matinee at 2.

The Sunday reset: four things to do around the house

This is the part I actually wrote the post for. The time change and the end of Halloween are the two most reliable calendar reminders a homeowner gets all year, and they fall on the same morning.

1. Change the clocks, test the alarms. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, November 1. The U.S. Fire Administration's guidance is simple: test every smoke alarm monthly, replace the battery in 9-volt and hardwired-backup alarms at least once a year, and replace the whole unit ten years from the manufacture date printed on the back. If you don't know the date on yours, Sunday is the day to pull one off the ceiling and look. Carbon monoxide alarms follow the same rhythm, and this is also the weekend the furnace comes on for real.
2. Deal with the pumpkins the right way. This is the question I get asked every November, and the answer depends on your town.
   • Raleigh: the city has told residents for years to keep pumpkins out of the bright green yard waste cart, because the Yard Waste Center is not set up to process food waste. Reuse them, compost them, or bag them for the regular trash cart.
   • Anywhere in Wake County: the county's food waste drop-offs take pumpkins and gourds. They are at Convenience Center #2, 6120 Old Smithfield Road in Apex; #4, 3600 Yates Mill Pond Road in Raleigh; and #7, 9024 Deponie Drive in Raleigh, open daily 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pull the candle out first, and leave painted or glittered pumpkins at home, since the compost program cannot take them.
   • Durham: the city's 2026 Pumpkin Drop page says it is piloting a new approach this year: yard waste customers can put pumpkins straight into the yard waste cart through the month of November. Note that the Club Boulevard disposal center was closed in late October for a water main break, so check the page before driving there.
   • Cary: use the Cary Collects tool or app to confirm what your cart takes this week, or drive it to the Apex county site above. If you have a garden bed, smashing a pumpkin into it and covering it with leaves is the no-car option.
3. Walk the porch and the yard. Decorations and extension cords come in before the first wet week. With dark arriving before 6:30 now, Sunday evening is also a good time to stand at the curb and see which exterior lights are out; a dark front walk is the first thing a buyer or a guest notices, and the easiest fix on this list. Then start on the leaves. If you are in Raleigh, your yard waste is now on a weekly schedule and the loose-leaf trucks are gone, which I covered in the leaf season post.
4. Check the candy-season basics. Porch step lights, a handrail that wobbles, a doorbell camera that lost its Wi-Fi: Halloween night is the one evening a year a hundred people walk up your front steps in the dark, and it tends to show you what needs fixing. Write it down Sunday while you remember.

One more, since people ask: the Sunday pumpkin runs and the smoke alarm batteries are the kind of small, boring maintenance that shows up in a buyer's inspection report as "no issues noted." Houses that get a Sunday like this every fall sell easier than the ones that don't.

Sources

• Town of Holly Springs: HollyFest 2026
• Town of Cary: Halloween Events
• Museum of Life and Science: BooFest
• Day of the Dead 5K & Street Festival, Raleigh (October 31, 2026)
• Martin Marietta Center: NC Symphony, Halloween at Hogwarts
• DoRaleigh: Triangle Event Guide, Halloween Weekend, October 30 to November 1, 2026
• The Raleigh Local: Halloween Events in the Triangle 2026
• Wake County: Food Waste Recycling drop-off sites
• City of Durham: 2026 Pumpkin Drop
• NIST: Daylight Saving Time 2026
• U.S. Fire Administration: Smoke alarms

Event times are as published by the organizers and weekend guides on October 30, 2026 and can change with weather. Disposal rules are the towns' and county's as of this week; confirm with your town before you load the car.

Thinking about a move once the decorations come down?

November is quieter than people expect: fewer new listings, but the buyers who are out are serious, and a house that shows well at 5:30 in the dark stands out. If you are wondering what yours would bring this winter, ask me for a home value and I will give you a straight number and a plan. If you are shopping, start a search and I will flag what is worth seeing before the holidays. Call or text me at (984) 217-5537.

And if a friend or neighbor is thinking about making a move, I'd be grateful for the introduction.

Last updated: October 31, 2026