The Town of Oyster Bay's Family Fall and Halloween Festival returns on Saturday, October 24, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Marjorie R. Post Community Park, at 451 Unqua Road in Massapequa. Admission is free, the event runs rain or shine, and costumes are encouraged for everyone attending.

Pick a pumpkin, ride the hay wagon

The afternoon centers on a U-Pick pumpkin patch where children choose their own pumpkin to take home, while supplies last. Around it the town sets up Halloween games and giveaways, inflatables and the hayride that has become the festival's fixture. Food trucks sell specialties on site, so the free afternoon can stretch through lunch without anyone leaving the park.

Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino announced the date in early October, pointing residents to the pumpkin picking and the hayride as the draws and reminding families that the festival celebrates the fall season as much as Halloween itself.

A park that has made a habit of this

The town has brought the festival to the same park each fall for years. Its own announcements place the event at Marjorie Post in late October in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, always on a Saturday afternoon, always free. The 2026 edition keeps every piece of that formula in place, down to the 1 to 4 p.m. window.

The timing puts the festival on the Saturday before Halloween week, in a town October that has already included the Oyster Festival's return to downtown Oyster Bay on October 17 and 18. For families mapping out the run-up to October 31, this is the town's free afternoon of it: no admission, no tickets to anything inside, with money changing hands only at the food trucks.

If you go

The Family Fall and Halloween Festival is Saturday, October 24, 1 to 4 p.m., at Marjorie R. Post Community Park, 451 Unqua Road, Massapequa. It is free and runs rain or shine. Questions go to the town's Department of Community and Youth Services at 516-797-7925.

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