Get your costumes and treat bags ready! Downtown businesses will be giving away plenty of treats. Make sure to pick up a candy map and a bag at the HDR Info Booth on Court Square. Trick or treating will be happening from 1 - 5 PM, with two special trick-or-treat events at 12 - 1 PM (details below).

Trick or Treat on Liberty & Mason St (12 - 1 PM)

Start Skeleton Fest early with a FREE upgraded Trick-or-Treating experience on Liberty and Mason Street during Skeleton Festival from 12-1 PM! The first 30 trick-or-treaters at each participating location on Mason and Liberty Street in Downtown Harrisonburg will get a treat bag filled with toys, candy and possibly $10 Downtown Dollars inside!

Learn More Here.

Presented by Lantz Construction, Renewal by Andersen, and Leafguard.

Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treating (12 - 1 PM)

Neurodivergent children and their caregivers are invited to a Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat Hour, with the businesses in Shops at Agora, on Saturday, October 24 from 12-1pm. During this 1-hour event, trick-or-treaters will follow floor stickers and pick up a new seasonal treat (both candy and toys), at each business, in a calmer, more controlled environment. From 12-1pm, this area will ONLY be open to trick-or-treaters who will benefit from a low-sensory experience.

Learn More Here.

Presented by Park View Credit Union & Green Valley Book Fair.

Sip & Stroll is an element of our events that replaces the usual beer garden. Adults aged 21+ can purchase a beer, wine, or cocktails at a participating brewery, cidery, or restaurant and enjoy it while strolling downtown.

Plenty on businesses are offering seasonal drink specials! See the full list on our Sip & Stroll page linked below.

Learn More

Find a rubber duck in Downtown Harrisonburg during Skeleton Festival, and you could win a prize!

As you enjoy the free community festival on Saturday, October 24 from 1-5pm, stop in participating businesses to see if you can find one of the Halloween ducks hidden around downtown. Find one and it's yours to take home!

If there is a ghost on the bottom of the duck, it means you won an additional prize, which could include Downtown Dollars, or a prize donated by one of the participating businesses. Show your duck to an employee to redeem your prize.

Open to all ages. Please only claim one duck per business so more folks can enjoy!

Learn More Here.

Presented by Horizons Edge Sports Campus

Check out the Jimmy Madison’s Parking Lot for fun, free, kid-friendly activities! Activities and booths include -

• Arts & crafts with JMU Forbes Center for the Performing Arts

• JMUArts Mobile

• JMU Chemistry spooky science

• Dia de Los Muertos & ofrenda display with Cambiando Vidas

• Green Valley Book Fair booth

• Horizons Edge booth

Presented by JMU Forbes Center for the Performing Arts

Check out the full list of food trucks and vendors in the full schedule below.

Come to Skeleton Festival dressed your best and sign up for the in-person costume contest on the Court Square lawn! This competition is open to all ages. A judging committee will select the winners of the following categories.

CATEGORIES

• Pets

• Pre-K (under 5)

• Elementary School (5 – 11 years old)

• Middle/High School (12 – 17  years old)

• Adult (18+)

• Duo/ Group

Learn More Here.

Presented by Dirt Dog Cleaning, Domino’s, and LD&B.

Artists, artist groups, and community members of all ages are invited to participate in Harrisonburg’s annual chalk art celebration, Chalk It Up! to the Arts, October 24, 2026!

With four featured professional street painters, 13 Chalking Crypts, and a community freeform chalking space, the day will be filled with an abundance of creatively spooky festivity in the parking lot of Pendleton Community Bank during Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance’s Skeleton Festival.

Thanks to Chalk it Up! to the Arts sponsor James McHone Jewelry, all chalking materials are provided, and participation is FREE!

Sign up - solo, or with friends - by Oct 11 for your own dedicated Chalking Crypt space to make Halloween/Día de los Muertos-themed artwork throughout the festival, 10 am-5 pm. Available spaces are each roughly 8 feet wide and 14 feet long; registered artists may use as much of that designated space as they like.

Any visitors who would like to drop in spontaneously (no registration needed) and create a small-scale chalk drawing are invited to pick up some chalk from the ACV welcome tent and make their mark in the designated community freeform space throughout the event.

Four featured chalk artists - Erik Greenawalt, Robert Mott, Abigail Turner, and Holland Winslow - will create large-scale feature drawings; visitors can chat with these artists and see how their masterpieces transform during the day!

Learn more (and register for your own chalking space!) at valleyarts.org/chalk-it-up-to-the-arts/.