Old Midland's Halloween Runs on Two Saturdays, and the First One Is Busier

If Halloween is Saturday, Oct. 31, why does Saturday, Oct. 24 have more events scheduled in and around Old Midland?

Halloween's Saturday is only partly open for parties, because the afternoon goes to trick-or-treating and the evening goes to the neighborhoods. A good share of this year's events landed on the Saturday before instead. The day before Halloween falls on a Friday, so central Midland gets two Saturdays of Halloween with a week of weeknight events in between. Look at the listings in order and Oct. 24 turns out to be the packed day. Oct. 31 has fewer events, but they run in a set order from early morning until dark.

The Saturday Before Is Where the Overlap Happens

Saturday, Oct. 24 starts at 10 a.m. on West Wall Street and is still going after dark. Several of the events are free, some overlap, and two of the daytime ones sit a few blocks apart on the west side of central Midland.

That table holds seven events in a single day, against one event on the Friday night before it. The City's Halloweenfest runs Friday, Oct. 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hogan Park, 1201 E. Wadley Ave., which is the one large city event outside central Midland this week.

Truck or Treat and Boo Fest Share a Three-Hour Window

The two biggest daytime events overlap from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and they sit close together. The Midland Fire Department's free Truck or Treat is at Central Fire Station on the 1500 block of West Wall. It opens at 10 a.m. and wraps up at 2 p.m.

Boo Fest with Modern Pop Up Market opens an hour later at the Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave., and runs until 5 p.m. The listing describes a family day of local shopping with candy and costume contests. Admission is free, and Heritage USA Federal Credit Union is the presenting sponsor.

Truck or Treat closes at 2 p.m. and Boo Fest goes three hours longer, so you don't have to rush from one to the other. A family can start at the fire station in the morning and finish at the museum in the afternoon. For anyone still out after 2 p.m., It Makes Cents' Halloween Social on South Pecos adds trunk-or-treating and vendors until 7 p.m.

After that the evening events are ticketed and mostly for adults. The Furr Ball fills the Petroleum Club on West Wall from 6 to 11 p.m. The West Texas Symphony's Haunting Halloween Harmonies begins at 7:30 p.m. at Wagner Noël, and doors open at 6:30. The same 7:30 curtain applies at Midland Community Theatre, where Meteor Shower is playing in Mabee Theatre II. If you want two of those three, you'll have to choose, because they all run at the same hour.

The Week Between Belongs to Friday, Oct. 30

The midweek evenings are quiet. The week's second cluster of events lands on the Friday night before Halloween, and it moves from early evening into dark.

• 4:30–5:30 p.m. Once Upon a Spooky Tale at the Downtown Midland County Public Library, 301 W. Missouri Ave., with Halloween stories and crafts. It's free.
• 6–10 p.m. The Goodfellas Hair Studio Halloween Bash at 2101 W. Wadley Ave., Suite 9B, with trick-or-treating, a car show, vendors, food trucks, kids' activities and a DJ. It's free.
• Sunset. Monsters, Inc. on the Great Lawn at Centennial Park, 200 W. Wall St., with food trucks on site, as part of the park's 2026 movie season.
• 7:30 p.m. Meteor Shower at Midland Community Theatre, Mabee Theatre II.

The library program ends right around the time the Goodfellas party opens, so those two fit back to back. After that, Friday's options overlap. The Goodfellas party runs until 10 p.m., Monsters, Inc. starts at sunset on West Wall and the theater curtain goes up at 7:30, so you'll have to pick one for the evening.

During the same week, the Arts Council of Midland has its Día de los Muertos exhibition featuring Melody Herrera at 806 S. Main St. The exhibition opened Oct. 1 and runs through Nov. 15, 2026. The Arts Council held its festival on Oct. 17, and the exhibition stays up well past Halloween weekend, so it's available on any of these days.

Oct. 31 Runs in Order, Morning to Dusk

Halloween has fewer events than Oct. 24, but they're spaced out, so they can be done in order without overlap.

1. 8 a.m.–noon. Halloween Market at the Midland Downtown Farmers Market, 404 N. Colorado St. The listing promises trick-or-treating and costume contests for kids, families and pets. It is also the last Saturday of the market's April-through-October hours. The market moves to a 9 a.m. start from November through March, so this is the last 8 a.m. opening until spring.
2. 2–4 p.m. Trick or Treat Downtown. Participating downtown businesses hand out candy for two hours in the afternoon.
3. 7:30 p.m. Meteor Shower at Midland Community Theatre, its last Saturday performance.

The two-hour downtown window is the part with the most names attached. Downtown Midland bills the afternoon as a warm-up for the evening and invites families to "start your night of fun with us before heading out to your neighborhoods!" Their list of participating businesses for Oct. 31, 2026 includes:

• Food and drink: Aviator Cookie Company, Beatniks, Brinstar Arcade Bar & Grill, Decker's Sports Bar, Maru Sushi + Bar, Molasses, O's Mid & Main, Pizza Baker, Pizza Sam's, Three Bridges Distillery & Taproom, Whichcraft Taproom
• Shops and services: Ace Hardware, Bookmarks, FILL, Heather 'n Holly, Joyful Tantrum, Little Forks Outfitters, Lux the Salon, Modern Explorers Guild, Platinum Electronics, Serendipity Road, Ways to Wellness
• Also on the list: Bay Shores Cleaning Company, Larson Insurance Solutions, PokerFace Aesthetic Club, Riverside Place, The H Hotel, WAYGFT Recovery and Connection Center

That's close to 30 businesses in a two-hour window, and it ends at 4 p.m. The market wraps up at noon. Downtown trick-or-treat runs from 2 to 4. After that the schedule leaves the evening open for trick-or-treating at home, which is exactly what the organizers' invitation says it's for.

The Weekend's Last Ticket Is Nov. 1

Midland Community Theatre's Meteor Shower closes Sunday, Nov. 1 with a 2:30 p.m. matinee, and that performance is listed as Pay-What-You-Can. It's the last performance of a run that started Oct. 16, and after it, Halloween weekend in central Midland is over. The other weekend shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., so anyone who missed the Oct. 24 curtain because of the symphony or the Furr Ball still has Oct. 25, Oct. 30, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

For the next two weekends, the Arts Council's exhibition at 806 S. Main is the one item from this list still open. It closes Nov. 15.

Both Saturdays run through a fire station on West Wall, a museum on West Missouri, a theater on West Wadley and the downtown business district. If you're weighing a home in Old Midland and want to know which blocks put you closest to them, Taylor Dickerson can walk you through it street by street. Let's Connect.