Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. Last year, a forecast pushed the Freret Street Festival out of spring and road crews shut down Ghost Manor on Magazine Street. Because of those two disruptions, Uptown has a full day of Halloween on Saturday, Oct. 31. Freret runs its festival in the daytime, St. Charles Avenue has its skeleton yard around the clock, and Magazine Street has a 20-minute light-and-sound show after dark. Each one is on this year's calendar for a different reason.
Freret Moved to Fall After a Forecast
For years, the Freret Street Festival was a spring event. In March 2025, organizers canceled it because of bad-weather forecasts and rescheduled it for Saturday, Nov. 1. Gambit reported at the time that organizers planned to keep the first Saturday in November from then on because the weather is more hospitable. WWL's coverage of that postponement said the safety concern was high winds, lightning and thunder near stages that run on electricity.
The 2026 date is one week earlier than that plan. The festival's own site lists Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Freret Street between Napoleon Avenue and Valmont Street. In late September, WWL's list of weather cancellations reported that the monthly Freret Street Market, a separate event, had been canceled. In the same item, the station said "a Halloween edition of the Freret Street Festival is still planned for Saturday, Oct. 31." The festival that left spring to avoid storms now lands on Halloween itself.
The organizers list the scale this way:
| Festival element | Count listed by organizers |
|---|---|
| Blocks of Freret Street | 6 |
| Local artists and chefs | More than 200 |
| Brick-and-mortar businesses | 46 |
| Music stages | 3 |
| Bands | 20 |
The layout also changed last year. With the Trader Joe's under construction on Napoleon Avenue, the big stage at that end of the strip moved into the Jena Street parking lot, where the monthly Freret Markets are held. Gambit noted that the new spot gave the crowd more room in front of the stage. A new placement for the Valmont Stage added a block at the other end. The festival's music lineup page has a 10/31/2026 lineup posted as an image, so check it the morning of the festival.
Getting there takes some planning. New Orleans & Company's Freret Street guide suggests taking the St. Charles streetcar and walking about 10 minutes. It also notes that the free lot at 2501 Jena St. fills up on festival days. On a Saturday that is also Halloween, that lot is unlikely to have spaces by midday.
Ghost Manor Returns After Construction Kept It Dark
On Magazine Street, the problem last year was roadwork. Ghost Manor is David and Jessica Gentry's animatronic show at the corner of Second Street. In 2025, they canceled it for the first time in 13 years. NOLA.com's Doug MacCash wrote that construction crews had cut into the pavement, stopped traffic and limited pedestrian access near the house. He also reported that the street has since been repaired and the detour signs are gone.
The last full season was 2024, so the Gentrys had nearly two years to prepare this one. David Gentry told NOLA.com he spent the off year visiting other Halloween displays and taking his daughter trick-or-treating, and that it reminded him why he does the show. He described the 2026 version to the paper this way:
"This year, it's about content, not extra gadgetry."
The full presentation lasts 20 minutes. It includes singing robot skeletons, animated projections in the upper windows, lighting synced to the music, and more than 80 lit jack-o'-lanterns. A four-minute segment called "Hello Darkness" is set to Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence." In that segment, anime-style puppets in the windows cover their ears, eyes and mouths, mummies appear, figures wander with candles, and the skeletons at the center glow in neon colors. The song has a personal connection for the Gentrys. They bought the Victorian house in 2011 from Peggy Harper Simon, songwriter Paul Simon's former wife.
Ghost Manor runs on three long weekends, and the last one begins Thursday, Oct. 29. The free show runs from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 29 to 31, at 2502 Magazine St. The display draws thousands of people to the sidewalks around the house each season, and Gentry arranges for police officers to manage the crowd. A Thursday visit is the least crowded option left.
The Skeleton House Went Up Early and Stays Up Past Halloween
The third tradition was affected by timing too, but this time the change was planned. Louellen Berger started building her skeleton display at St. Charles Avenue and State Street a week earlier than usual. NOLA.com reported that she started early because house guests were coming. The head start also let her unveil this year's centerpiece in time for Dolly Parton Day in New Orleans on Sept. 25.
That centerpiece is an 8-foot skeleton labeled "Our Dear Dolly De-Parton'd." It wears a flowing pink gown, and its blond bouffant is held up with Mod Podge. Berger told the paper she wanted it to "make her the standout" among the musicians in the yard. Some of its accessories are reused. Dolly's silver boots, butterfly guitar and jewelry once belonged to Berger's 2024 Taylor Swift skeleton, which she has since retired.
The yard has 80 or more celebrity skeletons, each labeled with a pun. The new local ones are the easiest to find:
- "Todd Graves," for the chicken finger founder
- Mark Romig's "PodCasket," for the Saints announcer
- "Yvonne LaGore," for the clothing designer
- "Bill Ghoulring," for the businessman
- "Benson Bone" and "Bryan Bat," for the backflipping pop singer and the winged actor
- "Scooby-Boo!," a large dog skeleton suggested by Berger's grandchildren
The display grew out of one plastic skeleton that Berger posed napping in an oak tree more than 20 years ago. A Times-Picayune photographer captioned his picture of it "Lazy Bones." Now it covers the front yard of 6000 St. Charles Ave. from the gate to the roof. It is viewable 24 hours a day through Sunday, Nov. 1. Ghost Manor has set evening hours and Freret has festival hours, but the skeleton yard is open at any time of day. It is also the only one of the three still up the day after Halloween.
How the Three Fit Into One Saturday
Because each event has different hours, all three fit into one day without overlapping:
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Freret Street Festival | Freret, Napoleon Ave. to Valmont St. | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Skeleton House | 6000 St. Charles Ave., at State St. | Open all day and night, through Nov. 1 |
| Ghost Manor | 2502 Magazine St., at Second St. | 7 to 10 p.m. |
Read from top to bottom, the table works as a plan for the day:
- Freret in the afternoon. Arrive by streetcar or on foot rather than counting on the Jena Street lot. Stay through the late-afternoon sets on whichever stages the posted lineup favors.
- St. Charles at dusk. Stop at State Street once the festival closes at 6. Seeing the skeleton yard in the last of the daylight makes the puns easier to read.
- Magazine after 7. Ghost Manor's 20-minute presentation runs during the show's 7 to 10 p.m. hours, so the evening leaves room to linger.
If Saturday is too crowded, Thursday or Friday night works for Ghost Manor and the Skeleton House, and Sunday works for the Skeleton House alone.
Next year the calendar may shift again. Gambit reported that the festival's stated plan was the first Saturday in November. In 2027, Halloween falls on a Sunday and the first Saturday in November is Nov. 6.
As a native New Orleanian, I love seeing Uptown's own blocks host Halloween. If you're out on Freret, St. Charles or Magazine on Halloween weekend and want to talk about the streets behind these displays, I'm happy to share what I know about them. Kara Lashley · Let's Connect.
