San Carlos Goblin Walk 2026: Planning Around Harrington Park’s Closure

Harrington Park sits at 753 Laurel Street, in the middle of the 700 block. Since April 6 it has been behind construction fencing. The city's Goblin Walk page still tells families to pick up a trick-or-treat bag "at Harrington Park," the same instruction it has carried for years. The event itself is set for Friday, October 30, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. That is 22 days from today.

The park closed for its refresh on April 6, and the city expects work to finish in early 2027. So the Goblin Walk has never run with its traditional hub closed off before, and this is the year it does.

The route passes right by the fence

Children 7 and under, with an adult, trick-or-treat down Laurel Street from San Carlos Avenue to Arroyo Avenue. They visit the businesses displaying a Goblin Walk sign. The city publishes an interactive stop map, and that map is a better guide to who is participating than any list I could give you.

Last year's walk used the 600, 700 and 800 blocks, and the city closed those blocks to cars starting at 3:00 p.m. for safety. I could not find this year's closure hours, so I won't state them. Harrington Park is in the 700 block, so the fence is in the middle of that stretch. Two businesses sit directly beside it. The city wrote to the owners of Mama Coco's and Faith & Spirits, which share a border with the park, ahead of the April closure. Whether either takes part on the 30th is up to them and the stop map.

The construction work has a schedule of its own. Crews work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Their vehicles come and go through the alley behind Laurel Street, entering and leaving by way of Cherry and Olive. The city says customer access to Laurel storefronts is unaffected. It also removed four short-term parking spaces behind the park and turned them into a drop-off and loading zone. The walk starts at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday, so it begins before the crew's 5:00 p.m. quitting time. The city's page does not say how it plans to handle that overlap.

Six hundred bags against a much bigger crowd

The city's page says the first 600 trick-or-treaters get a bag, either at Harrington Park or from any Goblin Walk volunteer. The organizers' past attendance figures are roughly 3,000 to 5,000 people, including 1,500 to 2,000 costumed kids. Six hundred bags covers between 30 and 40 percent of that costumed group, so the bags run short of the crowd.

This matters because of how the bag line used to work. The park gave the bag line a fixed address. With the park closed, "any Goblin Walk volunteer" becomes the practical answer, and the city's page hasn't yet said where those volunteers will stand. The event has run since 2012 with the Parks and Recreation Committee behind it, and in 2023 the committee closed the street and worked it on the day. A committee member once described the walk as the first trick-or-treating experience for some of the kids. I would plan for a first-timer's evening, with a short walk, an early arrival and no dependence on getting a bag.

Thursday night at the Hiller comes first

The Hiller Aviation Museum holds a Trunk or Treat on Thursday, October 29, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., on the museum's outdoor Compass Rose. The Hiller calls it part of its annual Halloween Haunted Hangar celebration, and the event listing describes it as the first Trunk or Treat. Admission to the Trunk or Treat is free. Haunted Hangar tickets are sold separately, and you don't need one to attend.

The museum also lists kids' activities on Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to noon. Those include painting the Cessna Cardinal and checking out an aircraft.

Belmont's Boo Bash, a free event with its own trunk-or-treat, is also on October 29. Both events fall on the same Thursday evening.

The three nights, side by side

Halloween itself falls on a Saturday this year, so the Goblin Walk lands the evening before. It is the only one of the three with a fixed age cap.

What to confirm with the city before Friday

Three details decide how smooth the Goblin Walk evening goes, and none of them appeared in anything I could find for 2026.

1. Where bags are handed out. The city's page still names Harrington Park. The city's own park pages say the park is under construction in 2026.
2. When Laurel Street closes to cars. The 2025 closure began at 3:00 p.m. on the 600 to 800 blocks. The 2026 hours are not yet posted where I looked.
3. Which businesses are handing out candy. The interactive stop map is the reference. Businesses can register to take part, so the list can change until the day.

The city's Goblin Walk page and its downtown revitalization page are the two places to check. The revitalization page is where the Harrington Park updates are posted, and the Goblin Walk page carries the event details. I would look at both again on Thursday, October 29, because a change of plans would most likely be announced in the last couple of days.

The fence is the first phase of a longer plan

Harrington Park is the first project under the Downtown Specific Plan, which took effect on February 25, 2026. The refresh adds a multi-purpose plaza, a building with public restrooms, public seating, a rain garden and a grove of trees. The second piece is the 700 block itself, planned as Centennial Plaza, a pedestrian-only stretch with a water feature. The city's downtown plan site says the construction schedule for that block has not yet been determined.

If the city's early 2027 target holds, this is the one Goblin Walk held with the park behind a fence. The 2027 walk would be the first to gather around whatever stands in the park's place.

Questions about how the downtown rebuild changes the blocks around Laurel Street? Call Bob at Bob Bredel, and happy Halloween week.