What to Do in San Jose for Halloween 2026: Saturday, October 31

Halloween 2026 falls on Saturday, October 31, and this guide covers the four nights from Thursday, October 29 to Sunday, November 1: what is on for adults in San Jose and nearby, with every date and time checked against the organiser's or venue's own listing. Both Purple Lotus stores, at 752 Commercial Street and 66 West Santa Clara Street, keep their usual 8 AM to 10 PM hours on all four days.

Team San Jose's events calendar for October and November lists Saturday, October 31 among its peak dates, with an estimated 5,800 people across the venues it tracks. Four things anchor the weekend: the last nights of Festival Fright Nights at the Winchester Mystery House, the final run of Pirates of Emerson in Pleasanton, four Pablo Francisco shows at the San Jose Improv, and three concerts at the San Jose Civic. This page takes each in turn, then covers parking, light rail, sunset and the clock change.

Halloween weekend 2026 at a glance

Times are as each organiser listed them on October 23, 2026. Ticketed events change, so check the event's own page on the day.

What day is Halloween 2026, and when do the clocks go back?

Halloween is Saturday, October 31, 2026. The US Naval Observatory puts sunset in San Jose that evening at 6:10 PM, with civil twilight ending at 6:37 PM. Anything that starts after about 6:40 PM starts in the dark.

Daylight saving time ends a few hours later. NIST, the federal agency that keeps official time, lists the 2026 change as Sunday, November 1 at 2 AM local time, when clocks go back to 1 AM.

That has two practical consequences for the weekend. Saturday night is an hour longer than usual, and any time between 1 AM and 2 AM on Sunday morning comes round twice, so a ride booked for 1:30 AM is worth confirming. And Sunday gets dark much earlier by the clock: sunset on November 1 is at 5:09 PM Pacific Standard Time, 61 minutes earlier on the clock face than Saturday's 6:10 PM.

Sunday ticket times are in the new time, so a 6 PM show on November 1 starts 51 minutes after sunset, and Pirates of Emerson's 7:05 PM opening that night comes nearly two hours after it.

The two dates are tied together by the calendar. Daylight saving time always ends on the first Sunday of November, so whenever Halloween lands on a Saturday, the clocks go back that same night. The last time that happened was 2020, and before that 2015.

Is Winchester Fright Nights open on Halloween weekend?

Yes. On October 23 the official ticketing calendar had all four nights of Halloween weekend on sale: Thursday, October 29, Friday, October 30, Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. The festival's dates run to November 1, so Sunday is the last night of its 2026 season.

Festival Fright Nights takes place at the Winchester Mystery House, 525 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose. Tickets are sold online only and priced by night. On October 23 the ticket page listed Thursday from $51.99, Friday and Sunday from $74.99, and Saturday from $84.99, so Halloween night itself has the highest starting price of the four and Thursday the lowest. Neither the festival's site nor its ticket calendar lists nightly opening hours, so check the time shown when you book.

Every admission type includes the festival's three main haunted attractions. Hide and Seek, an interactive attraction set in the mansion's attic, is not included in any admission type and is sold only as an extra. Other extras on the grounds, such as axe throwing at Orchard Axe, are paid for separately on the night.

Fright Nights is not a 21-and-over event. The festival's site says guests 15 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

Our Festival Fright Nights guide covers tickets, parking, the bag rules and how the festival zones work, and the festival's own site at festivalfrightnights.com lists this year's attractions and paid add-ons.

What is the Pirates of Emerson schedule for Halloween weekend?

Pirates of Emerson is a Halloween haunt on six acres of the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, and its season ends on Sunday, November 1. The 2026 calendar on its dates page has it open every night of Halloween weekend:

• Thursday, October 29: 7:05 PM to 10 PM
• Friday, October 30: 7:05 PM to 11 PM
• Saturday, October 31: 7:05 PM to 11 PM, marked as a Premium Night
• Sunday, November 1: 7:05 PM to 10 PM

The entry gates shut 60 minutes before the published close, so the last way in is 9 PM on Thursday and Sunday and 10 PM on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are sold online only. The site lists general admission at $48, a Speed Pass at $73 and VIP at $108, each with a $3.50 conveyance fee per ticket, and warns that some nights sell out early. The park's ticketing site adds that all three ticket types cost $10 more on Premium Nights, so on Saturday they are $58, $83 and $118 before the fee.

From San Jose, the park's own directions are I-680 north to the Bernal exit, east on Bernal Avenue, then left on Valley Avenue and in through Gate 8 at the corner of Bernal and Valley. For a rideshare, the address to use is Gate 8, 2005 Valley Avenue, and drop-offs are free. The fairgrounds charges for parking on its lots, and the park points out that none of that money goes to it.

A few things to know before the gate. The gate, the merchandise stand and the water and soda booths no longer take cash, though some food vendors might. Everyone goes through metal detectors. The park uses a lot of strobe lighting and theatrical smoke, and says so plainly. Costumes are allowed, but masks and heavy makeup are not. The haunted attractions are wheelchair accessible, with a bypass near any stairs, though reaching them means crossing a gravel lot. Live bands play through the weekend: Skeleton Cru on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and Live The Day on Friday.

Pirates of Emerson is not a 21-and-over event. Its own rule is that anyone under 16 must be accompanied by someone 21 or older.

What comedy is on at the San Jose Improv for Halloween?

The San Jose Improv, at 62 South 2nd Street downtown, has Pablo Francisco for four shows: Friday, October 30 at 7:30 PM and 9:45 PM, Saturday, October 31 at 7 PM, and Sunday, November 1 at 6 PM. The club's Pablo Francisco page lists tickets from $31.14. On Thursday, October 29, the 8 PM show is Chad and JT.

The Improv admits guests 21 and over unless a show says otherwise, and every guest shows valid photo ID: a state driver's licence or ID card, a passport, a military ID or a US Permanent Resident Card. There is a two-item minimum, and food and non-alcoholic drinks count toward it.

Two rules catch people out. Seating stops 15 minutes after the show starts, with no exceptions and no refunds. And the club tells buyers to use only improv.com or TicketWeb, warning that tickets bought through third-party sites will not be accepted at the door.

The Improv does not validate parking. Its information page lists street parking and several nearby lots.

Who is playing the San Jose Civic on Halloween weekend?

The San Jose Civic, at 135 West San Carlos Street, has a concert on three of the four nights, each starting at 8 PM:

• Thursday, October 29: Caifanes
• Friday, October 30: María José and Moenia, on their 2026 US tour
• Saturday, October 31: Jorge Medina

Tickets for all three are sold through Ticketmaster. The San Jose Theaters FAQ on sanjose.org, which covers the Civic, bars backpacks and bags larger than 10 by 10 inches and says every bag is subject to search. Outside food and drink, professional and video cameras, laser pointers and noisemakers are also on its prohibited list, and there is no re-entry once you leave. The box office is in the Civic itself, on (408) 792-4111. It keeps hours of noon to 5 PM, Tuesday to Saturday, and for Civic shows it is typically open from two hours before the start until 30 minutes after.

Team San Jose's calendar estimates 2,600 people for Caifanes on Thursday, 1,300 for María José and Moenia on Friday and 2,500 for Jorge Medina on Saturday, so on those estimates Thursday and Saturday are the busier nights at the Civic.

Where to park and which light rail stop to use downtown

The San Jose Improv and the San Jose Civic are both downtown, and each sits close to a garage and to a VTA light rail station on the Blue and Green lines.

The Civic's listing on sanjose.org points drivers to the San Jose Convention Center for parking. Broadway San Jose lists the convention center garage among the privately run garages, open 24 hours, at $4 an hour with a $25 daily maximum, and suggests calling the operator to confirm.

The Second and San Carlos garage is one of the public garages, and Symphony San Jose notes that its entry charge is significantly reduced after 6 PM and at weekends. Broadway San Jose sends drivers to parksj.org to confirm current rates at the public garages before they set off.

VTA's fares page lists an adult single ride on light rail at $2.50, paid with Clipper, cash or a contactless bank card, and a single ride paid with Clipper includes two hours of free transfers. Check VTA's schedule for the last trips of the night from your stop before a late show, rather than on the platform.

Purple Lotus hours and delivery, October 29 to November 1

The clock change on Sunday, November 1 does not move store hours: both stores open at 8 AM by the new time that morning and close at 10 PM, as they do on the three days before it.

Delivery in the San Jose zone comes in a window of one to two hours that you pick at checkout. Orders have a $50 minimum and a flat $3.99 delivery fee. Payment is by debit card with a PIN, cash, or Treez Pay ACH, which adds a flat $5 fee. The San Jose delivery page shows the zone, and the live menu shows what is in stock.

Delivery goes to a home address. State rules (4 CCR 15416) also bar delivery to publicly owned land and to land or buildings leased by a public agency. At the door, the driver hands the order only to the person who placed it, who must be 21 or older and show a valid government-issued photo ID in the name on the order.

Ordering ahead works for pickup too: place the order online at any hour, collect it from either store during store hours and take it home. The Commercial Street store, near US-101 at Oakland Road and I-880, has its own free parking lot, and the downtown store's listing notes a validated garage directly across the street. Purple Lotus takes calls on (408) 456-0420.

What are the rules for buying and using cannabis in California?

Adult-use cannabis is for people 21 and over, and a licensed retailer has to inspect a valid ID before every sale. The state's list of acceptable ID is short: a driver's licence or other government-issued photo ID that also shows height and gender, a military ID with a photo, or a valid US or foreign passport (4 CCR 15404).

There is a daily cap on what one adult-use customer can buy from a retailer: 28.5 grams of non-concentrated cannabis, 8 grams of concentrate, which includes the concentrate inside products, and 6 immature plants (4 CCR 15409). Our guide to cannabis purchase limits works through how those figures apply in practice.

Where you use it matters as much as where you buy it. The Department of Cannabis Control's summary of what is legal says cannabis can be used on private property but not in public places such as restaurants or bars, and it cannot be smoked anywhere smoking tobacco is illegal. Property owners can ban it on their property, so renters should check the lease. Cities and counties can set stricter rules than the state.

In a vehicle, an open container of cannabis is illegal for drivers and passengers alike; it has to stay in a sealed package or in the trunk. Officers who suspect a driver is impaired by cannabis can pull the car over and conduct a sobriety test.

Purple Lotus operates two licensed adult-use retail stores in San Jose: 752 Commercial St (licence C10-0000241-LIC) and 66 W Santa Clara St (licence C10-0001440-LIC). Customers must be 21 or older with a valid government-issued photo ID.