Downtown Delray Beach has its Halloween Saturday locked in for Oct. 24, 2026, and it starts early. Hundreds of costumed witches roll out from City Hall at 8 a.m., kids trick-or-treat along Atlantic Avenue from 11 a.m., a costume parade heads to Old School Square at 1 p.m., and Kidsfest runs on the lawn until 3. The Downtown Development Authority has published the full lineup.

Individually, each of these is a long-running Delray tradition. Stacked into one Saturday, they turn about seven hours of the downtown core into a single, walkable Halloween event, with almost no reason to get back in the car once you have parked.

8 a.m.: the Witches of Delray take the Avenue

The day opens with the 15th Annual Witches of Delray Bike Ride, which gathers at City Hall, 100 NW 1st Ave., and runs from 8 to 11 a.m. Riders in full witch wear, on bikes decorated as brooms, follow a police-escorted route through downtown and finish at Old School Square for awards and entertainment.

This is not just a costume parade on wheels. The ride is the signature fundraiser for Achievement Centers for Children & Families, the Delray Beach nonprofit based at 555 NW 4th St. The organization says proceeds support programs serving more than 700 local children and their families, including early learning, after-school, summer camp and family support services. Riders register in advance through the organization.

If you are not riding, the route is the show. Atlantic Avenue in the early morning, before the shops open, lined with hundreds of witches on bicycles, is one of the more memorable sights the city produces all year, and watching costs nothing.

The ride caps a month of smaller Witches of Delray events. The one still ahead before the ride is the Witches Brew on Friday, Oct. 16, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Tim Finnegan's Irish Pub, with tickets sold through Achievement Centers.

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: trick-or-treating on Atlantic Avenue

Trick-or-Treating on the Avenue covers Atlantic Avenue from Swinton Avenue east to Federal Highway. Participating downtown merchants hand out candy to kids in costume, which makes it one of the few times of year a parent can walk the Avenue with small children at a slow pace and have every storefront glad to see them.

Two hours is shorter than it sounds once lines form at the busier doors. Families with toddlers will have an easier time near the start of the window.

1 p.m.: you are the parade

At 1 p.m., the trick-or-treaters become the parade. Marchers meet at Atlantic Avenue and NE 5th Avenue and walk west to Old School Square. There is no float lineup to watch from the curb: the DDA's framing is that anyone in costume is in it. That is the charm of the format. A kid in a homemade dinosaur suit walks the same route as everyone else, down the middle of the city's main street.

The parade is a long-standing downtown tradition, and it is deliberately low-tech: costumes, families and a few blocks of Atlantic Avenue. That simplicity is exactly why it keeps drawing crowds year after year.

11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Kidsfest at Old School Square

The parade ends at Kidsfest, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave. The DDA lists food, vendors, arts and crafts and entertainment. Because Kidsfest opens at 11, families who would rather skip the candy crawl can head straight to the lawn and catch the parade as it arrives.

How to plan the day

The simplest approach is to treat the whole thing as one loop. Park once, watch the witches roll through in the morning, take a coffee break, then do the Avenue from Swinton to Federal with the kids, join the parade at NE 5th Avenue and let it carry you back to Old School Square for Kidsfest. Everything sits within a few blocks of Atlantic Avenue, and the schedule is built so each piece hands off to the next.

Saturday on the Avenue is busy even without Halloween, so arriving before the 11 a.m. trick-or-treat start is the safest way to find a spot. For questions, the Downtown Development Authority lists its number as 561-243-1077.

Why it is worth showing up

Delray Beach has grown up a lot, and Atlantic Avenue is now as much a dining destination for the region as it is a neighborhood main street. One Saturday in late October flips that back. The street belongs to local kids in costumes, local merchants with candy bowls, and a few hundred neighbors on witch bikes raising money for children who live a few blocks away. That version of downtown is worth putting on the calendar.