Bergenfield Halloween 2026: Parade & Trunk or Treat Schedule

"This Halloween, Saturday, October 31st, the Avenue will be transformed into an ALL-DAY HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION!" That is how the Borough of Bergenfield announced its 2026 plans. Calling it "all-day" is accurate this year in a way it wasn't before. Bergenfield's costume parade and its Trunk or Treat used to be two outings in two places on two different days. This year they share one street on one Saturday, a little more than a week after this post goes up.

Last year it took two venues and most of a week

In 2025 the costume parade took place at Cooper's Pond. The borough called it a "spooktacular morning" for children of all ages, held on Saturday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to noon, with prizes and trophies in several categories. Trunk or Treat came six days later on Friday, October 31, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. That afternoon the Avenue was closed to traffic and filled with decorated trunks handing out candy.

The 2026 calendar pulls both onto Washington Avenue for Saturday, October 31.

The timing changes too. Counting registration, the parade window grows from two hours to three and a half. Trunk or Treat moves later and gets half an hour shorter, running from 3:30 to 5:30 instead of 2 to 4:30. Last year a family needed two separate trips, one to the pond and one downtown. This year they can make one trip downtown and stay.

The day, from registration to the last trunk

The borough's announcement sets out a simple schedule.

1. 11:00 a.m. Costume parade registration on Washington Avenue.
2. 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. Parade and judging.
3. 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Nothing scheduled.
4. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Trunk or Treat.

The announcement names Washington Avenue as the location. It does not give a parade route, a registration table location, judging categories or a rain date. Last year's notice closed the Avenue to traffic for Trunk or Treat, but that applied to 2025. Families who want street-level details can check the borough's parade listing and Trunk or Treat listing as the date gets closer.

On the 2025 calendar the open hour in step three didn't exist, because the two events were almost a week apart. Putting them on the same day creates it, and that hour falls on the same street where the day is happening.

The open hour runs through the Avenue's cafés

Families who stay for both events have an hour to fill. The closest option to the day's center is a café that opened on North Washington Avenue this year.

Running Latte Café is at 189 N. Washington Ave., on the same stretch of the Avenue as Borough Hall at 198 N. Washington Ave. NJ.com reported that the café held a soft launch on January 25 and scheduled its grand opening for March 28. According to that report, it is run by Missy Duque-Alonso, her sister Linette Duque-Phillips, their cousin Gio Barreto and their father, Gelson Duque. The idea came from the family's love of running and their ties to a coffee farm in Colombia, where the sisters spent summers learning how coffee is produced. The same article says the space was once a Filipino restaurant and that the family planned to host run clubs and book clubs there.

For a parent who has just walked a parade, a few menu details help. NJ.com listed the early bestsellers as the brown sugar shaken espresso, the dirty ube latte and the strawberry cold brew. Duque-Alonso named the pacesetter sandwich and the empanadas as the top food items. The café's link page is currently promoting a fall menu and lists online ordering for cold brew, a matcha bar and arepas. Ordering ahead from the curb could shorten the wait during the one hour of the day when many families will be looking for the same thing.

Farther south on the same avenue, 30 Burgers now operates at 477 South Washington Avenue. It lists hours of 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week. Boozy Burbs reported in October 2025 that the restaurant was taking over the former Bomb Burger space in the Foster Village Shopping Center, which made it the third burger shop at that address in recent years. That preview described patties made from beef, chicken, turkey, tilapia and beans, along with hot dogs, wings, fries, vegetarian options and milkshakes. Because the kitchen opens at 11, the same hour parade registration starts, it can serve families before the parade, between events or after the last trunk closes at 5:30.

The trunks come from neighbors who sign up

The Trunk or Treat half of the day depends on volunteers. The borough's announcement asks anyone who wants to decorate a car or truck and hand out treats to email Ed Volmer at [email protected] to register. On the borough's Programs & Events page, the Halloween Parade appears among the programs the Recreation Department sponsors or co-sponsors, next to the Easter Egg Hunt, the Fishing Derby and the Holiday Party at Cooper's Pond.

The new schedule also changes things for trunk volunteers. Last year Trunk or Treat began at 2 p.m. on a Friday. This year it starts at 3:30 on a Saturday, so households that join in have the morning to decorate their trunks. A family can also enter a child in the noon parade and then go back to the car to set up for 3:30. Under the 2025 calendar, those were two separate commitments on two different days.

The lead-up runs through the library

Most of Halloween week happens a few days before the Avenue fills up. The Bergenfield Public Library's October 2026 calendar has a run of monster-themed programs in its Children's Activity Room, which works well for kids who are still deciding what to wear on the 31st.

The Wednesday craft is the last children's program the library lists before Halloween, because the building is closed all day Thursday. After that, everything on the calendar leads to Saturday, when the Avenue hosts six and a half hours of Halloween in one place.

A street that can hold a parade, a line of decorated trunks and a café rush in a single afternoon is part of what makes downtown Bergenfield work. If you're thinking about how a place like this fits your family's next move, Stacy Esser Group can walk you through the town's blocks with that kind of local detail in mind. Schedule a Meeting Today.