This year Halloween is a Saturday. The Town of Beaufort will close Ann Street to cars and golf carts from 4 to 9 p.m. on October 31. The next afternoon, Middle Lane hosts its free Day of the Dead festival from 4 to 8 p.m. The Beaufort Historical Association starts its lantern tours of the Old Burying Ground at that same hour.
That gives you three events in about 28 hours, and the Town organizes none of them. Its job is the barricades. The decorations, the candy, the salsa band, the ofrendas and the lantern-lit storytelling all come from people who live or work downtown. That arrangement explains a lot about how the weekend works, including why the hours move from year to year and where the money goes afterward.
Ann Street Belongs to the People Who Live on It
Last year the Town said it plainly. Its 2025 notice said the Ann Street festivities "are not a Town-sponsored or coordinated event. Participation is up to each resident." In other words, the haunted porches are a choice each household makes on its own. That same notice said hundreds of trick-or-treaters fill the street each year and residents "go all-out, transforming their homes into haunted masterpieces." The Carteret County News-Times ran the same description in its countywide Halloween roundup.
The 2026 closure is set up a little differently from 2025, so if you're planning around last year, check these:
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Day | Friday, Oct. 31 | Saturday, Oct. 31 |
| Hours | 5 to 10 p.m. | 4 to 9 p.m. |
| Closed stretch | 500 to 800 blocks of Ann Street | 507 Ann Street east to Live Oak Street |
| Parking note | Park nearby | DSS parking lots stay accessible |
The earlier start helps families with small children. Starting at 4 p.m. on a Saturday leaves more daylight at the front of the evening than last year's Friday start after work. The Town's 2026 notice keeps access to the DSS parking lots open during the closure. Its 2025 guidance still applies too: walk, don't run, between houses, cross only at intersections, visit well-lit homes, keep pets leashed, and wear reflective gear.
If you live inside the closed stretch, plan your own car around 4 to 9 p.m. Golf carts are covered by the closure as well.
Middle Lane Built Its Own Holiday in Three Years
Sunday's festival follows the same pattern of neighbors running things, with more structure. It started in 2023. WITN previewed a first edition that opened on Thursday, November 2. By 2024 the Town's paperwork called it a second-year event coordinated by Liz Kopf and Billy Kane. That year it ran on Friday, November 1, from 5 to 9 p.m.
The News-Times explained how it started in its 2024 preview. Kopf, who owns Backstreet Pub and Turner Street Market, told the paper she had gotten to know many people who moved to Beaufort from Mexico in recent years. She said the Beaufort Picture Show board agreed a festival would be a good fit for the town. By her account, more than 1,000 people came the first year.
The festival has now landed on a Thursday, a Friday and a Sunday in three years. Each time it has stayed close to the holiday's own dates, which means the weekday shifts every year. This year it lines up with the weekend.
The 2026 lineup, from Beaufort Picture Show's festival page:
- Orquesta K'che, a 12-piece band playing salsa
- Mexican food and drink, vendors, cultural activities and a children's area
- A free screening of Coco
- A display of ofrendas honoring loved ones who have passed
The organizers strongly encourage costumes. That makes Sunday a second chance for any costume that got rained on, outgrown or overshadowed on Saturday. They also invite people to build an ofrenda of their own, and Beaufort Picture Show's page lists Kopf as the contact for that.
The lane's regular businesses are the backdrop. The Crystal Coast Tourism Authority listing names Backstreet Pub at 124 Middle Lane as presenter. The Periwinkle, a bottle shop and social space at 110 Middle Lane, is a few doors down, and so is Aqua Restaurant at 114.
Sunday Has Two Events at 4 p.m., and They Were Planned to Fit
The Beaufort Historical Association's Voices of the Past tour takes small groups through the Old Burying Ground by lantern light. Each group gets a Caretaker Guide, and actors play the people buried at certain graves. This year adds new characters. The tour is timed to Allhallowtide, the three days set aside for remembering the dead.
The association's own event page sends people to the Middle Lane festival and describes both events the same way:
"This tour and the Middle Lane event honor the past and are not intended to frighten or evoke fear."
That line also helps parents decide. Saturday's porches on Ann Street can be as spooky as their owners like. Sunday is meant to be gentler.
The two events have very different capacity. The festival is free and open to everyone. The tour takes 25 people per session and 100 for the whole day. Tickets cost $24 for adults and $12 for ages 6 to 12. You can buy them online, by phone at 252-728-5225, or at the Old Beaufort Shop at 130 Turner Street. If both are on your list, the tour ticket is the one to buy first.
A workable Sunday, using the posted times:
- 4:00 or 4:30 p.m. Start the lantern tour. Each group runs about 45 minutes.
- About 5:15 p.m. Head to Middle Lane while the festival still has nearly three hours left.
- Before 8:00 p.m. Food, the band and the ofrendas wind down when the festival closes.
If you book the 5:30 group, you'll still finish around 6:15 with time left on the lane. The lantern effect is also stronger later in the day. If you have physical tickets, pick them up at the Welcome Center beforehand or on the day.
Where Sunday's Money Goes Next
According to the 2024 News-Times story, all festival proceeds go back to Beaufort Picture Show to fund its programming for the coming year. That programming is easy to point to. The group runs Movies @ Mill Space, a small community theater at 1354 Lennoxville Road that seats about 30. It also runs the Beaufort Film Festival. The sixth edition is Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, at the Beaufort Hotel, with about 20 films and a $20 admission.
So the plate of food you buy on Middle Lane Sunday night helps fund the screenings that open five days later. Beaufort Picture Show is also asking for 2026 festival volunteers, and its page warns that it "can probably only pay you in popcorn."
The film festival weekend has company. Beaufort Wine & Food's oyster events run November 5 through 7. They start with a fall wine dinner at 34° North on Thursday and include an Oyster Roast from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The week after, the Pirate Invasion comes to the NC Maritime Museum's Gallants Channel Annex at 293 W. Beaufort Road Extension, November 14 and 15.
None of these early-November events would show up on a Town organizer's list either. Like Halloween weekend, they come from nonprofits, businesses and volunteers who decided Beaufort should have them.
The team at Linda Rike has worked this coast for four decades, and we know a downtown calendar like this one says a lot about the blocks around it. If you're curious how Halloween weekend shapes the streets between Ann Street and Middle Lane, or what owning a home inside the closure zone is like, give us a call.
