What does Franklin do on Halloween weekend when its biggest fall party ended six days earlier?
The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County held its 41st PumpkinFest on Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, on Main Street. So the festival and the holiday no longer share a weekend. From Friday, October 30, through Sunday, November 1, Franklin has no single event that pulls everyone into one place. You get a run of smaller events, each with its own start time, many of them ticketed and some with very few spots. If you want a good Halloween weekend here, plan around the clock, because the street is quiet.
The Crowd Got Its Own Weekend
The change began with the festival. The Heritage Foundation announced in March that PumpkinFest would run two days for the first time in its 41-year history. It pointed to community feedback and crowd management after counting 135,000 attendees in 2025. The Williamson Herald reported more than 200 vendors, three stages, a KidZone, and a Franklin Transit shuttle from The Park at Harlinsdale Farm.
That was the open-air, show-up-anytime part of the season, and it's over. The Downtown Franklin calendar lists nothing for October 29 through November 1. Its last Halloween item is The Factory at Franklin's free Trick-or-Treat Trail, which ran Wednesday, October 28, from 3 to 6 p.m. The weekend still has plenty going on. It's just indoors, scheduled, and spread around town.
Friday Sets the Pattern
Friday, October 30, shows how the whole weekend works. Each event has a clear start time, and they line up from afternoon to after midnight.
- 4 to 6 p.m. Morning Pointe of Franklin Assisted Living hosts a free Trunk-or-Treat, open to the public, with decorated vehicles, trick-or-treating, and refreshments. It's the only public trick-or-treat on the weekend's Friday calendar.
- 6 p.m. The Franklin Theatre's Fear Fest screens The Rocky Horror Picture Show, billed as a celebration of Tim Curry.
- 7 p.m. Two downtown ghost walks start at the same hour. Franklin Walking Tours runs its Grim & Ghostly Tour nightly at 7, and Franklin on Foot's Haunted Franklin Tour also leaves at 7 and lasts 90 minutes.
- 11:59 p.m. Fear Fest closes the night with a midnight screening of Child's Play.
The two ghost tours are priced almost the same. Grim & Ghostly is $26 for adults, $16 for teens, and $12 for children ages 1 to 12. Franklin on Foot charges $25 for adults and $15 for ages 17 and under, and its calendar shows tours on both October 30 and October 31. Price won't decide it for you. The real difference is the style: Franklin Walking Tours describes its walk as ghost and crime stories that range "from the merely mischievous to the downright dark."
Saturday, Hour by Hour
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so most of Franklin's Halloween events land on one day. The table puts Saturday's events in order. Families have the morning and early afternoon. After dark, most of the offerings are for adults.
Time | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
8 a.m. to noon | Franklin Farmers Market, 120 Aldersgate Way | Regular Saturday market |
9:30 a.m. | Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary | Fall Color Hike |
10 a.m. | Franklin Theatre | Fear Fest: Coco |
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | 1799 Kitchen & Bar Room | A Spirited Brunch |
11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Kings Dining & Entertainment | Family trick-or-treating |
Noon to 4 p.m. | Music City Archery | Haunted Archery Range |
1:30 p.m. | Franklin Theatre | Fear Fest: Beetlejuice |
5 p.m. | Franklin Theatre | Fear Fest: Obsession |
7 p.m. | Downtown | Grim & Ghostly and Haunted Franklin tours |
8 p.m. | Kings Dining & Entertainment | Adults-only evening |
8:30 p.m. | Franklin Theatre | Fear Fest: Halloween |
10 p.m. to 1 a.m. | Cherry Manor | A Very Haunted Halloween |
11:59 p.m. | Franklin Theatre | Fear Fest: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre |
Some details the table leaves out.
The Franklin Farmers Market runs every Saturday of the year at Franklin First United Methodist Church, so Halloween morning is a normal market day. It hasn't announced anything special for the holiday.
The Theatre's Saturday lineup is all day long. Visit Franklin's Halloween roundup says Fear Fest ran all of October, with titles like The Shining, Hocus Pocus, and Scream, and ends with "a full day of Halloween favorites on October 31." The schedule gets scarier as the day goes on. Coco plays at breakfast time, Beetlejuice after lunch, John Carpenter's Halloween in the evening, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at midnight. Obsession is the only 2026 film in the weekend lineup. One family could see a morning show and the parents could come back for a late one, all at the same Main Street theater.
1799 Kitchen & Bar Room lists its Spirited Brunch with food and drink specials, a costume contest, photo spots, and boo bags for children, and recommends reservations. Visit Franklin's listing gives the same hours on Sunday, November 1, too. If you'd like a quieter brunch the day after Halloween, call the restaurant first.
At Kings Dining & Entertainment in Cool Springs, the whole building does trick-or-treating in the afternoon. The adults-only evening starts at 8 with Halloween bowling challenges, themed cocktails, and prizes hidden around the venue. Music City Archery's Haunted Archery Range has spooky targets and free candy, and it takes reservations for lane rentals and intro classes.
Amendment XVIII Cocktail Club, now The Haunted Speakeasy, holds its Halloween party on October 31 as part of a pop-up that has run since October 6.
Where the Weekend Runs Out of Room
Most of this weekend's events have a limited number of seats.
The clearest example is Cherry Manor. Franklin Walking Tours says podcasters have described the house as "The Most Haunted Site in Tennessee," and that for decades ghost tours have stopped at its front steps without going in. This October the company has been taking small groups inside on Saturday nights, each week with a different feature: a tarot reader on October 3, a hidden room on October 10, a guest from Southern Gothic on October 17, and celebrity psychic Deb Lantz on October 24.
Halloween night is the longest and priciest of the series. "A Very Haunted Halloween" runs from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and costs $175. That includes an hour with Deb Lantz as she goes from room to room, plus midnight pizza. It's limited to 25 people. The earlier Saturday sessions were $50, or $100 on October 24. Every Cherry Manor tour involves stairs, and guests have to sign a waiver when they book. Visit Franklin's advice is to reserve before tickets sell out.
The rest of the weekend has the same limits on a smaller scale. Grim & Ghostly adds an 8:45 p.m. tour only "as needed." 1799 recommends reservations. Music City Archery books lanes ahead. Each Fear Fest showing is a separate ticket. The weekend has lots of options, but each one holds only so many people, so it pays to book your favorite before Saturday.
Sunday, November 1, and the Week After
Sunday is the last day of the Halloween season. It's The Haunted Speakeasy's final day, since the pop-up's run ends November 1. Grim & Ghostly runs nightly at 7, so the downtown tours go on through the weekend. Franklin on Foot runs its Haunted Franklin Tour from October through March, so the ghost stories keep going after the costumes are put away.
The quieter fall events come back right after. Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary holds its next Fall Lantern Hike on Friday, November 6. Visit Franklin calls it a less frightening way to see the season, exploring the forest by lantern light after sunset. Registration is required. Saturday's 9:30 a.m. Fall Color Hike is the last of three October dates on the same calendar, after October 17 and 24.
If you're picking just one stop, choose by time of day. Before 2 p.m., you have brunch, the market, trick-or-treating at Kings, and Coco. After 8 p.m., Franklin's options are mostly ticketed, mostly for adults, and gone once the seats are sold.
If you're a neighbor who wants to compare notes on this weekend, or you'd like to know how Franklin's calendar changes from season to season, I'm always happy to talk. Reach out to Aaron C. Lovett | TN Real Estate Professional. Let's Connect.
