This year, the two biggest evenings on the Bloomington calendar both start at 5:30 p.m. On Friday, Oct. 30, the IU Homecoming parade steps off at Kirkwood and Washington. On Saturday, Oct. 31, the city's official trick-or-treat hours run 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Student Alumni Association picked Halloween as the theme for the 2026 parade, so the costumes come out a day early.
For anyone living within walking distance of Sample Gates, that makes Halloween a two-night event. Friday is the one with a fixed shape. Saturday has a fixed trick-or-treat window and a football kickoff that, as of mid-October, still had no time.
Friday Is the First Costume Night
IU Alumni's 2026 parade registration page puts it plainly: "The parade theme this year is Halloween, plan accordingly." Student groups and community organizations can enter floats, vehicles or walking groups, so expect Halloween costumes along the route. The route is short and familiar. It starts at Kirkwood and Washington, heads east on Kirkwood and ends at Sample Gates.
The closures begin hours before the first float moves. Here is the Friday timeline from the IU Alumni Homecoming page:
| Time on Fri., Oct. 30 | What changes |
|---|---|
| All day | No parking on Kirkwood Avenue from Walnut Street to Indiana Avenue |
| All day | No parking on Washington, Lincoln, Grant and Dunn Streets and Indiana Avenue between 6th and 4th Streets |
| 2:30 p.m. | Washington Street closes for parade staging |
| 5 p.m. | Kirkwood Avenue closes |
| 5:30 p.m. | Parade begins |
| After the parade | Kirkwood and the affected cross streets reopen |
The 2:30 p.m. Washington closure is the one most likely to catch a mid-afternoon errand. The no-parking list also covers the blocks between 4th and 6th on five north-south streets, not just Kirkwood. If you park on Lincoln, Grant or Dunn, Friday morning is the time to move the car.
IU recommends spectators carpool and use the downtown parking garages. Participants are pointed to the 4th Street and Walnut Street garages, which are closest to staging. IU parking lots are free after 5 p.m. The same page warns drivers away from campus spots marked "24-hour tow away."
The evening keeps going after the parade. The Indiana Memorial Union lists a Homecoming Carnival at Dunn Meadow from 7 to 10 p.m., with live music, a pumpkin patch, carnival food and activities. The IMU presents its marquee events as programming for the IU community, so check its listing for who can attend before you go.
Dinner on the Parade Route Has Changed Since Last Fall
The parade passes a Kirkwood storefront that looks different from a year ago. The Indiana Daily Student reported that 405 E. Kirkwood Ave., home to Cafe Pizzaria for 71 years until it closed in August 2024, now holds two separate restaurants. Ciao Bella opened Aug. 13 with house-made pastas, pizzas and dessert. Roll n' Dip, a Mexican restaurant, opened in August in the same space, and diners can walk between the two from inside.
Two restaurants under one roof help on a parade night when the people at your table want different things. Ciao Bella's website lists Friday hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Roll n' Dip's online menu prices build-your-own burritos, bowls, three-taco plates and quesadillas at $10.50 each, quesabirria at $14.99 and taquitos at $9.99.
For something to carry along the curb, there's Window 85. The Indiana Daily Student covered its opening on Aug. 1. It's a walk-up window under The Upstairs Pub on Kirkwood serving milk teas, coffee lattes and matcha, open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Those hours cover the whole parade evening and the carnival after it.
Saturday Has One Fixed Time and One Open Question
Saturday's fixed time is trick-or-treat. Visit Bloomington's Halloween guide lists the City of Bloomington's official hours as 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, rain or shine.
The open question is the Homecoming game. Minnesota plays at Indiana on Oct. 31, and IU Athletics' 2026 football schedule still listed the kickoff as "TBA" in mid-October. The Homecoming Huddle tailgate begins three hours before kickoff, so the game's start time sets the timing for the whole day.
That leaves three ways the evening can play out near campus:
- An early kickoff. The Huddle starts in the morning, and game traffic has a chance to clear before 5:30.
- A mid-afternoon kickoff. Fans leaving the stadium could overlap with the first stretch of trick-or-treat hours.
- An evening kickoff. Tailgating runs through the afternoon, and the game itself overlaps the trick-or-treat window.
Visit Bloomington's listing doesn't mention any change to trick-or-treat hours because of the game. Check the Minnesota game center on iuhoosiers.com once the time is posted, before you decide when to walk the block or where to park.
Saturday evening options away from the stadium
If you'd rather spend the evening away from the game crowd, two indoor options are close by:
- IU Cinema is hosting a Japanese horror double feature at 7 p.m. on Halloween night, according to Visit Bloomington. That's late enough for a family to finish trick-or-treating first.
- Waldron Auditorium is staging a "Goosebumps" musical from Oct. 30 through Nov. 15, with tickets from $18 to $33. Audiences are invited to come in costume, and the meet-and-greets after the Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 performances include trick-or-treating. That gives younger kids one more costume outing that weekend, indoors.
The Quietest Room on Campus That Weekend
The Eskenazi Museum of Art, at 1133 E. Seventh St., is open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Two weeks into its run that weekend is "Embodying the Sacred: Jewish Ritual Art from the Bernard Museum of Judaica," which opens Oct. 17 and stays through Oct. 24, 2027. The museum says its exhibitions are free and open to the public.
The new show runs for a year, so there's no rush. Two other exhibitions are closing soon. "Textiles that Travel: Nomadic Living in Africa" ends Nov. 8, and "Memory and Migration" ends Nov. 29. A Sunday afternoon at the museum, after the busiest stretch of the fall calendar, is a good time to see either of them. The museum's visit page also lists Thursday hours until 7 p.m., which fits an after-work visit during a quieter week.
The Stretch Starts Friday, Oct. 23, and Runs Into Basketball
The Homecoming and Halloween weekend sits in the middle of about two weeks of near-campus events. Here's the calendar:
- Fri., Oct. 23, 5 to 8 p.m. Downtown Bloomington's 12th annual Trick or Treat on the Downtown Square.
- Sat., Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m. The Jacobs School's Jazz Celebration, "Milestone: 100 Years of Davis and Coltrane," at the Musical Arts Center, with guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.
- Fri., Oct. 30, 5:30 p.m. The Halloween-themed Homecoming parade on Kirkwood, followed by the IMU's Homecoming Carnival at Dunn Meadow from 7 to 10 p.m.
- Sat., Oct. 31. Indiana vs. Minnesota at a time to be announced, plus city trick-or-treat hours from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
- Mon., Nov. 2, 7 p.m. The men's basketball home opener against Eastern Illinois, per the IU men's schedule. Bellarmine follows on Thu., Nov. 5, at 6 p.m.
- Tue., Nov. 3, 7 p.m. The women's basketball home opener against FGCU, per the IU women's schedule. Southern Illinois visits Nov. 6, and Bradley visits Nov. 9.
That puts game traffic back near campus on four of the first six evenings of November. IU Ticket Central's office is at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, 1001 E. 17th Street. IU Athletics' women's basketball parking page lists free gameday parking in lots 8, 9, 10 and 11. That page predates this season, so confirm the details with IU Athletics closer to game night.
Every IU home weekend has some version of the Homecoming crowd, the Friday street closures and the stadium traffic. The time to plan around this fall is 5:30 p.m. It's when the parade starts on Friday and when trick-or-treat starts on Saturday, and the only time still unknown is when the game sits in relation to it.
Living near campus comes with a calendar like this every fall, and Realty Professionals has followed these weekends in Bloomington for more than 30 years. If you're weighing what your home near IU is worth right now, Realty Professionals can start you with an instant home valuation and a local agent who knows this side of town.
