"The parade starts at 6:30pm this year, so please note the new time." The Kiwanis Club of Leesburg put that line on its parade page, and it's the most important scheduling note downtown this month. The 70th annual Leesburg Kiwanis Halloween Parade runs Wednesday, October 28, 2026. Last year's parade stepped off on a Thursday at 6 p.m.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the parade lands three nights early, in the middle of the week. That puts it at the center of a calendar that runs from Thursday, October 22 through Saturday, October 31. Over those ten days, each kind of downtown Halloween event gets its own stretch of the calendar. Ghost tours take the first three nights. Kids' trick-or-treating gets a Sunday afternoon. The parade has Wednesday night. Grown-up costume nights and a dog costume contest fill the closing weekend. If you know the order, you can do nearly all of it.
The first weekend belongs to the dead
Since 1991, Loudoun Museum staff and volunteers have led Hauntings, a 90-minute evening walking tour of downtown's buildings, cemeteries and the people who once lived in them. It's one of the museum's largest annual fundraisers.
This year's stops, per the museum's event page, are:
- The Historic Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse
- The Presbyterian Church
- Shoes Cup and Cork
- St. James Episcopal Cemetery
- The Johnston House
Tours leave from the Loudoun Museum at 16 Loudoun St. SW. Hauntings runs October 22, 23 and 24, and tickets are $35 per person. Departures go every 20 minutes. On Thursday the 22nd, the ticketed slots run from 6 to 8 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, they run from 6 to 9 p.m.
The Tally Ho Theater at 19 W. Market St. has shows on Friday and Saturday of the tour weekend too, though neither one has a Halloween theme. "Mamma Mania – The American Tribute to ABBA" plays Friday, October 23, and "The Four Horsemen – A Celebration of Metallica" plays Saturday, October 24. Doors open at 7 p.m. both nights. A 90-minute tour that leaves at 6 gets back after the 7 p.m. doors open, so on those two nights a tour and a show work better split across a group than stacked for one person. Both are within a couple of blocks of each other.
Sunday afternoon is for the smallest costumes
The Town of Leesburg's calendar lists Downtown Trick or Treating for Sunday, October 25, from 2 to 4 p.m. It's a two-hour daylight window on a weekend, before the school week starts and three days ahead of the parade. The Town listing doesn't name the participating businesses, so expect to walk the blocks and look for open doors.
The timing matters because of what comes next. Wednesday's parade starts after dark on a school night. Sunday is the downtown Halloween stop that fits the youngest kids' nap and dinner schedule. It also counts as a practice run, since Wednesday's crowd will be much bigger.
Wednesday night, the whole street
The parade is the reason the rest of the week is laid out the way it is. Here's what changed from 2025, comparing last year's Town notices with the 2026 details from Kiwanis and Visit Loudoun:
| 2025 parade | 2026 parade | |
|---|---|---|
| Day and date | Thursday, October 30 | Wednesday, October 28 |
| Start time | 6 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. |
| King Street closure | From 5:15 p.m., Battlefield Parkway to Catoctin Circle | 5:45 p.m., subject to change |
| Route endpoint | Fairfax Street | Just before the Safeway |
The 2026 closure time here comes from Kiwanis and Visit Loudoun, not from a Town traffic notice. Kiwanis says the 5:45 closure still needs approval from the Leesburg Police Department and the Town. Last year the Town posted its closure notice two days before the parade.
The route runs from Ida Lee field up King Street. The parade goes ahead rain or shine and costs nothing to watch or join. Visit Loudoun tells spectators to line up along King Street and bring a container, because walkers, riders and performers hand out candy along the way.
Kiwanis reports that the 2025 parade had 80 groups and more than 600 participants and lasted about 90 minutes. With a 6:30 start, a similar run would wrap up around 8 p.m. on a Wednesday. That's the practical math for families deciding between watching the whole thing and leaving at the halfway point.
The 2026 Grand Marshal is the Stone Bridge Key Club. Out of 250 Key Clubs, Kiwanis says, it was named Capital District Kiwanis Key Club of the Year for 2025–2026, after its 170 members logged 3,984 volunteer hours and supported 128 organizations. The Kiwanis Club of Leesburg was chartered in March 1957, the same year the parade began, so this year's parade is the 70th one the club has staged.
Before parade night, a short checklist:
- Park and be off King Street before the closure, now expected at 5:45 p.m.
- Bring a bag or bucket for candy.
- Pack rain gear, since the parade doesn't cancel for weather.
- If you'd like to march or volunteer, Kiwanis takes registrations through its parade page and at [email protected].
The closing weekend hands the costumes to adults and dogs
Once the parade is done, the last weekend takes a different turn. The Tally Ho Theater runs back-to-back costume nights. "Burn The Ballroom's Halloween Spectacular" with Trackside and Scarlet Kiss plays Friday, October 30. "A Haunted Honky Tonky with Whiskey Glasses," a Morgan Wallen tribute, plays on Halloween itself, Saturday, October 31. Doors open at 7 p.m. each night, and the ticket listings advertise a $100 prize for each night's costume-contest winner.
That Saturday afternoon, October One Vineyard holds "Howl-O-Ween" at its downtown tasting shop, 7 Loudoun St. SW, from 1 to 4 p.m. Dog costume contests are at 2 and 4 p.m., and the event listing says it's open to the public.
The full sequence, in order:
- Thu–Sat, Oct. 22–24: Hauntings ghost walks from the Loudoun Museum. Tours start 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday and 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
- Fri–Sat, Oct. 23–24: ABBA and Metallica tribute nights at the Tally Ho.
- Sun, Oct. 25, 2–4 p.m.: Downtown Trick or Treating.
- Wed, Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m.: The 70th Kiwanis Halloween Parade.
- Fri, Oct. 30: Burn The Ballroom's Halloween Spectacular at the Tally Ho.
- Sat, Oct. 31: Howl-O-Ween from 1 to 4 p.m., then A Haunted Honky Tonky at the Tally Ho.
The storefront on the parade route that's still under wraps
One spot on the parade route will look different from last year. Evan and Meaghan Malone and Evan's mother, Kathleen Malone, bought 5 and 7 N. King St., the longtime home of the Downtown Saloon and, before that, Payne's Biker Bar. Loudoun Now reported in June that they planned to turn it into an Irish pub. The family is known for Magnolias at the Mill, Tuscarora Mill and Fire Works Pizza.
The pub now has a name, Malone's Irish Pub, and the family's page says it's "Coming Fall 2026 to Downtown Leesburg." The page still reads "coming soon" and gives no opening date. King Street is the parade's path and closes to traffic that night, so the building will be in the middle of the action on October 28 whether or not its doors are open by then.
If you're watching from a front step on King Street this year and wondering how your downtown home has held its value since the last parade, The Local Group can put together a home value estimate for you. Both of our agents are Loudoun natives, and we'd be happy to talk through it after the candy runs out. Get Your Home Value.
