Trick-or-Streets: 160 car-free streets and plazas for Halloween 2026

A flat overhead map of city blocks with small orange pumpkins lined along an empty street

NYC DOT is giving away 75,000 pieces of candy this October. That is the most concrete number in a program whose headline one is a record: 160 car-free Open Streets and plazas across all five boroughs, turned over to Halloween.

What Trick-or-Streets is

Through October, cultural organizations, community groups and schools take over neighborhood streets and plazas that are already closed to cars, and fill them with free trick-or-treating, face painting, live entertainment, games, costume contests and dancing.

The five signature events

One in each borough, each a bigger afternoon than the block-by-block program around it:

Brooklyn: Hillel Plaza, Flatbush Junction — Thursday, October 22, 2–6 p.m.

Staten Island: Water Street Open Street — Saturday, October 24, noon–5 p.m.

Queens: Austin Street Open Street, Forest Hills — Sunday, October 25, 2–5 p.m.

Manhattan: Canal Open Street and Division Plaza — Wednesday, October 28, 3–7 p.m.

The Bronx: James Baldwin Plaza — Saturday, October 31, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

New this year

The Municipal Art Society of New York is leading free guided walking tours of the history, architecture and public space of participating neighborhoods, and Street Lab is producing Halloween events at select public schools.

Finding your block

The full list of participating streets and plazas, borough by borough, is at nyc.gov/trickorstreets.

The Bronx party on James Baldwin Plaza is the only signature event on Halloween itself, and it finishes at 3 p.m. — early enough to get a costumed child home, fed and back out, or for adults to make it downtown for the Village Halloween Parade on Sixth Avenue that evening. And an Open Street is closed to through traffic, not to deliveries and emergency vehicles: the space is shared, so keep the smallest trick-or-treaters on the inside of it.

Trick-or-Streets: 160 car-free streets and plazas for Halloween 2026: questions

How many streets are in Trick-or-Streets 2026?

160 car-free Open Streets and plazas across all five boroughs — a record for the program.

Is Trick-or-Streets free?

Yes. Trick-or-treating, face painting, games and the rest are free to join.

When is the Manhattan Trick-or-Streets event?

Wednesday, October 28, 3–7 p.m., on the Canal Open Street and Division Plaza.

Source: NYC Mayor's Office checked against the source

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