"October typically for retail is the calm before the storm because of the holiday season." Chandi Pape, executive director of the Grand Haven Main Street Development Authority, said this to WOOD-TV in October 2024. She was explaining why a city known for the Coast Guard Festival had put more than 150 five-foot skeletons on its sidewalks and storefronts.
That sentence describes the month better than any event listing. October in Grand Haven is scheduled, and the people who schedule it are running a retail district. Every fixed date on the fall calendar sits on Washington Avenue in Downtown or on 7th Street in Centertown. The lakefront is the one part of the map that has no programming.
The summer draws finish on their own timetables
The waterfront attractions that fill the summer calendar each wrap up on a published date, and none of those dates falls in October.
The Musical Fountain at Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium ran nightly through Labor Day weekend in 2026, then on Fridays and Saturdays through September. The Entrance Lighthouse, the red foghouse at the end of the South Pier, opened for interior tours on June 23 for the first time in its 151 years. More than 1,000 people came through on the first day, according to Grand Haven Lighthouse Conservancy chair David Karpin. The announced tour schedule of Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays ran through Labor Day, and I found no announced fall hours. The Conservancy's site at ghlighthouse.com is the place to check.
The boardwalk has its own calendar this month. The city posted notice that repairs to Lighthouse Connector Park began September 17, with completion expected the week of October 12.
Taken together, the waterfront's programmed events have ended by the time October starts. Whatever fills the month has to be built from scratch, and it gets built where the shops are.
The month in dates
| Date | Event | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1 to 23 | Bones About Town | Downtown and Centertown | Popular vote runs daily until noon October 23 |
| Friday, October 2 | Witches & Warlocks Night Out | Downtown and Centertown | 5 to 8 PM, Witches Walk starts at 5 PM at The Brass River on Washington Avenue |
| Saturday, October 3 (confirm) | Chow Down Centertown | 7th Street, Washington to Elliot | Held 11 AM to 5 PM in 2025 |
| Saturday, October 24 | Fall Fest | Downtown and Centertown | 10 AM to 1 PM, trick-or-treating at participating businesses |
The Chow Down Centertown row needs a caveat. The 2024 edition ran on Saturday, October 5, and the 2025 edition on Saturday, October 4, so it has landed on the first Saturday of October two years running. One event listing puts the 2026 edition on October 3, but the visitor bureau's page still carries 2025 details, so confirm with Grand Haven Main Street before planning around it.
The Witches & Warlocks night works through a Spellbook. Participants pick one up at a designated location or at The Brass River, then visit participating businesses to collect signatures, deals and giveaways. The event has no ticket gate. The stops are the shops.
Centertown is the co-lead, not the side street
Every item in the table lists Centertown or Downtown, and Fall Fest lists both. Chow Down Centertown lists only Centertown, and it has gotten larger each year.
The Main Street DDA announced the first Chowdown Centertown for October 5, 2024, with local food trucks, non-profit organizations and a mini-golf course set up along 7th Street. By the 2025 edition, Fox 17 reported seven food trucks, 25 vintage clothing vendors and six live bands, plus a fashion show from 1 to 3 PM. The stretch is short, Washington to Elliot, and it turns into a closed street with music on it for a single Saturday.
That gives the month a rhythm. Friday night starts on Washington Avenue. The first Saturday, if the listing holds, moves the crowd to 7th Street. The month ends with Fall Fest covering both districts on October 24. The calendar keeps moving people between two commercial streets, which is exactly the job Pape described for shoulder-season events.
Twenty-three days of voting
Bones About Town is the piece that holds the month together. More than 150 skeletons, decorated and posed by local businesses and organizations, stand in storefronts and along sidewalks across Downtown and Centertown. They are judged by popular vote in three categories: originality, funniest and scariest. The city's schedule keeps voting open daily through noon on October 23, and past winners have been announced at Fall Fest. The visitor bureau's listing runs the display through October 31, so a skeleton may stay in a window a week after the vote closes.
This is the fourth year. WOOD-TV covered the second edition in 2024, and WZZM called the 2025 edition the third annual.
A contest that runs nearly the whole month gives each participating business a reason to be visited on a Tuesday. Pape told Fox 17 in 2025 that the event gets people out and around downtown. Marci Cisneros, executive director of the Grand Haven Visitors Center, made a related point to WOOD-TV. She said not everyone likes the big festivals, since they can get congested for some, and that smaller shoulder-season events also let visitors mix with residents and businesses.
The Coast Guard Festival packs the waterfront into a single crowded stretch of days. Bones About Town spreads its attendance across dozens of storefronts and roughly three weeks.
The one route with a construction fence
The boardwalk is officially named Lighthouse Connector Park. It runs 1.5 miles from Chinook Pier to the foghouse at the end of the South Pier, and it was completed in 1984 during Grand Haven's Sesquicentennial. It is the part of Grand Haven that most needs no calendar, and this month it carries a construction notice.
The Grand Haven Tribune reported that temporary fencing went up west of the Pier Peddler, beside the donor-inscribed stones where the primary repair site sits. Fencing also appeared closer to the state park entrance. Crews are removing the existing concrete and pavers and rebuilding a base to support the boardwalk's structure. Work is expected to last through the week of October 12.
A few checks before heading out:
- The fenced sections near the Pier Peddler and the state park entrance may affect how far a walk can go before October 12.
- The Entrance Lighthouse's tour hours after Labor Day have not been announced, so confirm with the Conservancy.
- The Musical Fountain's published 2026 schedule ended with September.
After the week of October 12, the fence should be gone, and the two-week gap before Fall Fest is the stretch when the skeleton vote is still open and the boardwalk is back in use. A walk that starts with a skeleton on Washington Avenue and ends at the water covers most of what the month has to offer.
The clearest fixed points are the last two. Voting closes at noon on Friday, October 23, and Fall Fest opens at 10 AM the next morning.
If you keep a Grand Haven October calendar, the team at Andrea Crossman Group keeps one too, and we are glad to swap notes on where the month is happening. Discover Lakeshore Living with us this fall.
