Southport Halloween 2026: Half Term Events, Free to £40

Two dates set the week. Sefton schools break for half term from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026, the autumn term having started on 1 September (Sefton Council term dates). And Halloween itself falls on Saturday 31 October, the day after the children go back on paper but part of the same weekend in practice. That combination pushes the big nights to the Friday and Saturday and leaves the weekdays for the farms.

Individual schools set their own inset days, so check yours.

Updated 21 October: Southport Market has added a Halloween Villain Bash, a villains fancy dress party, on Saturday 31 October, 12pm to 1.30pm (Southport Market).

Updated 20 October: four seats have come back on sale for The Body Smugglers on 23 October, which had sold out. Kate Pankhurst’s Books Alive session on 30 October and Altru Drama’s Hansel and Gretel on 29 October are now fully booked (The Atkinson box office).

Updated 14 October: Lydia Monks’ Books Alive draw-along on 29 October and both performances of Tmesis Theatre’s The Wondershelf are now fully booked at The Atkinson, and Southport Market has added a Books Alive Room on the Broom session for Saturday 31 October, 10am to 11am.

Updated 7 October: Southport Market’s Halloween Bash on 31 October has gone from the market’s events listing and its booking page now returns an error; the market has not said why, so check with it before planning around it. The Body Smugglers murder mystery at The Atkinson on 23 October has sold out.

Updated 6 October: Southport Model Engineering Club’s Ghost Train returns on Rotten Row on 30 and 31 October, £8 a ride; details below.

Updated 30 September: The Grand has added a £10 family Hocus Pocus show on 1 November and a £40 ghost-story dinner on Halloween night, and the free Books Alive! festival has published its trail locations and author programme; both are below.

Books Alive: free all week

Books Alive!, Sefton Council’s free children’s book festival, covers the whole of half term, Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October. Its Jolly Postman Book Trail puts nine installations at Town Hall Gardens, Wayfarers Arcade, Mermaid Gardens, Lord Street, Southport Market, Tulketh Street and Waterstones on Chapel Street, open 10am to 4pm every day. Pick up a trail map at The Atkinson or download one from Visit Southport.

The Festival of Stories on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October brings author and illustrator events to The Atkinson and Southport Library, among them Kate Pankhurst, Lydia Monks (now fully booked), Dapo Adeola and Joseph Coelho, hosted by Katy Ashworth. Every event is free but must be booked, because places are limited (Sefton Council, 30 September). The Atkinson’s box office already lists the sessions, most limited to six tickets a booking, plus free half-term storytelling at the library from Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 October (The Atkinson). Our Books Alive page has the full line-up.

Pumpkin picking

Farmer Ted’s Pumpkin Festival, Flatman’s Lane, Downholland, runs Friday 2 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, the longest run of the local options. The farm has built a new Pumpkin Village of displays, archways and carts for 2026, and the ticket also covers a Jurassic Halloween Tedventure with 12 animatronic dinosaurs, a treasure hunt inside the maize maze, and marshmallow roasting pits. Tickets are from £12 per person, or from £41.50 for a family of two adults and two children, online only and not sold on the gate. Pumpkins themselves are not included in the ticket (Farmer Ted’s).

Windmill Animal Farm, Fish Lane, Burscough, sells its Great Pumpkin Adventure as a no-mud, no-mess alternative, indoors and on hard standing rather than out in a field. One pumpkin per child is included, along with the farm train, the animals and every indoor and outdoor play area. The farm’s booking calendar covers 1 October to 1 November 2026, with sessions between 10am and 5pm. Prices are only shown once you pick a date on the booking page, and the farm warns in capitals that refunds are no longer given, though it may move your date if a slot is free (Windmill Animal Farm).

Half term at Martin Mere

SUPER Natural October Half Term at WWT Martin Mere, Burscough, runs Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, so it opens the weekend before Sefton breaks up and stays open the weekend after. Activities included with entry are a handmade willow wand, a marshland potion, a fungi hunt, owl pellet dissection and a fairy mushroom ring (WWT Martin Mere).

Two things cost extra. The canoe adventure is £12 per canoe, or £3.50 per person on the boat, between 1pm and 3pm. Pumpkin carving is £3.50 each, running 24 to 30 October between 12pm and 3pm, which means it stops before Halloween itself. Entry is free for WWT members, and booking online saves 10 per cent.

Ghost train on Rotten Row

The SMEC Ghost Train is back for a second year at Southport Model Engineering Club on Rotten Row, next to Victoria Park, on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October, 4pm to 8pm each night. Live steam and battery electric miniature locomotives pull up to seven passengers a train round a lit, decorated track, with stalls, games and refreshments new this year. Tickets are £8 a passenger, with a goody bag for children after the ride, or £5 for under 3s (no goody bag). The first 90 minutes, 4pm to 5.30pm, is a quieter session with no jump scares and the sound turned down. The club says the money is reinvested in it (SMEC Ghost Train tickets). Our Ghost Train story has the ticket rules and photos from last year.

Halloween night in town

Southport Market’s Halloween Bash, advertised for Saturday 31 October from 7pm at £15 adults and £10 children, is no longer on the market’s events listing as of 7 October, and its booking page has been taken down. No reason has been given. What the market does list for half term is daytime children’s sessions: Halloween Slime on Wednesday 28 October, Wizard School on Thursday 29 October, and on Friday 30 October Miss Rach’s Halloween Boo Party (10am to 11am), a Seusstacular Rave (12pm to 1.30pm) and Hocus Pocus vs Beetlejuice (2.30pm to 4pm). The listing does not show prices for these (Southport Market). The Grand on Lord Street has two. Ghost Stories by Candlelight on Saturday 31 October at 7pm is an adult evening of ghost stories with a three-course meal, £40 a head, non-refundable (The Grand). The next day, Sunday 1 November, the Hocus Pocus Family Halloween Spooktacular puts on a live Sanderson Sisters show with games and fancy dress, in two sessions, 11am to 2pm and 3pm to 6pm, £10 a person, with food to buy on the day (The Grand).

On Saturday 31 October the market also hosts a Books Alive Room on the Broom session, 10am to 11am, and at 12pm a StarKidz Halloween Villain Bash: dress as your favourite villain for a dance party with six characters to meet, 12pm to 1.30pm; no price on the listing (Southport Market).

The Atkinson’s half-term week

The theatre on Lord Street has the strongest week it has run for half term in some years, and the prices below all carry a £1.50 per ticket booking fee online or by phone (The Atkinson).

• The Body Smugglers, a murder mystery set on the Mersey docks in 1826, Friday 23 October at 8pm, £27, age 12 and over: sold out on 7 October, but four returned seats were back on sale on 20 October
• The Haunting of Blaine Manor, billed as the Halloween special, Saturday 24 October at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, £24 standard and £20 concessions, ages 10 and over
• Freezin, a family show about Jack Frost freezing the kingdom, Wednesday 28 October at 1pm and 4.30pm, £18 adults and £16 concessions and children
• John Lydon, I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right, Thursday 29 October at 7.30pm
• Fun For Little Ones, a live tribute to Ms Rachel for toddlers and their grown-ups, Friday 30 October at 2pm, £18
• Ian Prowse and Amsterdam, Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm

Every performance listed above was still on sale on 30 September, by The Atkinson’s own box office feed.

What is not announced yet

Adventure Coast Southport, the seafront park formerly called Pleasureland, still had nothing listed on its events page when we checked again on 30 September, which says only that the programme changes with the seasons and each event gets its own page (Adventure Coast Southport). The park has run late-season Halloween and Day of the Dead nights with unlimited ride tickets in past years, so it is worth checking again in early October.

One thing not to search for: the old Southport Halloween Festival at spookysouthport.com is dead. Its events list has not moved past 2017 and its homepage still promises a return in October 2018.

Getting there

The two farms and Martin Mere are all drives, out towards Burscough and Ormskirk. For the town centre nights, parking in Southport has the car parks and charges, and Southport roadworks and travel covers anything affecting the roads that week. The British Musical Fireworks Championship has already been and gone by half term, in late September.