At midnight on Saturday, October 31, the gates close at West Hollywood Park. The large and small dog parks and the basketball courts close with it, and they stay closed until 7 a.m. Sunday. North San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, alleys included, closes at the same minute. Halloween Carnaval itself won't start for another eighteen hours. For anyone who lives here, though, Halloween 2026 starts the moment Friday becomes Saturday.
Last year Halloween fell on a Friday, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department estimated 150,000 people came, which WEHOonline described as a record crowd. This year the free event runs from 6 to 11 p.m. on a Saturday, along the one-mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard between N. Doheny Drive and N. La Cienega Boulevard. The City has published its full list of closures. Read it street by street and a pattern shows up. Every north-south street that gets cut off is cut off between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue. Melrose itself doesn't appear on the list at all.
The day, hour by hour
The City's closures roll out in waves. Here they are in the order they happen, not the order the City lists them.
| Time | What changes |
|---|---|
| Sat., 12:00 a.m. | West Hollywood Park, both dog parks and the basketball courts close. N. San Vicente closes between Santa Monica Blvd. and Melrose. The five-story park structure is closed all day. |
| Sat., 5:00 a.m. | The Library Garage closes. |
| Sat., 7:00 a.m. | Side streets may be closed at Santa Monica Blvd. from this hour. Robertson closes between Santa Monica and Melrose. N. San Vicente closes between Santa Monica and Cynthia Street. La Peer and Almont close at Santa Monica. |
| Sat., 10:00 a.m. | Santa Monica Blvd. closes from Croft/Holloway to La Cienega and from La Cienega to Doheny. La Cienega closes between Holloway and Melrose. The eastbound and westbound Sunset turn lanes onto southbound La Cienega close. |
| Sat., 11:00 a.m. | Residential permit parking is lifted citywide. |
| Sat., 12:00 p.m. | Santa Monica Blvd. between La Cienega and Doheny must be fully closed to vehicles. |
| Sat., 6:00–11:00 p.m. | Halloween Carnaval |
| Sun., 6:00 a.m. | Closures on Santa Monica Blvd., La Cienega, Robertson, La Peer, Almont and the Sunset turn lanes end. |
| Sun., 7:00 a.m. | The park, dog parks, park structure and Library Garage reopen. San Vicente reopens no later than this hour. |
| Sun., 12:00 p.m. | Residential permit parking resumes. |
Two of these rows matter most to anyone with a car or a dog. Permit parking is lifted for 25 hours, from 11 a.m. Saturday to noon Sunday, across the whole city and not only near the event. The dog parks close for 31 hours, from midnight Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday. That makes Friday evening the last chance for a West Hollywood Park dog run until Sunday morning.
Melrose is the open edge
Two lines on the City's list show the whole layout of the day. La Peer Drive and Almont Drive both close at Santa Monica Boulevard from 7 a.m. Saturday, and the City states that "local traffic access" to each "will remain available from Melrose Avenue." Robertson closes between Santa Monica and Melrose. San Vicente closes between Santa Monica and Melrose. La Cienega closes from Holloway down to Melrose. Every closure stops at the same street.
On Saturday, then, the blocks between Santa Monica and Melrose can only be reached from the south. Melrose stays open the whole time and becomes the way in. That matters most for anyone with a delivery coming, a guest driving in, or a morning errand. Plan the route through Melrose and arrive before 10 a.m., when the big closures on Santa Monica Boulevard and La Cienega begin.
Melrose is also where most of this fall's new openings are. Three addresses show what that means for a Saturday spent near the action but outside it.
Three new reasons to be on Melrose that morning
The Hart and the Hunter, 7950 Melrose Avenue. Inside the Palihotel at the corner of Hayworth and Melrose, the restaurant reopened on September 30 in its original West Hollywood space. It ran there from 2012 to 2021, then left Los Angeles during the pandemic to focus on its location in Seattle's Pike Place Market. The revival serves daytime only, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. On Carnaval Saturday, those hours close the kitchen well before the boulevard fills up.
The menu leans traditional. There's smoked corned beef hash, salmon toast, chicken pot pie in puff pastry, a Reuben, and the biscuit with chile butter that Jonathan Gold once praised. Cocktails are capped at $15. Managing director of culinary James Siao told Eater LA he wanted the food and cocktails to be "reasonable and approachable" in a market that "has seen a big swing in cocktail pricing." The team also plans a happy hour from 1 to 3 p.m., with $4 beer, $7 wine and $12 cocktails. By 3 p.m. on Halloween, Santa Monica Boulevard will have been closed to cars for three hours.
Still Here, 8627 Melrose Avenue. The New York denim brand opened its first Los Angeles store on Friday, September 25. Denim is the core of the store, alongside other clothing. It's a useful stop for anyone still pulling a costume together on the day itself.
Coco Papaya, on the 8400 block of Melrose. WEHO Times reported in early September that this juice, smoothie and bowl spot is now open. Its online ordering page shows an ordering window of 10:30 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. Check walk-in hours before going.
All three sit on the open side of the closure line, and all three are new since late summer.
When the boulevard closes
As the light fades, the City's rules for the event apply. No alcohol or public drinking is allowed. Backpacks, camera cases and tote bags are banned, but clear plastic bags are allowed. Weapons, fireworks and drones are prohibited. The City strongly discourages bringing kids and pets because of the crowds. The single stage sits at Santa Monica and N. San Vicente, with a live DJ and food trucks. The City runs a text line for Halloween updates. Text "halloween" to (323) 848-5000.
Halloween also spreads out from the street into local businesses. Micky's at 8857 Santa Monica Boulevard is selling a Halloween Pass that covers all-day and all-night entry plus an after-hours event, running from noon October 31 to 4 a.m. November 1. More events are likely to follow. The City is waiving special event and encroachment permit fees, plus basic Los Angeles County Fire Department site plan review fees, for local businesses hosting Halloween events between Friday, October 23 and Sunday, November 1. Applications are due Monday, October 5. Businesses get a full ten days, so neighbors may well find costume nights at the bar down the street the weekend before the Carnaval.
What the City hasn't published yet
Transit details are still missing. As of this writing, the City's Carnaval page says transportation information is "coming soon." It lists Metro bus lines 4, 10, 30/330, 105, 212/312, 217 and 218 as connecting routes and sends riders to metro.net for detours. Last year the City suspended regular PickUp and Cityline service on Halloween. In their place it ran a free WeHo Halloween Ride from La Brea to Kings Road, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., with some service to the Hollywood/Highland Metro Station until midnight. That was the 2025 plan. The 2026 version hasn't been announced, so wait for the City's update before counting on a shuttle home.
The rest is already set. The park closes at midnight, side streets start closing at 7 a.m., the big closures begin at 10, and the boulevard is fully closed by noon. Through all of it, Melrose stays open. The Hart and the Hunter serves breakfast there from 7 a.m. and closes at 3 p.m.
Every October we pay close attention to how West Hollywood works on its busiest night, from which streets stay open to which new places are worth a Saturday morning. If you'd like to talk about the blocks you live on or are thinking of moving to, The Umansky Team is glad to share what we know. Contact Us.
