Updated September 2026 · by Mount Pleasant Scoop
🎄 Next up: Holiday Events in Mount Pleasant → The Towne Centre tree lighting, holiday markets and the Christmas Light Parade on Sun., Dec. 13.
Quick answer: Fall in Mount Pleasant runs on five things — the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch (six weekends, September 25 to November 1), the free Children’s Day Festival at Park West (Sunday, October 18), the Towne Centre Fall Festival (Saturday, October 24), oyster season opening in October, and a Halloween stretch built around ghost tours on the USS Yorktown. Halloween 2026 lands on a Saturday. Here’s the local’s guide to all of it — dates, addresses, prices and what’s changed this year.
Halloween gets its own page: Halloween in Mount Pleasant, SC has the trunk-or-treats, the Yorktown ghost tours and where to trick-or-treat on the night.
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Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch: Sept 25 – Nov 1, Fri–Sun 10 AM–7 PM · 2434 N. Hwy 17 · $15 ages 3+
Hibben UMC Pumpkin Patch: Oct 1–31, daily · 690 Coleman Blvd · free to walk through
Children’s Day Festival: Sun, Oct 18, 12–5 PM · Park West · free, everything
Towne Centre Fall Festival: Sat, Oct 24, 12–3 PM · 1218 Belk Dr · free
Trunk or Treat: Fri, Oct 30, 4:30–7 PM · Carolina Park soccer fields
Live Under The Oaks: Thursdays in October, 6–8 PM · Towne Centre · free
Oyster season: opens sometime in October — SCDNR hadn’t set the date as of late September
Yorktown ghost tours: evenings · 40 Patriots Point Rd · from $39
Wando Warrior 5K: Sat, Oct 24, 8:30 AM · District 2 Stadium · $25–$45
Old Village Harbor 5K: Sat, Nov 14, 8:30 AM · Alhambra Hall · $40
Merry Makers Market: Sun, Nov 22, 11 AM–4 PM · Park West · new this year
Boone Hall Fright Nights is gone for good. Boone Hall announced on May 6, 2026 that the haunted attraction won’t return after 22 seasons, citing rising operating costs and a shift toward programming the whole family can do together. Nothing has been announced to replace it, which means Mount Pleasant has no haunted house or haunted trail this year. The Yorktown’s after-dark ghost tours are the closest thing left in town.
The Pumpkin Patch got bigger instead. Boone Hall expanded it to six weekends running from late September through November 1 — every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with no gaps.
The Charleston Scottish Games are canceled for 2026. The Scottish Society of Charleston called it off over costs. The games had moved from Boone Hall to North Charleston’s Riverfront Park in 2021; the society says it hopes to return in 2027.
Two, and they’re nothing alike. One is a full-day ticketed festival; the other is a church lot you can walk through on your way home.
Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch — In its 30th year and one of the largest fall festivals in the state. The Berkley Electric Cooperative corn maze (eight acres, plus a one-acre junior maze), a mile-and-a-half tractor-pulled hay ride with Halloween scenes, pig races three times a day, a petting zoo, pony rides, mini-golf and live circus shows. Pumpkins are sold by the pound.
📍 2434 N. Hwy 17 (a separate entrance from the main plantation) · Six weekends: Sept 25–27, Oct 2–4, Oct 9–11, Oct 16–18, Oct 23–25, Oct 30–Nov 1 · Fri–Sun 10 AM–7 PM · $15 ages 3 and up, free for 2 and under · 843-884-4371
Worth knowing before you go: parking is free, tickets are sold for a specific date, and it runs rain or shine with no refunds or rain checks. Military and first responders get $3 off, but only at the gate — not online. Pets aren’t allowed; service animals are. The corn maze and the hay ride line close 30 minutes before the gate does, so don’t roll in at 6:45.
Hibben United Methodist Church Pumpkin Patch — The low-key alternative, right on Coleman Boulevard, and it’s been running since 2001. The pumpkins are grown on Navajo land in New Mexico and harvested by Native Americans; roughly 60% of the profit goes back to the growers and the rest funds church missions. No ticket, no maze, no line — just a lot full of pumpkins under the oaks, which is all a lot of families actually want.
📍 690 Coleman Blvd · Open Oct 1–31 · Mon–Fri 11 AM–7 PM, Sat 10 AM–7 PM, Sun 12–7 PM · Free to walk through; pumpkins are priced at the patch · 843-884-9761
Children’s Day Festival — The 38th annual, presented by Harris Teeter, and the town’s best free family day of the year — locals plan around it. Carnival rides, inflatable slides, pony rides, games and live entertainment, and admission and every activity are free. Food is the only thing you pay for, and the concessions are run by East Cooper schools as fundraisers.
📍 Park West Recreation Complex, 1251 Park West Blvd · Sun, Oct 18, 12–5 PM · Free · Free parking with all-day shuttles from Cario Middle School, Charles Pinckney/Laurel Hill and Kids Teeth
Mount Pleasant Towne Centre Fall Festival — Free, and the biggest Halloween-weekend event in town now that Fright Nights is gone. Trick-or-treating at the shops, stilt walkers, face painting, spin art, balloon animals, caricatures, 30-plus local vendors and food trucks, plus live music from 40 Years Too Late and dance performances. The pet costume contest is the main event: $10 per pet, registration opens at noon at the Charleston Animal Society table, judging at 2 PM, and the grand prize is a $500 certificate to Park West Veterinary Associates. Categories include Best Duo, Best Homemade and Funniest.
📍 1218 Belk Dr · Sat, Oct 24, 12–3 PM · Free to attend · $10 per pet for the costume contest, 100% to Charleston Animal Society
Town Trunk or Treat — The Town’s own Halloween event, and the biggest trunk-or-treat in Mount Pleasant: trick-or-treating, a DJ, a photo booth and a petting zoo, with a concessions window selling food. Costumes encouraged. The Town doesn’t publish an admission price or a trunk sign-up, so check with Recreation at 843-884-8517 if you want to host a trunk.
📍 Carolina Park soccer fields, Recreation Way · Fri, Oct 30, 4:30–7 PM
Live Under The Oaks — Free live music at Towne Centre every Thursday in October, with a different food truck each week and beer and wine from Burtons Grill. The 2026 lineup: Richard and The Twins (Oct 1), Tripping Billy Goats playing Dave Matthews (Oct 8), The Novatones (Oct 15), Dallas Baker and the Pluff Daddy’s (Oct 22) and Memphis Lightning (Oct 29).
📍 The Oaks at Towne Centre, across from Barnes & Noble · Thursdays Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 · 6–8 PM · Free
Halloween on the USS Yorktown — Patriots Point leans into October. Bulldog Tours runs after-hours ghost tours aboard the Yorktown with access to parts of the ship that are closed during the day, including the flight deck after dark — about 90 minutes, and they book out near Halloween. The family Trick or Treat on the Yorktown, Saturday October 17 from 5:30 to 7 PM, has already reached capacity for 2026.
📍 40 Patriots Point Rd · Ghost tours evenings, from $39 adults and $29 ages 4–12, free under 4 · Parking is $5.50 an hour, $25 max, and is not included
Book the ghost tour at bulldogtours.com. Tours run rain or shine, but the flight deck closes in bad weather, and the route involves narrow stairs — it isn’t stroller or wheelchair friendly.
South Carolina’s recreational shellfish season opens in October and runs into May. As of late September 2026, SCDNR had only published that the 2026–27 season “will open in October 2026 and will remain open until May 2027” — no specific date. It has opened on October 1 in most recent years, but it isn’t automatic: in 2017 the opening was pushed to October 15. Check SCDNR before you plan a roast around it.
Once it opens, oyster season is the real start of fall here — backyard roasts, restaurant specials and cluster buckets on Shem Creek follow within weeks. Roasts pop up all season along the creek and around town, and we flag them in the Monday newsletter as they’re announced.
If you want to gather your own, you need a South Carolina saltwater recreational fishing license, and the limit is two bushels of oysters per person per day, on no more than two days in any seven. If you’d rather buy them, Mount Pleasant Seafood at 1402 Shrimp Boat Lane sells fresh oysters in season, Mon–Sat 9–6 and Sun 10–5.
Farmers Market season finale — Tuesday, Sept 29, 3:30–7 PM at 645 Coleman Blvd. The last one until spring.
Charleston Battery vs. Rhode Island FC — Saturday, Sept 26, 7 PM at Patriots Point.
SWEAT Fitness Series — free Wednesday workouts at Towne Centre, 6–7 PM. Sept 30 (Power Vinyasa with Modern Minds) is the last session of the series.
Pumpkin Patch opens — Sept 25.
Oyster season opens — sometime in October; SCDNR hadn’t announced the date as of late September.
Live Under The Oaks — Thursdays Oct 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, 6–8 PM, free.
Hibben UMC Pumpkin Patch — open daily, Oct 1–31.
Holes Fore Heroes golf tournament — Monday, Oct 5 at Charleston National, benefiting the USS Yorktown Foundation.
Play Dayz at Towne Centre — Tuesday, Oct 6, 10 AM–12 PM, free, ages 10 and under. It’s the last one of the year.
Ship Shape: Maintaining the Fighting Lady — Wednesday, Oct 8, 11 AM–12 PM at Patriots Point, a talk with the ship’s historian and chief engineer.
Barks & Bingo — Thursday, Oct 8, 6–8 PM at Burtons Grill, 1875 N. Hwy 17. $10 to Charleston Animal Society. Sold out — watch for the spring round.
Battery vs. Louisville City — Saturday, Oct 10, 4 PM at Patriots Point, the Breast Cancer Awareness match.
Pink Promenade Catwalk & Cocktails — Saturday, Oct 10, 11 AM–1 PM at Towne Centre. $50, all of it to Roper St. Francis Foundation breast cancer programs. Sold out for 2026.
Palmetto Park Jam — Sunday, Oct 11, 11 AM–4:30 PM at Palmetto Islands County Park, with live music from Idlewild Revival. $20 per vehicle in advance, $30 at the gate — the usual $2 park admission doesn’t apply that day.
Cast Off Fishing Tournament — Saturday, Oct 17, 7 AM–2 PM at the Mount Pleasant Pier. $12, or $9 military, youth and seniors.
Trick or Treat on the Yorktown — Saturday, Oct 17, 5:30–7 PM. At capacity for 2026.
Children’s Day Festival — Sunday, Oct 18, 12–5 PM at Park West. Free.
Towne Centre Fall Festival — Saturday, Oct 24, 12–3 PM. Free.
Wando Warrior 5K — Saturday, Oct 24, 8:30 AM at District 2 Stadium, 1000 Warrior Way. $25–$45, benefiting Susan G. Komen.
Battery home finale vs. Indy Eleven — Saturday, Oct 24. Fan Appreciation night with fireworks.
Trunk or Treat at Carolina Park — Friday, Oct 30, 4:30–7 PM.
Halloween — Saturday, Oct 31. See our Halloween guide for where to go.
One to watch: the Battery clinched a playoff spot on September 19. The USL Championship conference quarterfinals run October 30 to November 1, and the club’s stated goal is a top-four finish to earn home advantage in the first round — so a home playoff match at Patriots Point that weekend is possible, though nothing is scheduled yet. Check the schedule.
Pumpkin Patch’s final weekend — runs through Nov 1.
Daylight saving ends — Sunday, Nov 1 at 2 AM. Halloween is the last Saturday evening before the clocks change, and the following week gets dark an hour earlier.
Barks & Bingo returns — Thursday, Nov 12, 6–8 PM at Burtons Grill. Also sold out; the $10 reservations benefit Charleston Animal Society.
Old Village Harbor 5K, 27th annual — Saturday, Nov 14, 8:30 AM from Alhambra Hall, 131 Middle St. $40, and the price goes up after Oct 6.
Merry Makers Market — Sunday, Nov 22, 11 AM–4 PM at Park West Recreation Complex. New this year, Town-run, local makers and bakers only — no mass-produced goods.
Roast season proper — November is when the oyster roast calendar fills up.
The best walking weather of the year — see below.
And one for December: the Mount Pleasant Holiday Market & Craft Show is Saturday, December 12, 11 AM–4 PM at the Farmers Market Pavilion, 645 Coleman Blvd, with free admission and free parking. The weekly farmers market itself is back in April.
Not the way people mean it. South Carolina’s official foliage reports only cover the Upstate, and what color the Lowcountry does get peaks in mid-to-late November, not October. Coastal Mount Pleasant is live oak, palmetto and marsh — evergreen, mostly. The seasonal change that actually happens here is the spartina marsh turning gold, and it’s better than it sounds.
What November really offers is the best walking weather of the year. Four places worth the trip:
Laurel Hill County Park — 745 acres of unpaved trails through woods, meadows and an oak allée, with a small lake overlook. It’s a rustic park — no restrooms on site, so bring water. The oak allée is the best genuine fall walk in Mount Pleasant.
📍 Charleston County Parks · Sunrise to sunset
Palmetto Islands County Park — 943 acres of paved trails and boardwalks through meadow, maritime forest and tidal marsh, with a 50-foot observation tower, the Big Toy playground, an off-leash dog park, a fishing dock and kayak access to Horlbeck Creek. Bike rentals are $5 an hour or $15 a day from 10 AM. Splash Island is closed for the season.
📍 444 Needlerush Pkwy · Charleston County Parks
The Pitt Street Bridge — The old Cove Inlet bridge, now a pier into the marsh with a straight view toward Sullivan’s Island. The single best sunset in Mount Pleasant that doesn’t require buying a drink first.
📍 972 Pitt Street · Free
Wonders’ Way on the Ravenel Bridge — The 2.7-mile pedestrian and bike path across the Ravenel Bridge, twelve feet wide, with the harbor on both sides. Free, and there’s parking on the Mount Pleasant side near the Waterfront Park.
📍 Free · 2.7 miles each way
Cooler patios and oyster specials are what fall dining here is about. Start with our Best Restaurants and Best Happy Hours guides, or make an afternoon of the Shem Creek boardwalk — golden hour on the creek moves to happy-hour time in the fall, which is not a coincidence worth wasting.
The Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch (six weekends, September 25 to November 1), the free Children’s Day Festival at Park West on October 18, the free Towne Centre Fall Festival on October 24, oyster roasts once the season opens, ghost tours on the USS Yorktown, and Halloween events across town. November brings the Old Village Harbor 5K and the new Merry Makers Market.
Six weekends — September 25–27, October 2–4, October 9–11, October 16–18, October 23–25, and October 30–November 1 — open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM to 7 PM. Admission is $15 for ages 3 and up; children 2 and under are free. The patch entrance is at 2434 N. Hwy 17, which is not the main plantation gate.
Yes. Hibben United Methodist Church runs a pumpkin patch at 690 Coleman Blvd from October 1 to 31, open daily. It’s free to walk through and you only pay for pumpkins. The pumpkins are grown on Navajo land in New Mexico, and about 60% of the profit goes back to the growers.
No. Boone Hall permanently ended Fright Nights on May 6, 2026, after 22 seasons, and nothing has been announced to replace it. That means Mount Pleasant has no haunted house or haunted trail this year. The Pumpkin Patch expanded to six weekends instead, and the USS Yorktown’s ghost tours are the only after-dark scare left in town.
SCDNR says the 2026–27 recreational shellfish season opens in October 2026 and stays open until May 2027, but as of late September it hadn’t published a specific opening date. It has opened on October 1 in most recent years, though it was delayed to October 15 in 2017. Check SCDNR before you plan around it.
Yes. Admission and all activities are free at the 38th annual festival on Sunday, October 18, 2026, 12–5 PM at Park West Recreation Complex, 1251 Park West Blvd. Only food costs money, and the concessions are school fundraisers. Free parking with shuttles runs all day from Cario Middle School, Charles Pinckney/Laurel Hill and Kids Teeth.
Saturday, October 24, from 12 to 3 PM at 1218 Belk Drive. It’s free to attend. The pet costume contest costs $10 per pet, with registration opening at noon at the Charleston Animal Society table and judging at 2 PM.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 3:30–7 PM at 645 Coleman Blvd — the Town calls it the season finale. The weekly market returns in April, but the Holiday Market & Craft Show fills the gap on Saturday, December 12, 11 AM–4 PM at the same pavilion, free.
Not really. South Carolina’s official foliage reports cover only the Upstate, and what color the Lowcountry gets peaks in mid-to-late November rather than October. Mount Pleasant is live oak, palmetto and marsh grass, so the seasonal shift here is the spartina marsh turning gold. For a fall walk, Laurel Hill County Park’s oak allée and the Pitt Street Bridge are the best of it.
Saturday, October 31 — which also makes it the last Saturday evening before daylight saving time ends at 2 AM on Sunday, November 1.
Every date, time and price on this page was checked against the venue’s own listing in September 2026 — Boone Hall, Hibben UMC, Patriots Point, Bulldog Tours, Mount Pleasant Towne Centre, the Town of Mount Pleasant, Charleston County Parks, the Charleston Battery and SCDNR. Events we couldn’t confirm on an official source were left off rather than guessed at. Fall calendars change weekly, so check the official link before you drive.
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