We Spent the Whole Day at Lexington's Halloween Festival and Thriller Parade

We went to the Halloween Festival and Thriller Parade downtown and decided to make a whole day of it. The parade is what most people come for, but there's a whole festival before it, and if you only show up for the parade you miss half the fun and you'll have a hard time parking. And you might even just have to kill someone for a spot (only flimsy rubber knives, of course).

The Basics

• It's usually held on the Sunday before Halloween. In 2026 it was Sunday, October 25.
• Food, drink and craft vendors opened at 4 p.m. and ran until 8:30 p.m.
• The variety show with local dance groups ran from about 5 to 6 p.m.
• The Halloween Parade started at 6:30 p.m. and Thriller started at 7 p.m.
• The parade runs down Main Street between Quality Street and Mill Street.
• It's free to watch.
• To dance in Thriller you have to register with Mecca Dance and go to rehearsals ahead of time, starting in late September.

Why the Thriller Parade Is a Big Deal

The Thriller Parade started as a joke. Back in the early 2000s, Teresa Tomb, who owns Mecca Live Studio, and Melissa McCartt-Smyth were talking at the studio about restaging Michael Jackson's Thriller as a street performance. About 50 people came to learn the dance that first year, mostly by word of mouth, and thousands showed up to watch, according to a 2016 story in Smiley Pete. WRFL, UK's college radio station, has played the Thriller soundtrack for the dance since that first year.

It grew fast. The number of zombies doubled for several years before leveling off at more than 1,000, and Smiley Pete put the downtown crowd at 15,000 to 20,000 people. These days several dancers play Michael Jackson, spaced out along Main Street from Quality Street to Mill Street, each leading his own group of zombies. Lexington Parks and Recreation runs the festival around it.

It has a national reputation too. USA Today named it a Top 10 Halloween Destination, it was included in Oprah Magazine's Top 25 Best Halloween Festivals Across the U.S., and in September 2025 Time Out ranked it number 9 on its list of the 12 best over-the-top Halloween events in the country.

It doesn't always go to plan. In 2023 bad weather pushed the whole thing back a week and out to Masterson Station Park, LEX 18 reported at the time.

Where we parked

We parked at the Calvary Baptist Church parking lot and walked across the bridge on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. We got there about 10 minutes after 4 and parking was plentiful there. Parking on the side of the streets was already taken.

I went back up to the car to get our folding chairs about 5:30, and the church parking lot was completely full. So it's important to get here as close to 4 as you can, or before. If you come late just to see the parade and miss the festival, you're gonna have a hard time finding a parking spot.

There are more downtown parking options on our parking page.

The booths

The booths had all kinds of Halloween crafts. There was a psychic reading booth, which was kind of interesting and funny. There were Halloween shirt booths, handmade earring booths, candles, crochet crafts and other handmade craft booths. Geek Treats was there selling cupcakes and other treats, and Traveling Tom's Coffee was serving iced and hot drinks.

The food trucks

Up South Limestone toward the government buildings is where all the food trucks were. Chocomania was there, along with a carnival food truck with potato skins, wings, chicken tenders, fries and other deep fried foods. Wise Bird Cider Company was there, Old Kentucky Kettle Corn, and Castle & Key, like they were at the Woodland Art Fair. There was also a gourmet grilled cheese truck.

God's Harvest Ministries, "food for your soul," had loaded fries with names like the King David, which is Texas cheese fries with bacon, cheese, green onions and ranch, and Elijah's Blaze, which is fried chicken, shredded cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch and green onions. Those two stuck out. We decided to eat there to exorcise any spirits we may have picked up along the way looking around at everything, and got the King David. It was loaded with bacon and cheese, ranch dressing and green onions, especially the bacon. There's plenty of bacon on it for bacon lovers.

We had a West Sixth Dunkel to share. The stadium cup with beer was $14 and refills were $12. A regular size cup of beer was $7.

The variety show

Before the parade there was a variety show on stage with local dance studios and groups. Dance Attack dance studio was one of the first acts. Kids of Thriller came on next, then Traci Stone's Dance. SCAPA did Models from the Grave, a zombie fashion show. SCAPA is doing Annie Jr. at the Opera House in November, and it's on our events calendar. Another group did a Rocky Horror Picture Show number, Troupe Dagaz performed, and Phantom of the Opera was next as we were leaving.

Get your spot early

We left the stage a little early to get a good seat for the parade. When we left the stage to go to the street, there were more acts that we didn't see so we could get a front row spot at the parade. It's the sacrifice you are going to have to make, especially if you have kids. When I came back with the chairs, the sides of the road started filling up quick. It's best to leave the stage a little early, pick a spot on the side of the road and set out your seats. We sat right in front of Phoenix Park on the side of the street.

My wife and I got situated on the side of the street for the parade and we saw all these wonderful drinks people were drinking. Spirits were definitely in the air (more ways than one) and I think one was telling me "Your wife looks thirsty". So I limbo'd the police tape, ran over to Castle & Key and got their Apple Old Fashioned. It was absolutely scary good! Highly recommend it if you like fall and you like bourbon.

The parade

The parade was entertaining but different than a traditional parade. There weren't any big traditional floats, they were kinda floats, just on trailers, and there weren't many of them. You had companies advertising with tricked out cars with Halloween decor. One car even flipped up on its side and drove by! Most of the dance schools and groups that performed on stage earlier were part of the parade, like Dance Attack dressed as the Scooby-Doo gang. Bryan Station High School's marching band came through, and they were the only band.

The trailer floats included a Star Wars ship with Chewbacca hiding behind it waving at people, a wagon full of jack-o'-lanterns, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The Headless Horseman made an appearance close to the end.

There were horses dressed up in outfits ridden by Vikings, and one of the horses released a statement to the press in front of everyone. About five minutes later a guy from the city rolled up with a city cart, scooped it up and discarded it. I believe he got some of the loudest cheers of the night. He was the real hero of the night. I am inspired to dress up as a city pooper scooper on Halloween now. One of these T-shirt companies around town needs to make a pooper scooper T-shirt.

Thriller

Thriller was neat to watch. The music played through the city speakers and a Michael Jackson impersonator started off dancing. Then the kids and parents came out of the crowd dressed as zombies, ghosts and all kinds of costumes and did their choreography to the music. The dead came out to dance and it was a true party unlike anything I have seen.

The dancers aren't just people jumping in. To dance in Thriller you register with Mecca Dance and go to at least one dance rehearsal and at least one staging rehearsal at Artworks on Patterson Street. Rehearsals start in late September. If you want to be a zombie next year, sign up in September.

Getting home

Traffic was bad. Most of it was going back through downtown, so we took the quickest way out of town the other way. We hung a left on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and took it straight into campus. We took a right on Avenue of Champions and kept going until we hit South Upper Street. We turned left on it and kept going (it turns into South Limestone). We turned right on Virginia Avenue, kept going through the next light onto Red Mile Road, and made it back to Masterson Station that way. It was a lot quicker than going back through downtown, and we encountered very little traffic.

More Halloween in Lexington

Looking for more this October? We keep a list of haunted houses and pumpkin patches around Lexington.