Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, but the Village of Dobbs Ferry has put its main night on Friday, Oct. 30. That evening, downtown trick-or-treating, a costume-and-movie night at the Keeper's House and the Headless Horseman Ride at Waterfront Park all begin between 4 and 7 p.m.
Earlier calendars didn't show it this way. A recreation events list the village released in January had the Halloween Bash on Oct. 25 and downtown trick-or-treating on Oct. 31. The updated flyer moved the Bash to Saturday, Oct. 24, and trick-or-treating to Friday, Oct. 30. If the January dates are still on your fridge, they're out of date.
Friday, Oct. 30, in Order
Each part of the evening has its own place and time, and two of them overlap:
- 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., Cedar and Main Streets. The annual downtown Halloween Trick or Treat, with music by Rooney Tunes.
- 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., Keeper's House, 15 Walnut Street. The Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct bring back their Halloween Spectacular, with games, decorations, crafts and candy. A screening of Ghostbusters from 1984 starts at dark. Costumes are encouraged, and no registration is needed.
- 7:00 p.m., Waterfront Park. The Headless Horseman Ride. The village flyer invites families to bring their bikes for a spooky night ride.
The Aqueduct event starts while trick-or-treating is still going on downtown. The Friends describe it as "the night before the season," which on this year's calendar means the same Friday. The Keeper's House movie and the Horseman Ride also overlap, since the ride starts at 7 and the Aqueduct program runs until 8. A family can do all three only by choosing which hour goes where. The event pages don't give enough detail to plan more precisely than that, so check the Friends' event page and the village flyer that week in case anything changes.
The Month Uses the Same Three Places
Friday the 30th makes more sense once you see that the rest of October already runs on those same three spots. Each one has been hosting its own Halloween events for weeks.
The Aqueduct. The Keeper's Scarecrow Parade went up on the Aqueduct Trail near the Keeper's House on Oct. 3 and stays on display through Oct. 31. Registration closed Sept. 24. Everyone who entered agreed to look after their scarecrow and repair it as needed for the whole month. That means the trail by the Keeper's House will still be lined with scarecrows when families arrive for the Halloween Spectacular on Oct. 30, the day before the display comes down.
Cedar and Main. Kids and families paint downtown storefront windows for Halloween from Thursday, Oct. 22, through Saturday, Oct. 24. Pre-registration is required, and the deadline is noon on Oct. 20. The painting wraps up six days before trick-or-treating, so the windows will be finished when the crowds come through on Oct. 30.
The waterfront. On Saturday, Oct. 24, costumed pets gather at the Waterfront Flag Pole at 11:30 a.m. for a loop around the park. Pets must stay on leashes. The Halloween Bash follows from noon to 4 p.m., with inflatables, a bubble bus and food trucks.
The Bash is the daytime family event at the waterfront. Six days later, the same park hosts the Horseman Ride after dark.
Friday Nights at the Waterfront Lead Up to It
Waterfront Park has had Friday evening events since September. The village's fall River Jam series runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront, and three dates remain this month.
| Friday | Band | Food truck |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 9 | The HillBilly Parade Band | To be announced |
| Oct. 16 | Seeing Red | To be announced |
| Oct. 23 | Grateful to Be Alive | Cousins Maine Lobster |
That schedule could change. The Oct. 2 concert was canceled for weather, and the village said the series would pick up again on Oct. 9.
Put the two schedules together and the waterfront has an event on every remaining Friday in October. Concerts fill the first three Fridays, the Bash takes over the following Saturday, and the Horseman Ride on Oct. 30 closes out the month. On the Tuesdays in between, there's fall trivia at Memorial Park on Oct. 13 and Oct. 27, which moves to the Embassy Center if the weather is bad or too cold.
Three Summer Openings, Mapped to the Week
Three businesses opened in Dobbs Ferry this summer, and none of them has been through a village Halloween yet. Each sits near one of the month's main spots.
DrySpace Beverage, Cedar Street. Matt and Molly Ferguson opened their non-alcoholic bottle shop and tasting room on July 17. The Rivertowns Dispatch reported more than 200 alternatives to conventional beer, wine and spirits on the shelves. The shop's own site lists NA beers, wines, spirits, adaptogens, ready-to-drink mocktails and mixers, along with free in-store tastings. It's on one of the two streets where trick-or-treating happens Friday afternoon. Its regular hours weren't published in the sources we checked, so call ahead.
Rosie Bella's Italian Kitchen, 1 Southfield Avenue. The Journal News reported in mid-July that Johnnie Greco would open Rosie Bella's on July 20 in the space Scaramella's used to occupy. The renovation added an open kitchen, a bigger bar with more counter seating and cushioned banquettes. He runs it with Rosie Greco, and the menu centers on house-made pasta and personal pizzas. The Journal News photo story featured the carbonara and the arancini. Its online ordering page lists Friday and Saturday hours of noon to 10 p.m. That would cover dinner after the Horseman Ride, though the page isn't dated, so confirm before you go.
Eyes Closed Coffee at HudCo, 145 Palisade Street, Suite 200. HudCo is a coworking and event space that hosts meetings, private parties and community programs. Carla Sanders runs Eyes Closed there as an in-house coffee residency. Her menu includes the EC Egg Cream, which the Journal News describes as a caffeinated take on the New York classic, and an Americano Spritz. HudCo also hosted a DrySpace mocktail pop-up on June 11, a month before the shop opened on Cedar Street. No regular coffee hours have been published, so check with HudCo before planning a stop around a window-painting morning.
After the 31st
The season ends at Gould Park on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. Bring your old pumpkins to the Pumpkin Smash and see who can hit the bullseye. Questions about any of the village events go to the Recreation Department at [email protected].
Kamala Vittal keeps track of the details that shape life in each Westchester village, like a Halloween night that shifts to Friday or a concert series held on the waterfront. If friends or family are weighing a move to the river towns and want to know how Dobbs Ferry actually spends its weeks, Let's Connect.
