Southbourne Pumpkin Fest is on Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm, free. BCP half term is 26 to 30 October, and Smugglers Cove opens 10am to 5pm all week.

BCP schools break from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026. Halloween itself is the day after they go back on the calendar, Saturday 31 October, which is a different shape of week from last year and is already causing confusion in local listings.

Updated 3 October: Bournemouth Coastal BID has confirmed Southbourne Pumpkin Fest for Saturday 31 October 2026, 10am to 4pm, free.

That matters more than it sounds. Several what’s-on pages for Bournemouth still carry last year’s copy, and last year 31 October was a Friday.

The date trap, spelled out

Bournemouth’s official tourism site currently advertises the Southbourne Pumpkin Fest as happening on “Friday 31st October”. That was true in 2025. In 2026, 31 October is a Saturday.

The organiser has now settled it: Bournemouth Coastal BID’s own 2026 event page gives Saturday 31 October 2026, 10am to 4pm. Go by that, not the tourism listing. Other attraction pages below are still carrying 2025 copy, so check before you travel.

The one date that is firm is the school break, which BCP Council sets more than a year ahead and publishes on its school term and holiday dates page:

  • Autumn half term break: 26 October to 30 October 2026.
  • Autumn term ends 18 December 2026.
  • Christmas holiday: 21 December 2026 to 3 January 2027.

Individual schools can set their own dates and take training days (every 2026/27 date is on our Bournemouth school term dates page), so check with yours.

Southbourne Pumpkin Fest

This is the biggest free Halloween event in the town, and it closes a high street for it. Bournemouth Coastal BID runs it with the Boscombe and Southbourne Rotary Club and the Southbourne Business Association.

2026: Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm, Southbourne, free. The BID’s 2026 page confirms the Pumpkin Trail and the Trader Pumpkin Carving Competition, encourages fancy dress, and says “more activities and entertainment will be announced soon”. It has not yet published the road closures or the kids’ hub for this year.

What the organisers published for the last running, as a guide to the rest:

  • Free entry, with road closures on Southbourne Grove, described by the BID as “a full-on Halloween takeover”.
  • The Pumpkin Carving Competition and Trail, which was in its third year. Traders display carved pumpkins in shop windows; visitors collect voting tokens from Southbourne Green from 11am and follow the trail “from SOBO Sommelier at the top all the way past Little Perth”.
  • A kids’ hub on Wentworth Avenue with magic shows, apple bobbing, storytelling and slime.
  • Ghost penalty shootouts, a craft fair, apple bobbing, live music and a bar.
  • The Bournemouth Goats, which is not a euphemism.

The 2025 road closure on Southbourne Grove is the likely shape again, but treat it as unconfirmed until the BID publishes this year’s details.

Bournemouth Oceanarium

The Oceanarium’s Halloween page says plainly: “This event has finished and will re-launch for Halloween 2026.” So there is no 2026 programme yet, but the attraction has committed to running one.

The offer it ran last year, as a guide to what to expect: children went free when dressed in a spooky outfit, redeemable only at the ticket desk and only with one full paying adult, valid on visits from 25 October to 2 November. Alongside it were a trick or treat quiz trail and meet the creature sessions with a royal python, tarantula, giant millipedes and a Halloween crab.

The aquarium now opens at 10am daily, closing at 5pm on weekdays and 6pm at weekends, with last entry an hour before closing.

Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf

The seafront course publishes its opening hours well ahead, and its current hours page reads as 2026 copy:

  • October half-term, 24 October to 1 November: 10am to 5pm daily.
  • Rest of October: Sunday to Thursday 10am to 4.30pm, Friday and Saturday 10am to 5pm.

Note the half-term block is nine days, not five. It opens the Saturday before the school break and stays open the weekend after, which covers Halloween itself.

The prices on that page are given as winter and summer bands that both expired earlier in 2026, so there is no published autumn price. Check at the hut. The course is usually themed for the week, with fancy dress encouraged.

Getting there and parking

Southbourne Grove has short-stay on-street bays and a small car park behind the shops, and on Pumpkin Fest day the Grove itself is closed, so park off it and walk. The seafront attractions are the usual Bournemouth problem: our parking in Bournemouth page has the charges and the 24-hour car parks, and roadworks and travel covers anything live on the way in.

Half term is also when the town’s other family attractions are busiest, and our things to do in Bournemouth page has the wet weather options.

Straight after half term

The town’s bonfire night display is at Littledown on Saturday 7 November 2026, with three separate shows in one evening and a cash-only gate. Details are on our Bournemouth fireworks page.

What is still to come

  • The Southbourne Pumpkin Fest 2026 activity list and any road closures, which the BID says it will announce closer to the day.
  • The Oceanarium’s Halloween 2026 programme and offer, which it has confirmed is returning but not dated. Expect it in October.
  • Smugglers Cove’s autumn prices, which are missing from its own hours page.

Sources