On Fourth Street, the Holiday Season Starts on Halloween Afternoon

Most of Berkeley treats Thanksgiving as the start of the holidays. Fourth Street starts on Halloween. From Saturday, Oct. 31, through mid-November, the West Berkeley shopping blocks have a free public event every Saturday. A costumed trick-or-treat route comes first, then an artisan market, then a lighting ceremony. The lights from that ceremony stay on every night into February.

Each event also starts at a different hour. The Halloween festival ends at 5 p.m., the harvest market runs through the afternoon, and the light celebration begins at 5 p.m. If you're planning around naps, soccer games or dinner, the schedule matters as much as the dates.

Saturday One: Trick-or-Treating on a Street That Changed This Year

The Fourth Street Halloween Festival & Trick-or-Treat runs from 3 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 31. Kids in costume can trick-or-treat at more than 80 shops on Fourth Street between University and Virginia. The festival itself sets up on Delaware at Fourth Street, and every activity there is free. The lineup includes a bubble show, magic shows at 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., an art activity booth, face painting by four professional painters, family-friendly music from PJay Smik Smak & the Cliffnottes, and costumed characters such as Renaissance Kitty. Stylists from Keter Salon will be doing "Scary Hair" with spray color and plastic spiders.

If you trick-or-treated here last October, some of the doors are different. Free People opened at 1799 Fourth St. on Jan. 30, and Aiken reopened at 1842 Fourth St. on Valentine's Day in the former CP Shades space, according to Berkeleyside. Paraíso Plant Studio moved a few doors down into the former Market Hall Foods space at 1780 Fourth St., where it now has 4,000 square feet.

Some familiar stops are gone. Berkeleyside reported in January that American Giant had closed its 1801 Fourth St. shop after nearly five years and that Vans had closed at 1915 Fourth St. Cotopaxi's shop in the same building has also closed, per an April report.

For an early dinner after the candy, Divan at 1788 Fourth St. is new since last Halloween. The Turkish restaurant soft-opened on June 22 and was serving lunch and dinner by August, according to the East Bay Times.

Saturday Two: The Pop-Up Side of the Street Gets Its Turn

The second Saturday features Fourth Street's pop-up sellers. Harvest on Fourth runs Nov. 7 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Maker's Row. Prikli Agency is presenting the free artisan market of local makers. It includes a tote-making station, and the listing says dogs are welcome.

Maker's Row works differently from the rest of Fourth Street. Its own site describes it as a flexible pop-up marketplace where local designers and entrepreneurs sell from customizable kiosks, with handmade crafts, vintage clothing, art and design pieces. It sits behind Anthropologie, next to Cafe Réveille. Because the sellers rotate, a November market there will have different vendors than a regular weekday visit.

While you're there, walk a block to The Gardener at 1836 Fourth St. POJ Studio, a Kyoto-based company founded in 2020 by Tina Koyama, works with 80 craftspeople across Japan. It is running a pop-up there that sells traditionally made Japanese homegoods and teaches kintsugi, the method of repairing broken ceramics with urushi tree sap and 24-karat gold. Tomoka Hayashi, POJ's head of U.S. operations, explained the appeal to Berkeleyside: "Glue gets weaker over time. But urushi gets stronger over time."

The classes are priced by length:

• The Scene: two hours on the basics, $170
• The Act: three sessions, $450
• The Ensemble: six sessions in which students repair up to four cracked or broken items, $780

Finishing a single piece can take up to two months. If you just want to shop, the homegoods are on sale only through Nov. 22. The Gardener is open 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. That closing date falls eight days after the lights go on, so you can visit the pop-up during your first week under the lights.

Saturday Three: The Lights Come On at Dusk

The Dazzling Holiday Light Celebration is the only one of the three events timed for dark. It runs Saturday, Nov. 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Fourth Street and Delaware. Visit Berkeley's guide says the lights come on across three blocks as the sun sets. The entertainment includes a life-sized snow wolf puppet, a snow fairy on stilts, an LED-covered roller-skating elf and local musicians. Peet's Coffee, hot cider, Mexican hot chocolate and cookies are free. Kids can build their own train out of art tape.

The opening night is two hours long, but the lights stay on every night until February 2027. Visit Berkeley lists several things that run under them for the rest of the season:

1. Santa's Mailbox outside Peet's at 1776 Fourth St., where kids can mail letters and get replies from Santa's elves.
2. Late shopping hours at participating stores in December.
3. A crafting afternoon on Dec. 12, 1 to 4 p.m., with wreath making, glass ornament decorating, glitter pinecones, snowflakes and charm designing, plus photos with Santa Claus and an expected visit from the Grinch.

With the lights on until February, a family that misses the Nov. 14 crowd can still come on any weeknight in December and see the same three blocks lit, with less competition for the mailbox.

What the Three Saturdays Cost to Park

The events are free, but parking isn't. Both the Halloween listing and the Visit Berkeley guide send visitors to the public pay lot at Fourth and Virginia. If you remember last year's meter rates, they've gone up. Under the City of Berkeley's March 2026 meter rate adjustments, meters on the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Fourth Street rose from $3.50 to $4.00 an hour. A January parking report to the City Council set those changes to take effect March 1. Those were the rates as of that March adjustment. The meter in front of you has the current price.

Three other ideas came up this spring and are not in effect. In March, the City asked for public input on extending meter hours to 8 p.m., adding paid parking on Sundays, and putting meters in more high-demand areas. The City said staff would bring recommendations to the Council after reviewing the feedback. If later meter hours are approved, the 5-to-7 p.m. light celebration and the evenings under the lights afterward would be the hours affected.

For a three-hour afternoon at the harvest market, a meter at the March rate would cost $12. That's enough to justify walking or biking in from North Berkeley or the flats, or using the lot at Fourth and Virginia, which is close to both Delaware and Maker's Row.

If you'd like to talk about West Berkeley beyond its shopping blocks, such as which nearby streets are a short walk from Fourth Street, I'm glad to share what I know. Reach out to Tracy Zhou SIR anytime. Let's Connect.