Halloween in Basildon 2026: free pumpkins at Eastgate 25 to 31 October, Barleylands Spooky Nights 29 to 31 October, a Wat Tyler ghost tour. Times and prices.

Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday, the last day of the Essex half term, and the Basildon borough’s events are packed into the week before it. The free one is at Eastgate, where every child can pick a pumpkin from 25 to 31 October. The big paid ones are at Barleylands in Billericay, by day and by night.

Everything below was checked on the organisers’ own pages on 3 October 2026, and every entry links to its source.

The quick answer

  • Free pumpkins: Eastgate Shopping Centre, Sunday 25 to Saturday 31 October, 11am to 4pm, with carving, crafts and a trail. No booking
  • Daytime: Barleylands Halloween Festival, 24 October to 1 November, 10am to 4pm, with a pumpkin for every child
  • After dark: Barleylands Spooky Nights, 29 to 31 October from 5.30pm, advance tickets only, and a Wat Tyler ghost tour on 28 October, £17
  • Halloween night itself: the Towngate’s Spooktacular Variety Show is 2pm only; the 11am show has been cancelled

Eastgate: free pumpkins, 25 to 31 October

Eastgate Shopping Centre runs free Halloween activities every day from Sunday 25 to Saturday 31 October, 11am to 4pm. Each child can pick a free pumpkin to take home or decorate on site, and there is pumpkin carving, Halloween crafts and a trail round the centre: find the 10 hidden letters to spell the mystery word, then hand your sheet in at the Pumpkin Patch for a prize draw. No booking, just walk in (Eastgate, trail).

Eastgate also runs a costume contest on its Facebook and Instagram pages over the same week, with a £50 FunParx voucher as the prize.

Southernhay, Basildon SS14 1AG. The centre’s car parks are privately run and charge; see parking in Basildon.

Barleylands Halloween Festival, 24 October to 1 November

Barleylands Farm Park’s daytime festival runs 10am to 4pm daily from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. New this year, every child picks a pumpkin from the farm’s patch and decorates it in the Pumpkin Decorating Barn. The Events Barn has a Halloween maze billed as “spooky, but not too scary”, magic shows from Skittleman the Entertainer and Halloween dance parties, all included in the ticket (Barleylands).

The festival’s booking link goes to the farm park’s day tickets, which the Barleylands box office lists at £14.85 to £16.55 for an adult or a child, depending on the date, and £3.40 for under-2s online (Barleylands tickets). Barleylands Road, Billericay CM11 2UD.

Barleylands Spooky Nights, 29 to 31 October

The evening event runs from 5.30pm on Thursday 29, Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October. The ticket covers unlimited fairground rides, trick-or-treating round the Village shops, a Halloween disco with Skittleman, a spooky maze, creepy crawly critter shows, the indoor play barn, the animals and Halloween light displays (Barleylands events).

Tickets must be bought in advance; no walk-ins are accepted, and members get 20% off (Barleylands special events box office). Barleylands does not print the Spooky Nights price on its event page, so check it in the box office before you go.

Drive-in Halloween films at Barleylands

Moonbeamers puts four Halloween films on at the Barleylands Craft Village on the weekend before half term. Times are from Moonbeamers’ own booking pages, and the tickets include popcorn:

  • The Lost Boys (1987), Friday 23 October, gates 6.15pm, film 7pm (Moonbeamers)
  • Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Friday 23 October, gates 8.30pm, film 9.15pm (Moonbeamers)
  • Monster House, Saturday 24 October, gates 5.30pm, film 6.15pm. A PG family film; Moonbeamers suggests ages 8 and up (Moonbeamers)
  • Weapons, Saturday 24 October, gates 8pm, film 8.45pm. An 18 certificate horror film (Moonbeamers)

Barleylands’ own listing gives slightly different gate times for two of these films, so go by the Moonbeamers booking page. Large cars and SUVs are put at the sides or back, and vans and lorries are not allowed.

Wat Tyler Country Park: ghost tour, market and cake bake

Three events at the country park in Pitsea Hall Lane, Pitsea SS16 4UH, all listed by Basildon Council:

  • Halloween Cake Bake, Saturday 24 October, 10am to 2pm, The Green Centre. Basildon Borough Twinning Association sells homemade cakes for Lenox Children’s Cancer Charity (listing)
  • Wat Tyler Historical Ghost Tour, Wednesday 28 October, 6pm to 8pm, £17. A guided walk round the park after dark of about an hour, with a hot drink and a sweet treat, for ages 10 and over. Book by phone on 01268 205267, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm (listing)
  • Wat Tyler Halloween Market, Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm, Nobel Room. Free, with stalls selling gifts, sweets, toys, candles and crafts (listing)

Langdon: Spooktacular and Nature Tots

Essex Wildlife Trust runs two Halloween sessions at Langdon Nature Discovery Park, Lower Dunton Road, Basildon SS16 6EJ:

  • Langdon Spooktacular, Monday 26 October, 10am to 12.30pm or 1.30pm to 4pm, £10.88 a child including the booking fee. Wand whittling, potion making and bug hunting for children aged 3 and over, with a campfire if the weather allows. Adults supervise throughout (Essex Wildlife Trust)
  • Nature Tots Halloween Special, Wednesday 28 October, 10am to noon, £8.80 a child, for ages 18 months to 5. Advance booking is essential (Essex Wildlife Trust)

Towngate Theatre: two Halloween shows

  • Halloween in Concert, Saturday 24 October, 7.30pm, from £30. A live band and cast doing spooky hits from Monster Mash and The Time Warp to Thriller, about two hours, ages 3 and up (Towngate Theatre)
  • The Spooktacular Variety Show, Saturday 31 October, 2pm, from £12.50. A UV puppet show of comedy and magic for all ages. The theatre has cancelled the 11am performance, and its box office is contacting people who booked it about moving to 2pm (Towngate Theatre)

St Martin’s Square, Basildon SS14 1DL.

Free half term storytelling in the libraries

Not Halloween as such, but free and on the same week: The Drama Geezers run six storytelling sessions in borough libraries from 26 to 31 October, and the story families make up together is to be published as a book. Book through the library hosting your session (Basildon Council). Dates by library are on our October half term page.

Pumpkin picking: what is not on

Searches for a pumpkin patch in Basildon still turn up Foxes Farm Produce at Watch House Farm, Wash Road, Laindon, which ran a pick your own patch in past years. Its website now advertises pickleball, a studio gym and dog fields near Colchester, and lists no pumpkin patch. We have found no 2026 pick your own patch in the borough, so the pumpkins this year are the free ones at Eastgate and the ones in the Barleylands ticket.

Getting there

Barleylands and Wat Tyler are both car trips for most of the borough; check our roadworks and travel page before an evening event. For council car parks, which are in Billericay and Wickford, see parking in Basildon.

Bonfire night follows a week later: Basildon Round Table’s display is Friday 6 November and Billericay’s is Saturday 7 November. See our Basildon fireworks page. For everything else this month, see what’s on in Basildon.

Sources