On a Sunday afternoon in late October, the loop of pavement and pond at Aviation Park in Kill Devil Hills fills with ghosts, superheroes, dinosaurs and at least one family dressed as an entire Jurassic Park. That scene has repeated every fall since 2014, and on Sunday, October 25, 2026, it returns for the 13th Annual Outer Banks Halloween Parade of Costumes.
The event is free, open to all ages, and built around a simple idea: a short walking parade plus a costume contest, with trick-or-treating folded in before the march begins. The schedule has stayed remarkably consistent over the years. On-site parade registration and the trick-or-treat preparty open at 2 p.m., with local nonprofit organizations hosting candy stations around the park's frog pond. The walking parade steps off at 3 p.m., and a brief awards ceremony follows immediately, honoring Best Costumes in three categories: Age 12 and Under, Age 13 and Over, and Group/Family. Online early registration opens in October, and organizers have long billed the event as rain or shine.
The parade was founded in 2014 by Matt and Sue Artz, the couple behind OBX Entertainment, the Outer Banks arts and entertainment outlet Matt Artz has run as a writer, journalist and photographer since 2000. The first parade was held at the former Kelly's Restaurant in Nags Head. The inaugural afternoon included live music from Outer Banks singer-songwriter Jonny Waters, an appearance by an Elsa impersonator from Frozen signing autographs, a jetpack display, a haunted hearse, and actors from the Wanchese Woods Haunted Trail and The Lost Colony's PsychoPath Haunted Island showing off their creatures.
For four years the parade stayed in Nags Head. Then, in August 2018, OBX Entertainment announced the fifth annual edition would move north to Aviation Park in Kill Devil Hills, tucked off Veterans Drive across from First Flight High School and known locally as the skate park or the frog pond. The new site brought public parking at the First Flight schools and a slightly longer route of about half a mile, starting and ending at the park. "We are beyond excited to bring the Outer Banks Halloween Parade to Kill Devil Hills," Matt Artz said at the time. "Our new location, based at Aviation Park, is the perfect site for the next phase of the parade, as it will allow for much more growth as a destination event, and much more fun." Sue Artz added that the prize pool kept growing each year thanks to local businesses donating goods and services, with thousands of dollars in prizes going to costume contest winners.
Growth is exactly what happened. By the 10th anniversary in 2023, the parade was described as the largest Halloween event on the Outer Banks, drawing hundreds of costumed participants and many more spectators, including registered entries from multiple states who plan their Dare County visits around it. The 2025 edition continued that run, with winners including an 11-year-old from Poplar Branch in a customized camouflage soldier costume, a Currituck costumer in a homemade Darla from Finding Nemo getup, and a Kill Devil Hills family in Jurassic Park costumes. Nonprofits hosting the trick-or-treat stations that year included Special Olympics Dare County, the Beach Food Pantry and the Kill Devil Derby Brigade, with support from the Kill Devil Hills Police and Fire Departments.
What distinguishes this parade from a typical town Halloween stroll is its reach beyond the beach. Halloween Daily News, the horror and Halloween news site Matt Artz founded in 2012, documents the entire event each year, posting exclusive parade highlights to its YouTube channel, which has drawn more than 80,000 subscribers worldwide. The three Best in Show winners are each interviewed and photographed for a special feature on the channel, meaning a kid from Currituck in a homemade costume can end up on a screen in another country. Artz also founded the Halloween International Film Festival in 2016, which returns to the Outer Banks each October, making the region an unlikely hub for Halloween culture well beyond the parade itself.
The 2026 parade is sponsored by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and Halloween Daily News and presented by OBX Entertainment. Organizers note that everyone, whether walking in the parade or just watching, is encouraged to wear a costume, and that politically themed costumes are not permitted. Registration to walk is free, and updates are posted on the parade's Facebook page.
For locals, the appeal is a low-stakes afternoon that turns a town park into something closer to a neighborhood block party. For visitors, it is a reason to plan a fall trip around a Sunday. Either way, the formula has not changed much since 2014: show up, put on a costume, walk a half mile, and hope the judges are in your favor.