On Halloween morning a bowl of candy will be sitting by the register at Island Jo Coffee -n- Cafe at 7916 E. Oak Island Drive. Another will be at Oak Island Pub at 5422, and Dairy Queen at 5701 is giving out small ice cream treats instead of candy. Two more will be out on Ocean Drive at the pier, where Koko Cabana and Ruby's Coffeehouse & Eatery share the 705 address. The Town's Candy Crawl map puts a dozen businesses on the route, so trick-or-treating on Oak Island now runs along a stretch of the main road from the 4700 block to the 8600 block, with a side trip to the ocean.
The Candy Crawl is one of five Town events that begin Friday, October 23, and Trunk-or-Treat closes them out that same evening. Each one is at a different park or facility, two of them land on the same Saturday, and that Saturday is also when the beach goes into its off-season schedule. If you live here, you can get to all of it. The trick is knowing which address comes next.
The nine days at a glance
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct 23 | Egg-Stra Spooky Halloween Egg Hunt | Bill Smith Park, 4410 Fish Factory Rd. | 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 24 | National Night Out / Spooktacular | Middleton Park Complex, 4610 E. Dolphin Dr. | 4 to 8 p.m. |
| Thu, Oct 29 | Haunted Fishing Derby | Oak Island Pier, 705 Ocean Dr. | Check with Parks & Recreation |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Candy Crawl | Participating businesses island-wide | 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Trunk-or-Treat | Oak Island Recreation Center, 3003 E. Oak Island Dr. | 5 to 7 p.m. |
All five are free. Each one gets a little bigger than the last, so it's worth taking them in order.
Friday starts small, with staggered start times
The Egg-Stra Spooky Halloween Egg Hunt opens the week at Bill Smith Park on Fish Factory Road, Friday, October 23. Kids hunt by age group, a quarter hour apart. Ages 1 to 3 go at 6:30 p.m., ages 4 to 6 at 6:45, and ages 7 to 10 at 7:00.
Brothers and sisters in different age groups hunt at different times, so a family with a toddler and a third grader will be at the park for the whole hour. The egg hunt is also the only event of the nine days with a cutoff at age 10. That makes Friday the night for the youngest kids, and the rest of the week opens up to a wider age range.
Saturday the 24th brings the fall concerts to a close
The next night, the Town's big fall gathering moves to Middleton Park Complex on East Dolphin Drive. Oak Island Parks & Recreation and the Oak Island Police Department are presenting National Night Out / Spooktacular from 4 to 8 p.m. The Town lists an outdoor concert, trick-or-treating, first responder displays, a costume contest, a fall market, carnival games and food, and calls the evening family and pet friendly.
The Town's page bills the evening as the last night of the Fall Live & Local Concert Series. The regular Live & Local: Market + Music Saturdays have run on the same schedule, with the market at 4 p.m. and music at 6. You may notice the Live & Local page still says "CANCELED" in its title. The cancellation notice on that page is about Saturday, October 10, which was called off for weather. If you want to be sure about the concert before you load the wagon, call the Town or check its events page that afternoon.
Bring the dog if you like. The Town has billed this one as pet friendly, and the next big pet event at Middleton is a few weeks off.
Thursday on the pier, for kids 15 and under
The Haunted Fishing Derby is on Thursday, October 29, at the Oak Island Pier, 705 Ocean Drive. It's free. Participants bring their own fishing pole and bait, and they must pre-register. Registration goes through the Parks & Recreation program listing, which sets the age range at 1 to 15.
The derby is the one event of the week with a spot to claim ahead of time, and it reaches older kids than the egg hunt did. The listings don't give a start time or say whether the pier's usual fishing passes apply on derby night. The pier sells those passes separately. Ask Parks & Recreation when you register. The pier is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
That pier address will come up again two days later. Koko Cabana and Ruby's Coffeehouse & Eatery, both at 705 Ocean Drive, are on the Candy Crawl map.
Halloween day is a route along the island
The Oak Island Candy Crawl runs Saturday, October 31, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Participating shops hand out candy during their regular business hours. It's free and open to all ages. The Town's participating business map, published October 12, lists these stops. Here they are by address number, starting with the one closest to the Recreation Center:
- Kai Joe's, 4722 E. Oak Island Dr.
- Oak Island Pub, 5422 E. Oak Island Dr.
- Dairy Queen, 5701 E. Oak Island Dr., with small ice cream treats in place of candy
- Beachlife Sweets, 5809 E. Oak Island Dr.
- Double the Threads Boutique, 6012 E. Oak Island Dr.
- Island Jo Coffee -n- Cafe, 7916 E. Oak Island Dr.
- Tipsy Tuna, 8520 E. Oak Island Dr., Suite 5
- Dunes Mercantile Gifts & Guitars, 8600 E. Oak Island Dr., Suite 5
- Thai Noodle House, 8610 E. Oak Island Dr.
The Ocean Drive stops are listed apart from the main road. That's Koko Cabana and Ruby's Coffeehouse & Eatery at 705 Ocean Dr., and The Beach House Motel and Suites at 500 Ocean Dr.
Laid out that way, the map breaks into clusters. Five stops sit between the 4700 and 6000 blocks. Then comes a long gap to Island Jo at 7916, and three more stops are tucked between 8520 and 8610, two of them at neighboring addresses. The pier-side trio adds a short trip down toward the ocean. Pick a cluster or two, find parking, and walk from door to door.
The Candy Crawl follows each shop's regular business hours on Halloween. That means each stop is open when it would normally be open. A morning coffee shop and an evening pub probably keep different hours, so if a certain stop matters to your kids, check that shop's Saturday hours before you go.
The last hour overlaps
The day gets tight in the late afternoon. The Candy Crawl ends at 6 p.m. Trunk-or-Treat starts at 5 p.m. at the Oak Island Recreation Center, 3003 E. Oak Island Drive, where local vendors hand out treats from decorated vehicles until 7. The Town even pins Trunk-or-Treat on the Candy Crawl map.
That leaves one hour when both are going on, and the address numbers tell you which way to drive. The Recreation Center at 3003 has a lower number than every Candy Crawl business on the main road, and Kai Joe's at 4722 is the next one up. A family that wants both could start at the far end of the map in the afternoon and work back down the address numbers toward 3003. That way the final candy stop is the one nearest the trunks, a little before 6.
Planning a stop at the Recreation Center earlier in the day? Its Saturday hours change starting October 17 to 7 a.m. to noon, a change the Town made after hearing from users. Weekday hours stay the same.
The beach changes over the same weekend
Halloween is also the day the beach shifts to its off-season schedule. The National Weather Service ends its daily beach warning flag forecasts on October 31 and picks them back up in April. The Town's Ocean Rescue Division is ending daily patrols for the season. Limited patrols will keep going on weekends and on busier or warm-weather days for the next few weeks, and then move to an as-needed schedule for winter. If a warm afternoon on the 31st tempts anyone into the ocean between Candy Crawl stops, keep in mind that the daily patrols will already be over and the flag forecast ends that day.
After Halloween, the Town calendar's next big Middleton Park event is two weeks out. The Town's first Doggy Daze of Fall is Saturday, November 14, from noon to 4 p.m. at Middleton Park Complex. It's billed as a pet adoption and family festival with adoptions, a doggie splashpad, games and prizes, craft vendors and food trucks. The British Invaders will play. They were booked for the October 10 Live & Local before weather canceled it, and the Town moved them to this event.
A small note for the weeks in between: the Town's annual hydrant testing runs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through November and may briefly discolor tap water.
At Steven Adams, we love the week the island hands out candy from Kai Joe's to Thai Noodle House. If Halloween here has you thinking about what your own place on East Oak Island Drive or near the pier might be worth, we're glad to talk it over. Start with a free home valuation, and we'll put together a real local read on your street.
