Festival Fright Nights is open at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, running select nights from Friday, September 18 through Sunday, November 1, 2026. Tickets are on sale now, online only, from $60.99. This year the event drops last year’s linear, one-way haunt for an open festival format that lets guests explore the estate in any order. For the full story on the overhaul, see our report on the 2026 open-festival reveal.
Dates and Hours
Festival Fright Nights runs on select nights, not every night, and hours vary by date. Your ticket carries a timed entry, so plan to arrive early, especially on peak nights when the parking lots fill.
Here are the 2026 operating nights:
- September: Fri 18, Sat 19, Fri 25, Sat 26.
- October: Fri 2, Sat 3, Sun 4, Thu 8, Fri 9, Sat 10, Sun 11, Thu 15, Fri 16, Sat 17, Sun 18, Thu 22, Fri 23, Sat 24, Sun 25, Thu 29, Fri 30, Sat 31.
- November: Sun 1.
An Open Festival, Not a Linear Haunt
The 2026 event abandons the linear, act-by-act route it ran last year. In its place is an open festival: four immersive zones holding 13 attractions and experiences that guests move through in any order to build their own path. Thirteenth Floor has written the stories to connect, so clues, characters, and details cross between attractions and add up to a larger mystery about the evil consuming the estate. The company frames the result as a true festival rather than a single walkthrough, part of a wider industry shift toward explorable Halloween festivals that HAN has tracked from ScareHouse, which returned in 2026 without building a traditional haunted house at all, to Eastern State Penitentiary’s Halloween Nights.
The 2026 Story and Characters
The season is set in 1926, four years after Sarah Winchester’s death, with something newly awakened at the estate. A new cast has moved in. Sarah’s loyal butler stays behind and tries to keep the house under control. His son, Henry Harker, goes missing during a game of hide-and-seek. Nina Nightshade tends the plants in the greenhouse, and The Collector patrols the darkest corners, dragging a heavy sack behind him.
The 2026 Attractions
Main haunted attractions, included with all admission:
- The House of Spirits (new for 2026). With Sarah Winchester gone, her loyal butler stays behind and uses curious ghost traps to fight the spirits overtaking the mansion as the house slips beyond his control.
- The Final Descent: No Escape (reimagined for 2026). The estate has fallen, and the staff who once cared for it, consumed by the darkness beneath the grounds, now stalk the halls as guests fight to escape a house surrendered to evil.
- The Root of All Evil. Inside the greenhouse, twisted roots and strange growth reveal an ancient evil that has fed on the estate since before Sarah Winchester arrived.
Additional experiences, which may carry an extra charge depending on admission type:
- The Underhouse: The Collector’s Secret. Follow the lantern light as The Collector drags his burden through the shadows, and find your way out of the dark before he claims you.
- Harry Houdini Presents: Do Spirits Exist? A live seance in which the world-famous skeptic challenges the supernatural inside the estate.
- The Seance Society Speakeasy. A hidden bar tucked behind Houdini’s traveling camp, where skeptics, socialites, and spiritualists trade tales of the supernatural after dark.
Thirteenth Floor’s full 2026 add-on lineup adds several new experiences on top of those. Hide & Seek: The Lost Children sends guests into the mansion’s long-forgotten attic to search for the missing Henry. New this year are the Cider Mill Experience, Roast Your Own S’mores, and three midway games: Orchard Axe (axe throwing), the Gourd Horde pumpkin toss, and the Skeptics Shot Shooting Gallery. A Game Pass, available online only, bundles Orchard Axe and the Gourd Horde. The festival zones also add seasonal food and drink and photo ops.
Tickets
Festival Fright Nights sells tickets exclusively online, with no walk-up or box-office sales, and 2026 tickets are on sale now starting at $60.99 on select nights.
Parking
Parking is complimentary in two on-site lots: a front lot at the estate and an overflow lot behind it. Do not park on Olsen Drive, where vehicles are ticketed or towed. When the on-site lots fill, overflow parking is at the Santana Row garages, the Winchester Garage at 330 Winchester Boulevard and the garage at 377 Santana Row. Lockers are available on-site, and arriving early helps on busy nights.
Bags and Prohibited Items
All guests pass a security screening. Weapons of any kind are prohibited, including firearms, knives, and pepper spray, regardless of permit. Large bags and backpacks are not allowed, though small clutches and waist bags are permitted and subject to search. Flashlights, laser pointers, outside food and drink, alcohol, and illegal substances are also prohibited, and staff cannot store prohibited items.
The Winchester Mystery House
The venue does much of the work. Sarah Winchester inherited the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, bought an eight-bedroom farmhouse in 1886, and kept building it for 38 years with no master plan before her death in 1922. The house opened for tours in 1923 and has drawn visitors from around the world since. Its real corridors, basements, and attics give the event a permanent, non-replicable set inside a nationally famous historic property, something few Halloween events can offer and the reason the estate reads as a ready-made haunt.
Event Details
- Event: Festival Fright Nights 2026 at Winchester Mystery House.
- Location: Winchester Mystery House, 525 S. Winchester Blvd., San Jose, CA 95128.
- Dates: Select nights, September 18 through November 1, 2026.
- Hours: Vary by date, and your ticket carries a timed entry.
- Tickets: On sale now, online only, from $60.99 at festivalfrightnights.com.
- Producer: Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group.
HAN Prior Festival Fright Nights Coverage
- The Winchester Mystery House’s 2026 haunt drops the linear format for an open festival
- Festival Fright Nights Turns Winchester Mystery House Into a Full-Scale Halloween Event
This event is part of our Haunted Houses in California 2026 guide.
