St. Helens, Oregon, where Disney Channel filmed Halloweentown, is running its Spirit of Halloweentown festival every weekend through November 1, and three of the movie’s cast members are back for a reunion October 17 and 18. The downtown plaza is free, and the ticketed attractions need an Access Pass.
Who Is at the Halloweentown Cast Reunion?
J. Paul Zimmerman, who played Dylan Piper, Emily Roeske, who played Sophie Piper, and Phillip Van Dyke, who played Luke the goblin, are at the festival for the weekend of October 17 and 18. Van Dyke also voiced Arnold in the second and third seasons of Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold!
Both days, Zimmerman and Roeske have photo ops at noon, 3 p.m., and 5:30 p.m., each $85 plus fees, or $98.23 in total, sold online only. The ticket site lists no photo op with Van Dyke.
Judith Hoag, who played Gwen Cromwell Piper and was April O’Neil in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, comes the next weekend, October 24 and 25, with her own photo op at the same price. Photo ops aren’t part of the Access Pass. Hoag was also booked for a Halloweentown panel with Kimberly J. Brown and Daniel Kountz at Creep It Real OC in Santa Ana in September.
Is Spirit of Halloweentown Free?
Walking the downtown plaza, the street vendors, and the food area costs nothing. The courthouse plaza at 275 Strand Street is the one seen on screen, and it’s home to Jack, the festival’s giant jack-o’-lantern. The Pumpkin Lighting there runs from 8:30 to 9 p.m. every festival night.
The ticketed attractions need an Access Pass. Online, it’s $40 plus a $9.09 service fee for ages 13 and up and $20 plus an $8.87 fee for kids 6 to 12, with higher prices at the box office. Children 5 and under get in free. If you only want the haunted house, a Haunted House only ticket is $15 plus a $3.08 fee. The festival says the pass doesn’t guarantee a spot in every attraction on busy days, so it suggests doing your favorites first.
Things to Do at Spirit of Halloweentown
The Access Pass covers:
- The Haunted House, which has no live monsters, so it works for kids.
- The Masonic Building attractions, including the Alien Exhibit, the Alien Bar, and animals from Brad’s World Reptiles.
- The Boo Bash Pavilion, with games, covered seating, live entertainment, and cocktails and craft beer for adults.
- The Harvest Games Zone, with a hay maze and pumpkin bowling.
- The filming location tour trolley, which runs from 11 a.m. and stops at dark.
- A free digital photo with Jack the Pumpkin.
Around town, each day’s schedule adds stage shows, roaming performers until 4:30 p.m., an on-stage costume contest from 3 to 4 p.m., and the Outrageous Fortune pirate encampment, with cannon demos at 1 and 5 p.m.
St. Helens was also a Twilight filming location, and two stops are for those fans. Small-group tours inside the Swan House, Bella’s house in the first film, are $20 on October 10 and 11 and October 17 and 18. A free Twilight walking tour leaves from the Columbia Theater every Saturday and Sunday of the festival.
On the water, the Haunted Harbor cruise, a $25, 30-minute jetboat ride with ghost stories out to Warrior Rock Lighthouse, runs on the October 10, 17, and 24 weekends.
Spirit of Halloweentown 2026 Dates and Hours
The festival runs Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the parking lot opens at 10 a.m. The remaining weekends are:
- October 3 and 4.
- October 10 and 11, with Swan House tours and Haunted Harbor cruises.
- October 17 and 18, the cast reunion with Zimmerman, Roeske, and Van Dyke.
- October 24 and 25, with Judith Hoag.
- October 31 and November 1, Halloween weekend and the last two days.
How Far Is Halloweentown From Portland?
St. Helens is about 30 miles northwest of Portland, a drive of about 40 minutes, and Portland International Airport is 35 miles away. Parking is tight because of street closures, so the festival runs an official lot at $25 per vehicle online or $30 on site, and new this year, no shuttle is needed. The festival also warns that Uber and Lyft drivers are scarce in St. Helens and that visitors have been stranded, so line up your ride home before you go.
St. Helens has two hotels, and the festival points overflow guests to Longview, Washington, a 35-minute drive across the Lewis and Clark Bridge.
Who Runs Spirit of Halloweentown?
Treadway Events & Entertainment produces the festival for the city of St. Helens. Treadway took over as the city’s event contractor in 2024, after years under E2C Corp., according to a Country Media report that fall.
Treadway is also the company behind Cinema of Horrors, now in its 10th season inside a former movie theater at Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, Washington. The Haunted Attraction Association certified it as a 2026 Top Haunt at the Gold level. One ticket covers all four of its haunted houses, from $29.99 plus a $5.42 fee.
Cinema of Horrors is open both nights of the reunion weekend, both nights of the last two festival weekends, and the Saturdays of October 3 and 10, so you can do the plaza by day and the haunt at night on the same weekend.
This year’s festival also had a funding scare. The city pays for it out of its tourism fund, and in September, KPTV reported that the city had budgeted less for that fund than Treadway expected, leaving a $350,000 gap in the money for events including Spirit of Halloweentown and Holiday in the Plaza. The city council closed it with a $250,000 transfer from its contingency fund and a $100,000 loan from its community development fund. Bobbie Crousser, who owns Bobbie’s Cuts Plus near the plaza, told KPTV, “The whole event, I would say is right at 80% of my gift shop revenue throughout the year.”
More Halloween in the Pacific Northwest
- Cinema of Horrors in Kelso opened two new haunts for its 10th season, Bloodstone Gulch and Bunker 13.
- Wild Waves Fright Fest in Federal Way, Washington, is running its final season, Fridays through Sundays until November 1, before the park closes.
- From the archive, my 2019 Spirit of Halloweentown story covers the year Twilight’s Peter Facinelli lit the pumpkin.
- For haunts across the country, my list of when haunted houses open in 2026 is sorted by opening date.
Last updated: September 30, 2026.
