Sefton half term is 26 to 30 October. A free Jolly Postman trail and author events, pumpkin picking from £12, and a £10 Hocus Pocus show at The Grand.

Two dates set the week. Sefton schools break for half term from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026, the autumn term having started on 1 September (Sefton Council term dates). And Halloween itself falls on Saturday 31 October, the day after the children go back on paper but part of the same weekend in practice. That combination pushes the big nights to the Friday and Saturday and leaves the weekdays for the farms.

Individual schools set their own inset days, so check yours.

Updated 30 September: The Grand has added a £10 family Hocus Pocus show on 1 November and a £40 ghost-story dinner on Halloween night, and the free Books Alive! festival has published its trail locations and author programme; both are below.

Books Alive: free all week

Books Alive!, Sefton Council’s free children’s book festival, covers the whole of half term, Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October. Its Jolly Postman Book Trail puts nine installations at Town Hall Gardens, Wayfarers Arcade, Mermaid Gardens, Lord Street, Southport Market, Tulketh Street and Waterstones on Chapel Street, open 10am to 4pm every day. Pick up a trail map at The Atkinson or download one from Visit Southport.

The Festival of Stories on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October brings author and illustrator events to The Atkinson and Southport Library, among them Kate Pankhurst, Lydia Monks, Dapo Adeola and Joseph Coelho, hosted by Katy Ashworth. Every event is free but must be booked, because places are limited (Sefton Council, 30 September). The Atkinson’s box office already lists the sessions, most limited to six tickets a booking, plus free half-term storytelling at the library from Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 October (The Atkinson). Our Books Alive page has the full line-up.

Pumpkin picking

Farmer Ted’s Pumpkin Festival, Flatman’s Lane, Downholland, runs Friday 2 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, the longest run of the local options. The farm has built a new Pumpkin Village of displays, archways and carts for 2026, and the ticket also covers a Jurassic Halloween Tedventure with 12 animatronic dinosaurs, a treasure hunt inside the maize maze, and marshmallow roasting pits. Tickets are from £12 per person, or from £41.50 for a family of two adults and two children, online only and not sold on the gate. Pumpkins themselves are not included in the ticket (Farmer Ted’s).

Windmill Animal Farm, Fish Lane, Burscough, sells its Great Pumpkin Adventure as a no-mud, no-mess alternative, indoors and on hard standing rather than out in a field. One pumpkin per child is included, along with the farm train, the animals and every indoor and outdoor play area. The farm’s booking calendar covers 1 October to 1 November 2026, with sessions between 10am and 5pm. Prices are only shown once you pick a date on the booking page, and the farm warns in capitals that refunds are no longer given, though it may move your date if a slot is free (Windmill Animal Farm).

Half term at Martin Mere

SUPER Natural October Half Term at WWT Martin Mere, Burscough, runs Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, so it opens the weekend before Sefton breaks up and stays open the weekend after. Activities included with entry are a handmade willow wand, a marshland potion, a fungi hunt, owl pellet dissection and a fairy mushroom ring (WWT Martin Mere).

Two things cost extra. The canoe adventure is £12 per canoe, or £3.50 per person on the boat, between 1pm and 3pm. Pumpkin carving is £3.50 each, running 24 to 30 October between 12pm and 3pm, which means it stops before Halloween itself. Entry is free for WWT members, and booking online saves 10 per cent.

Halloween night in town

Southport Market’s Halloween Bash is on Saturday 31 October 2026 from 7pm, with a live DJ and host, competitions and prizes, and a costume contest. Adults £15, children £10 (Southport Market). The Grand on Lord Street has two. Ghost Stories by Candlelight on Saturday 31 October at 7pm is an adult evening of ghost stories with a three-course meal, £40 a head, non-refundable (The Grand). The next day, Sunday 1 November, the Hocus Pocus Family Halloween Spooktacular puts on a live Sanderson Sisters show with games and fancy dress, in two sessions, 11am to 2pm and 3pm to 6pm, £10 a person, with food to buy on the day (The Grand).

The market also runs a ceramic pumpkin painting workshop on Friday 9 October at 7pm, two hours, £40, with the pumpkin and the tablescaping materials included.

The Atkinson’s half-term week

The theatre on Lord Street has the strongest week it has run for half term in some years, and the prices below all carry a £1.50 per ticket booking fee online or by phone (The Atkinson).

  • The Body Smugglers, a murder mystery set on the Mersey docks in 1826, Friday 23 October at 8pm, £27, age 12 and over
  • The Haunting of Blaine Manor, billed as the Halloween special, Saturday 24 October at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, £24 standard and £20 concessions, ages 10 and over
  • Freezin, a family show about Jack Frost freezing the kingdom, Wednesday 28 October at 1pm and 4.30pm, £18 adults and £16 concessions and children
  • John Lydon, I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right, Thursday 29 October at 7.30pm
  • Fun For Little Ones, a live tribute to Ms Rachel for toddlers and their grown-ups, Friday 30 October at 2pm, £18
  • Ian Prowse and Amsterdam, Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm

Every performance listed above was still on sale on 30 September, by The Atkinson’s own box office feed.

What is not announced yet

Adventure Coast Southport, the seafront park formerly called Pleasureland, still had nothing listed on its events page when we checked again on 30 September, which says only that the programme changes with the seasons and each event gets its own page (Adventure Coast Southport). The park has run late-season Halloween and Day of the Dead nights with unlimited ride tickets in past years, so it is worth checking again in early October.

One thing not to search for: the old Southport Halloween Festival at spookysouthport.com is dead. Its events list has not moved past 2017 and its homepage still promises a return in October 2018.

Getting there

The two farms and Martin Mere are all drives, out towards Burscough and Ormskirk. For the town centre nights, parking in Southport has the car parks and charges, and Southport roadworks and travel covers anything affecting the roads that week. The British Musical Fireworks Championship has already been and gone by half term, in late September.