"This is one of our favorite nights of the year," Halloween Event Coordinator Carrie Price says on the Village of the Arts Merchants event page for this Saturday's Trick-or-Treat in the Village. She means October 31. The calendar gives her a second one exactly a week later. The 22nd Festival of the Skeletons, which the merchants call the Village's "biggest community event of the year," takes over the same blocks on November 6 and 7.

That puts the Village's two biggest community events a week apart, and both run on the same streets, the same parking lot and many of the same open gallery doors. It plays like one long run more than two separate events. The places to eat and hear music on those evenings have also shifted since last fall, so the walking map that worked in 2025 needs a few changes.

One Week, Three Sessions

Here is the full stretch, from the organizers' own listings.

Halloween in the Village is a door-to-door walk. Galleries, businesses and neighbors open up and hand out treats to kids in costume. Alcover Massage is bringing back its 1,000 pieces of candy this year. After twelve years, the merchants describe the night as a Halloween tradition for families across the area.

The festival a week later asks for a different costume. Organizers want guests in their favorite Día de los Muertos attire. The Friday evening session closes at 9 p.m., half an hour earlier than the 9:30 close in 2025, according to Discover Bradenton's festival guide. Anyone who remembers last year's late wind-down should plan dinner a little earlier.

The Festival Falls on November's Art Walk Weekend

The Village's regular Art Walk runs on the first full weekend of each month. Galleries and studios open on the first Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with live music, local art and handmade goods, according to the Village of the Arts events page. November 1 is a Sunday, so the first full weekend of November is Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th. Those are the festival dates.

So in November, the monthly Art Walk and the year's biggest event share a weekend. The Saturday festival session even keeps the Art Walk's 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours. Discover Bradenton splits the weekend simply. Friday is the after-dark session with music and food vendors, and Saturday is the daylight session for the gallery altars and the art.

Saturday is the better day for anyone who wants to see the shrines up close. The galleries build their own altars inside, many of them honoring family, friends and even pets. Every one of those altars has a story behind it, and they are easiest to take in by daylight, with time to linger.

Frida Kahlo Takes the Community Shrine

Each year the festival dedicates its main Community Village Shrine to one person or group. Last year it honored the people who built the Village, led by its founding father, Herbie Rose. For 2026 the shrine honors Frida Kahlo. The merchants describe the tribute as a celebration of her "color, creativity, and unmistakable spirit." Her flower crowns and bold colors also make for an easy costume.

Next to the shrine is the Memory Wall, open to anyone who wants to remember someone they have lost. In 2025, people left notes, photos and keepsakes there. Discover Bradenton suggests bringing a printed photo or writing a few lines before you go.

Out on the streets, the festival has food trucks parked throughout the Village with musicians strolling between them, plus pop-up vendors selling one-of-a-kind art. The first 300 guests get free festival goodies, so it pays to arrive early.

Galleries for the Saturday Altar Walk

The Village Merchants directory lists the galleries and studios behind those doors. Here is a selection with addresses for planning a loop. Only some of the listings post Saturday hours, so check with the others directly before counting on an open door.

• Joan Peters Gallery, 1210 11th Ave. W.
• Left of Center Gallery, 1013 11th Ave. W.
• TVM Gallery, 1227 12th St. W., which its profile says is open on the first Friday and Saturday of Art Walk weekends.
• Divine Excess Folk Art Gallery, 1125 12th St. W.
• Arte Coyoacano Gallery, 1023 12th St. W., which lists Wednesday through Saturday hours and makes an easy return visit after the festival.
• The Village Art House Collective, 1209 12th Ave. W., rear.
• 10th Avenue West Studios, 1102 10th Ave. W., open Saturdays and by appointment.

The Village's own Art Walk guide also points visitors to The Village Seamstress and to Jerk Dog Records for vinyl.

Where the Evening Food and Music Went

This is where the map has changed since last fall. Cottonmouth Southern Soul Food, the restaurant and live-music venue Dave Shiplett opened in the Village in 2020, closed its Village location in July. The Bradenton Herald reported that Cottonmouth now shares space with Flamingo Bay Brewing Company at 1910 14th St. W. as a restaurant, brewery and live-music venue. Shiplett told the paper that his condition for moving over permanently was that the brewery "build a stage and some structures" to turn its beer garden into something nice.

Motorworks Brewing at 1014 Ninth St. W. is closed for now. The same Bradenton Herald report says it announced a temporary closure in August and plans to reopen under new ownership by February 2027. The Village's Art Walk page still names Cottonmouth Soul Kitchen and Motorworks among its places to eat and drink, so anyone planning from that page will want this update.

Plenty of in-Village options are still open for a meal before or after the festival:

• Arte Caffe Restaurant, 930 12th St. W.
• The Village Patio, 1213 13th Ave. W.
• Adobe Kava, 1302 13th Ave. W., which the Village guide lists for kombucha, coffee and kava.
• Ortygia Restaurant, 1418 13th St. W., which its profile says now hosts only special events and cooking classes with advance reservations, so it needs planning well ahead.

The Village guide also lists Sun Lab and Flamingo Bay among the nearby breweries. For the Friday session, the festival's own food trucks fill the streets, and Flamingo Bay on 14th Street West is now the place to find Cottonmouth's food and music once the Village wraps at 9.

Parking Works the Same Both Weekends

Both organizer pages give the same parking plan, which makes the two Saturdays easy to repeat.

1. Free street parking throughout the Village.
2. The empty lot at 13th Avenue and 12th Street, listed for both trick-or-treat and the festival.
3. The City of Bradenton's free parking garage at 615 12th St. W., which the Village lists for Art Walk weekends.

The 13th and 12th lot will likely fill first on Halloween night. The garage on 12th Street West is the fallback with the most room.

December's Art Walk Lands on Winter Wonderland

The first-full-weekend schedule produces another overlap next month. The first full weekend of December is Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th. Realize Bradenton has scheduled Winter Wonderland for Saturday, December 5, 2026, on historic Old Main Street, with holiday performances, local vendors, food and a snow slide. That Saturday, the Village galleries and downtown's holiday street fair are both on the calendar. For more on what has opened along the river this year, see our earlier piece on the Riverwalk extension, or browse our Bradenton neighborhood guide.

Before that comes Saturday night. It's 6 to 8 p.m. at 1227 12th Ave. W., with candy buckets in hand and a Frida flower crown saved for the following weekend.

At Suncoast Luxury Team, we follow Bradenton's calendar block by block because that is how our neighbors live here. If the Village's festival weekends have you wondering what life is like within walking distance of 12th Avenue West, schedule a private tour and we'll show you the streets between events.