Dunedin is gearing up for three days of Halloween fun this weekend, with a family-friendly carnival at Highlander Park and a separately ticketed haunted house at the Dunedin Community Center. The headline event, Spooktacular Halloween, runs Saturday, Oct. 24, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Highlander Park, located at 903 Michigan Boulevard, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office event listing.
The event marks a rebrand for the city's longtime fall tradition. Per the City of Dunedin Florida - Government on Facebook, the celebration is returning to Highlander Park for the first time since 2023 under the new name Spooktacular Halloween, with Recreation Supervisor Joe Nash sharing details of the weekend's events in a video posted to the city's page. According to the City of Dunedin's event directory, the Saturday gathering will feature carnival-style games, spooky crafts, a Boo in the Zoo stop, the Little Goblins Hayride, bounce houses, a costume contest and food.
A Separate Scare at the Community Center
Running alongside the family carnival is Monsters & Mayhem Haunted House, a separately ticketed attraction at the Dunedin Community Center billed as delivering terrifying scares, the city's Facebook post notes. The haunted house runs Oct. 22 and 23 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., then again on Oct. 24 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., overlapping with the Highlander Park festivities on the final night.
Pricing for the weekend follows two separate structures. Admission to Monsters & Mayhem Haunted House costs $5 per person, while wristbands for Spooktacular Halloween activities at Highlander Park run $15 each, the city's Facebook post states.
New Name, Old Neighborhood
The city's own messaging contains a wrinkle worth noting for longtime Dunedin residents. A 2026 post from the city describes Spooktacular Halloween as returning to Highlander Park for the first time since 2023 under this brand-new name, yet a separate 2024 city event listing describes Halloween Happenings returning to Highlander Park that same year, without mentioning a lapse in the tradition. It is unclear from available city materials how these two descriptions of the event's recent history square with one another.
What is clear is that this year's programming blends old favorites with new packaging, offering what the city calls family-friendly fun spread across carnival games, crafts and the hayride at Highlander Park, paired with the haunted house experience a short distance away at the Dunedin Community Center. Families planning to attend both will want to budget for the separate $5 haunted-house admission and the $15 wristband for the Highlander Park carnival.
