Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival
When late October reaches Florence, Alabama, the downtown streets gain a soundtrack. The Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival is a Halloween-season music festival built around Carver Commodore, a band from Florence itself, and it turns the centre of the county seat into a weekend of stages, stalls and late-night shows. Instead of parachuting in a touring headliner and leaving, this festival grows out of something the band was already doing: playing Halloween shows in its hometown.
The shape of the weekend is a hybrid. One part is a free daytime gathering with a market and fall festival feel, open to anyone who wanders downtown. The other part is a ticketed run of concerts spread across downtown venues, capped by an after-party. In 2025 the festival ran on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, and the 2026 edition is billed as the third annual, set for October 22 through October 24, 2026. For Lauderdale County, it now marks the heart of the Halloween season.
About the Festival
The festival is an undertaking of Carver Commodore, the Florence band at its centre. No separate organising company is named behind it; the band itself carries the event, which gives the weekend a distinctly homemade character for something of its size. Carver Commodore has dedicated itself to Halloween shows in Florence every year since the group was founded, and the festival is the largest expression of that habit, gathering many other acts onto shared bills.
Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale County, and the festival is anchored firmly in its downtown. In 2025 the main stage stood in Mobile Plaza, with concerts at various venues around the centre, a film screening at the Shoals Theatre and an after-party at the Lava Room. Concert listings for the 2026 edition point to the Shoals Community Theatre, at 123 N Seminary Street, Florence, AL 35630-4701 as published in those listings, together with Singin’ River LIVE. Listings for 2026 also speak of twenty artists across four stages, a step up in scale from the two-day shape of 2025.
The audience the festival serves is double. Daytime visitors get a free, family-paced market and fall festival in the open air, while music fans get a ticketed evening programme running into the night. That split personality, part street fair and part concert weekend, is the festival’s defining trait.
For a useful comparison, see the Carbon County Wyoming Fair & Rodeo Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
The essentials of the festival, drawn from its documented 2025 edition and the billed 2026 edition, are set out below.
| Item | Detail |
| Festival name | Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival |
| Host city | Florence, Alabama |
| County | Lauderdale County, whose county seat is Florence |
| Organiser | Carver Commodore, the Florence band behind the festival |
| Festival type | Halloween-season music festival with a market, film screening and after-party |
| 2025 dates | Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, 2025 |
| 2026 dates | October 22 to October 24, 2026, billed as the third annual |
| Friday admission in 2025 | Free and open to the public |
| Saturday admission in 2025 | Ticketed main-stage shows at twenty-eight dollars and fifty-two cents, as printed in the local newspaper |
| 2026 venues named in listings | Shoals Community Theatre and Singin’ River LIVE |
History
The festival’s roots sit inside the band’s own calendar. Carver Commodore had made Halloween a fixture of its year in Florence long before the weekend carried a festival name, committing to Halloween shows in the city every year since the group was founded. The festival formalises that tradition, widening a band’s seasonal hometown shows into a multi-venue event that other artists and the whole downtown can join.
Coverage of the 2025 edition described the festival as returning for a second time, which makes that year the first one documented in full. The 2025 weekend established the pattern that now defines it: a free Friday built around a Halloween Market and Fall Festival in downtown Florence from 10 a.m., a screening of Mars Attacks at the Shoals Theatre on Friday night, then a ticketed Saturday with main-stage performances in Mobile Plaza from 2 p.m. and concerts threaded through downtown venues, ending with an after-party at the Lava Room that was free for ticketholders or carried a small cover charge for everyone else.
Listings for 2026 bill the event as the third annual and stretch it across three days, October 22 to October 24, a sign of a young festival still finding its final shape. Because the event is so new, its history is best told through those documented editions, and each has kept the same core bargain: the band’s Halloween tradition, opened up to the whole city.
What to Expect
Expect a festival that changes character as the day turns. The documented 2025 programme opened on Friday at 10 a.m. with the Halloween Market and Fall Festival in downtown Florence, a free and public start built for browsing, eating and easing into the weekend. Friday night brought a screening of Mars Attacks at the Shoals Theatre, giving the festival a playful cinematic streak alongside the music.
Saturday in 2025 was the ticketed heart of the weekend. Main-stage shows began at 2 p.m. in Mobile Plaza, and concerts ran at various downtown venues, so the audience moved through the centre of Florence rather than staying in one field. The day closed with an after-party at the Lava Room. Anyone holding a Saturday ticket could treat the after-party as part of the night; anyone else could expect a small cover charge, on the terms reported for 2025.
The bill for 2025 shows the festival’s range. Alongside Carver Commodore, that year’s lineup listed Jordy Searcy, Firekid, Sam and the Big Boys, Lightwatch, Morgan Jones, DwayneBaba, Holy Living Creatures, Mckenzie Lockhart, Exotic Dangers, Brother Goode, Bailey White, Copper Pots, Waltn, Hunter Bobby and Jacob Brock. That lineup belongs to 2025 only, but it shows the model: many acts sharing the weekend instead of one star carrying it. For 2026, listings describe twenty artists on four stages between venues including the Shoals Community Theatre and Singin’ River LIVE, so expect a fuller programme spread across the three days.
Planning Your Visit
Start with the calendar split. On the evidence of 2025, Friday is the low-cost day: the market and fall festival were free and open to the public, and the evening film screening anchored the night. Saturday is the day to budget for, because the main-stage shows were ticketed. The local newspaper printed the 2025 Saturday price as twenty-eight dollars and fifty-two cents, without stating whether fees were included, so treat that figure as a guide to the likely range rather than a promise for a future year. No 2026 ticket price has been verified, so anyone planning for the third annual should check the band’s own announcements when tickets are released instead of relying on older figures or third-party listings.
Downtown Florence is the festival’s campus. In 2025 the main stage in Mobile Plaza, the Shoals Theatre screening and the Lava Room after-party all sat within the central streets, and the 2026 listings keep the action downtown at the Shoals Community Theatre and Singin’ River LIVE. The theatre’s address, as published in event listings, is 123 N Seminary Street, Florence, AL 35630-4701, which is worth saving before you set out. Arriving early matters twice over: Friday’s market opens at 10 a.m. for the best browsing, and Saturday’s main stage starts at 2 p.m., earlier than a typical evening concert.
Because the festival falls in Halloween season in a county seat, rooms across Florence fill early. Booking accommodation early, deciding in advance which day matters most to you, and leaving the late hours open for the after-party are the simplest ways to get the full shape of the weekend.
A Sample Itinerary for the Weekend
A workable plan follows the festival’s own rhythm. On Friday, arrive downtown for the 10 a.m. opening of the Halloween Market and Fall Festival, spend the late morning among the stalls, and keep the afternoon loose for food and the first music you come across. In the evening, take in the film screening at the Shoals Theatre, which in 2025 showed Mars Attacks, and let that close the first day.
On Saturday, treat 2 p.m. as your anchor, when the main-stage shows began in Mobile Plaza in 2025. Work outward from the main stage to the other downtown venues through the afternoon and evening, since the concerts are deliberately scattered rather than stacked in one place. When the main programme ends, finish at the after-party, remembering that in 2025 it was free for ticketholders.
For the three-day 2026 edition, running October 22 to October 24, the same approach stretches naturally: use the extra day for venues you could not reach, and pace the ticketed shows instead of trying to hear everything at once.
How It Compares With Other Halloween Events
Most Halloween entertainment falls into two familiar shapes: the single-night concert, over by midnight, and the daytime street fair, over by supper. This festival is unusual because it is both at once. The free market and fall festival layer behaves like a community street fair, while the ticketed main stage, the venue concerts and the after-party behave like a small music festival, and the two halves share the same streets on the same weekend.
It also differs from promoter-led festivals in who stands behind it. The organiser is the headline band itself, a Florence group playing its own hometown’s Halloween, so the event reads as a local tradition scaled up rather than a touring package parked in the city for a weekend. The film screening is a third distinguishing touch: few music festivals pause for a cinema night, and the choice underlines that this weekend is about Halloween atmosphere as much as about the bill.
Festival Planning Checklist
- Confirm the current year’s dates before booking any travel
- Watch for the band’s own ticket announcements, since no 2026 price has been verified
- Keep Friday free for the market and the evening film screening
- Budget for Saturday as the ticketed day of the weekend
- Save the Shoals Community Theatre address from the listings before you travel
- Arrive before the 2 p.m. main-stage start on Saturday
- Decide in advance whether the after-party is part of your night
- Pack layers for late October evenings in north Alabama
- Book Florence accommodation early for the Halloween-season weekend
- Leave gaps between sets so moving between downtown venues stays relaxed
Beyond the Festival
The festival rewards anyone who treats downtown Florence as part of the programme. Between the market, the stages and the evening shows, the weekend naturally leaves pockets of time for wandering the central streets, finding food near the venues and watching the city dress itself for Halloween season. The Shoals Theatre, which hosted the Friday film screening in 2025, is worth attention in its own right as one of the weekend’s landmark rooms, and Mobile Plaza serves as the open-air heart around which the rest of the event turns.
Staying downtown also keeps the geography simple. With the main stage, the theatre and the after-party all in the centre, a visitor based nearby can walk the whole festival and dip in and out of the programme instead of committing to one long stretch.
Why the Festival Matters
For Lauderdale County, the festival shows what a hometown band can build when it treats its own tradition seriously. Carver Commodore’s Halloween shows were already a yearly commitment in Florence; turning them into a festival converted a private habit into a public occasion that fills downtown stages, a theatre and a plaza on the same weekend. The free Friday layer matters here, because it lets the whole city take part regardless of whether they buy a ticket.
The festival also spreads opportunity across many performers. The documented 2025 bill carried sixteen acts in all, so the weekend works as a shared platform rather than a one-band celebration. For Florence, the county seat, it anchors the Halloween season with an event that is locally made, and each new edition, from the second in 2025 to the billed third annual in 2026, strengthens that claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the festival held?
The festival is a Halloween-season event in Florence. Its documented 2025 edition ran on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, 2025, and the 2026 edition is billed as the third annual, running October 22 to October 24, 2026.
What should visitors budget for tickets?
In 2025, Friday’s market and fall festival were free and open to the public, while Saturday’s main-stage shows were ticketed at twenty-eight dollars and fifty-two cents as printed in the local newspaper, with the after-party free for ticketholders or a small cover otherwise. No ticket price for 2026 has been verified, so do not treat the 2025 figure as the current price.
Where does the festival take place?
The festival takes place across downtown Florence, the county seat of Lauderdale County. In 2025 the main stage stood in Mobile Plaza, with a film screening at the Shoals Theatre and an after-party at the Lava Room. Listings for 2026 name the Shoals Community Theatre, at 123 N Seminary Street as published in those listings, and Singin’ River LIVE.
Who organises the festival?
The festival is an undertaking of Carver Commodore, the Florence band around which the event is built. No separate organising company is named behind it; the band’s own tradition of Halloween shows in Florence is the festival’s foundation.
What to Expect From the Next Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival
How often is Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival held?
The festival is billed as an annual Halloween-season event. Local coverage described the 2025 edition as its second staging, and the 2026 edition is billed as the third annual, so the pattern so far is one festival each October in Florence.
When is the next Lauderdale County Alabama Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival?
The next edition is billed for October 22 to October 24, 2026, as the third annual. Listings name the Shoals Community Theatre and Singin’ River LIVE among its venues and speak of twenty artists on four stages, while ticket prices for 2026 remain unverified.
Will the dates change?
The dates have already shifted in shape once, growing from two days in late October 2025 to three days across October 22 to 24 in 2026, while staying anchored to the Halloween season. Visitors should confirm the final dates and schedule through the band’s announcements as the season approaches, since a young festival can still adjust its footprint.
What began as one Florence band’s determination to own Halloween in its hometown has become Lauderdale County’s defining late-October weekend. With a free market by day, ticketed stages by night and a third annual edition already billed, the Carver’s Creepy Crawly Halloween Festival looks set to keep growing on its own terms, in the downtown streets where it started.
