Calvert County Maryland Halloween in the Garden Festival
Late October turns Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Solomons into a trick-or-treat trail, where more than sixty booths run by local businesses and community groups hand out sweets along paths lined with sculpture and autumn colour. Halloween in the Garden is the garden’s family Halloween gathering, a single Saturday afternoon of costumes, games, crafts and food trucks, staged on Dowell Road in the waterfront village of Solomons, Maryland. The 2026 edition fell on Saturday 24 October, running from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon, and a sponsor layer describes it as the garden’s annual event. A listing layer records an earlier edition on 19 October 2025, with the same hours. Admission in 2026 cost five dollars when bought online or ten dollars at the gate, with members admitted free on advance reservation and children two and under free the same way. Gate money goes to three local causes, which gives the afternoon a purpose beyond the costumes.
About
Halloween in the Garden is exactly what its published name promises: a Halloween celebration inside a sculpture garden. The event is presented by Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center itself, the organisation that runs the grounds on Dowell Road in Solomons. Its host village sits on the Patuxent River in Calvert County, though Solomons is not the county seat. That distinction belongs to Prince Frederick, a point worth keeping straight for anyone planning a wider trip around the county, since the two places are often confused by visitors who assume the best-known waterfront town must also be the seat of government. The garden’s own layers describe the gathering as the annual event, and the two dated editions on record, October 2025 and October 2026, both landed on Saturdays in the second half of the month. Roughly five thousand people attended, according to a vendor-opportunities layer, which makes the afternoon busy without ever feeling like a county-fair crowd. The mood is deliberately gentle: the festival is billed as family friendly, the activities are built around children, and the scares stay playful rather than frightening. Adults come in costume too, and the sculpture trails give the whole occasion a setting no car park or high-school field could match.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Halloween in the Garden |
| Host town | Solomons, Maryland |
| County seat | Prince Frederick, not Solomons |
| Venue | Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Dowell Road |
| Organiser | Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center |
| 2026 edition | Saturday 24 October, ten in the morning to four in the afternoon |
| 2025 edition | 19 October, ten in the morning to four in the afternoon |
| 2026 admission | Five dollars online, ten dollars at the gate |
| Booths | More than sixty local business and community booths |
| Gate proceeds benefit | SMILE Food Pantry, Solomons Mission Food Pantry, Annmarie Scholarship Fund |
History
No founding account for Halloween in the Garden itself appears in the layers read, so the event’s own beginning cannot be dated from the material available. What is documented is the ground it stands on. Francis and Ann M. Koenig donated the property to the county in 1991 to create a sculpture park, and the garden that grew from that gift is the setting for the festival today. The garden’s size is given differently in different layers: a county association layer puts it at fifty acres, while one listing layer says thirty acres, and the two figures are left standing side by side rather than reconciled. The garden has since become one of southern Maryland’s best-known cultural stops, a place where sculpture, woodland paths and seasonal programming meet. Halloween in the Garden belongs to that seasonal programme, and a sponsor layer describes the 2026 edition as the annual event, which suggests a settled place in the garden’s calendar rather than a one-off experiment. The earlier edition documented in a listing layer, 19 October 2025, carried admission of five to eight dollars per person, a range that sits below the 2026 gate price. Nothing in the layers read gives a first year for the festival, and no annual billing is printed, so the article makes no claim about how long the gathering has run. The garden’s own story, by contrast, reaches back to the Koenig gift of 1991, and that is the history the festival inherits rather than one it can claim for itself.
What to Expect
Costumes set the tone from the moment the gates open. Children move from booth to booth collecting treats from more than sixty local businesses and community organisations, which is the heart of the afternoon and the reason most families come. The booths are the trick-or-treat trail itself, and the garden’s paths give the route a wandering, wooded feel that suits the season. Fall games and creepy crafts fill the gaps between booths, with decorations throughout the grounds and photo opportunities placed where families naturally pause. A DJ dance party keeps music going through the day, and food trucks handle lunch and snacks, so there is no need to leave the grounds to eat. The atmosphere is cheerful rather than eerie: the crafts are described as creepy in the playful sense, the decorations lean toward pumpkins and autumn colour, and the whole event is aimed squarely at younger children and their parents. Expect a crowd of around five thousand across the six hours, according to the vendor-opportunities layer, which means the paths feel lively at midday and quieter toward the opening and closing hours. Gate proceeds benefit the SMILE Food Pantry, the Solomons Mission Food Pantry and the Annmarie Scholarship Fund, so the ticket money supports food relief and the garden’s own scholarship programme. The festival runs rain or shine in the sense that no weather policy is documented in the layers read, so visitors should check the organiser’s own layer before travelling if the forecast looks poor.
Planning Your Visit
Buying online is the cheapest way in for the 2026 edition: five dollars against ten dollars at the gate. Members of the garden should reserve in advance to claim free admission, and the same advance reservation covers children two and under, who also enter free. The 2025 listing gives a range of five to eight dollars per person, so prices have moved between years and the 2026 figures should not be treated as a standing rate. Arriving near the ten o’clock opening gives the quietest start, since the trick-or-treat booths are fresh and the paths are at their emptiest, while the middle of the day brings the biggest crowds. Costumes are the point of the day, so dressing up is expected rather than optional, and a bag or bucket for treats is worth bringing, since the booths hand out sweets at every stop. Comfortable shoes matter more than they might seem, because the garden is a sculpture park with woodland paths rather than a single flat field, and the afternoon involves a fair amount of walking. Solomons is a small waterfront village, so anyone driving in should allow time for the approach along Dowell Road and for parking near the garden. The festival ends at four in the afternoon, which leaves the early evening free for a walk along the Solomons waterfront before heading home.
For a useful comparison, see the Calvert County Maryland Solomons Maritime Festival for another county festival.
Sample Itinerary
Arrive at ten in the morning, when the gates open, and head straight for the trick-or-treat booths while the paths are quiet. Spend the first hour working along the booth trail, collecting treats from the local businesses and community groups, and pause at the photo spots as they come up. Around eleven, stop for the creepy crafts, which suit younger children best before the midday bustle, and let the children try a fall game or two. Lunch comes from the food trucks near midday, eaten outdoors among the sculpture and autumn trees. After lunch, join the DJ dance party for a stretch, then wander the sculpture trails at a slower pace, taking in the decorations and the garden itself. The last hour is a good time for a second pass along favourite booths and a final round of photographs before the four o’clock close. Anyone with energy left can finish the day with a short stroll through the village of Solomons and along the waterfront, which is at its best in the late-afternoon light.
Comparison
Halloween in the Garden shares its venue with two other Annmarie occasions, and the three are easy to confuse. Annmarie Monster Market, held on 10 October 2026, is a separate event at the same garden, two weeks before the Halloween gathering, with its own programme and its own date. Annmarie Garden in Lights is another separate Annmarie event, a winter lights display rather than a Halloween celebration. Neither should be mistaken for Halloween in the Garden, and neither shares its trick-or-treat booth trail. The Solomons VFD Open House, held on 3 October 2026, is a different event altogether, a fire-department open house in the same village rather than a garden festival. Within Calvert County, the closest comparison is the Solomons Maritime Festival at the Calvert Marine Museum, a May celebration of boats and watermen that draws a similar family crowd to the same village but in a different season and with a wholly different theme. Halloween in the Garden stands apart from all of them by combining the garden setting with a Halloween programme built around children, and by directing its gate money to local food pantries and a scholarship fund.
Checklist
- Buy tickets online for the five-dollar rate rather than paying ten dollars at the gate
- Reserve in advance if claiming free member admission or free entry for children two and under
- Dress the whole family in costume
- Bring a bag or bucket for treats from the booths
- Wear comfortable shoes for the garden’s woodland paths
- Arrive near the ten o’clock opening for the quietest start
- Allow time for the drive into Solomons along Dowell Road
- Plan lunch around the food trucks on site
- Keep the four o’clock closing time in mind when planning the drive home
Beyond the Festival
The garden itself rewards a slower look once the trick-or-treating is done. Its sculpture trails wind through woodland that Francis and Ann M. Koenig gave to the county in 1991, and the art along the paths is worth an unhurried walk in the autumn light. Solomons, the village around the garden, is a working waterfront on the Patuxent River, with restaurants and shops along the water that make a natural stop after the festival closes. Prince Frederick, the Calvert County seat, lies a short drive inland and offers a different side of the county, with its courthouse and county offices anchoring a small town centre. Anyone staying overnight in southern Maryland will find the Solomons waterfront at its most pleasant in the early evening, when the day’s crowds have thinned and the river catches the last of the light. The festival’s October timing also suits a wider autumn trip, since the garden’s trees turn with the season and the village is quieter than in the summer months.
Why It Matters
Halloween in the Garden matters to Solomons because it turns a cultural landmark into a community gathering and puts the money to work locally. Gate proceeds benefit the SMILE Food Pantry, the Solomons Mission Food Pantry and the Annmarie Scholarship Fund, so every ticket helps feed neighbours and support the garden’s own educational work. The booths give more than sixty local businesses and community organisations a direct way to meet families, handing out treats face to face rather than advertising from a distance. For the garden, the festival is a reminder that a sculpture park can be a playground as well as a gallery, and that its woodland paths suit a Halloween trail as naturally as they suit a summer stroll. For families, it offers a safe, contained place to celebrate Halloween, with the trick-or-treating, games and music all inside one venue. The event’s significance is modest and local rather than grand, and that is its strength: a village garden, a Saturday afternoon, and money that stays in the community.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should children bring for trick-or-treating at the garden?
Costumes and a bag or bucket for treats. More than sixty booths run by local businesses and community organisations hand out sweets along the garden’s paths, so a container for the haul is the one essential item, along with comfortable shoes for walking the sculpture trails.
Do garden members and toddlers get in without paying?
In 2026, members entered free with an advance reservation, and children two and under also entered free with an advance reservation. The reservation matters: the free entry for both groups was tied to booking ahead rather than simply turning up at the gate.
Where does the gate money go?
Proceeds from gate admissions benefit three local causes, according to a sponsor layer: the SMILE Food Pantry, the Solomons Mission Food Pantry and the Annmarie Scholarship Fund. The ticket price therefore supports food relief in the community and the garden’s own scholarship programme.
Is Halloween in the Garden the same as the Monster Market?
No. Annmarie Monster Market, held on 10 October 2026, is a separate event at the same garden, two weeks earlier, with its own programme. Annmarie Garden in Lights is another separate Annmarie occasion. Halloween in the Garden is the garden’s own trick-or-treating festival, held on 24 October 2026.
What to Expect From the Next Calvert County Maryland Halloween in the Garden Festival
How often is Calvert County Maryland Halloween in the Garden Festival held?
A sponsor layer describes the 2026 edition as the annual event, and dated editions are documented in October 2025 and October 2026, both on Saturdays. The record therefore points to a gathering that returns each October, though no founding year is documented in the layers read.
When is the next Calvert County Maryland Halloween in the Garden Festival?
No date for a following edition is published in the layers read. The most recent dated edition was Saturday 24 October 2026, and the edition before it was 19 October 2025, so a further October Saturday would fit the pattern, but the organiser’s own layer is the place to check once a new date is announced.
Will the dates change?
The two documented editions both fell on Saturdays in the second half of October, 19 October in 2025 and 24 October in 2026, so the timing has been steady so far. With no later date announced, there is nothing to compare against, and the garden’s own layer will carry the next date when it is set.
The 2026 edition showed what the festival does best: a sculpture garden given over to children in costume, local businesses handing out treats along wooded paths, and gate money going to food pantries and a scholarship fund in the same community. Solomons is a small village, and the garden is its cultural heart, so an afternoon like this one fits the place. Anyone planning a visit should watch the organiser’s own layer for the next October date, book online for the lower price, and arrive early enough to enjoy the trails before the midday crowd.
