Scaredown in Downtown Torrance 2026

If you have never watched a hearse roll down Sartori Avenue trailing a conga line of trick-or-treaters, block off the evening of Saturday, October 3rd. Old Torrance turns into a Halloween block party for the 10th year running, and it is one of the more reliable entries on the list of things to do in Los Angeles this weekend if you are anywhere in the South Bay.

What Is Scaredown in Downtown Torrance?

Scaredown is the Downtown Torrance Association's (DTA) annual Halloween street festival, run almost entirely by neighborhood volunteers and local business owners. Now in its 10th year, it has grown from a small merchant promotion into an event that reportedly pulls in thousands of attendees from across LA and Orange County. The festival runs from 4 to 9 PM, so it starts in daylight and slides into the after-dark version of the celebration as the historic downtown strip lights up for the night.

The centerpiece is trunk-or-treating along the closed-off street, with local businesses, community groups, and families decorating car trunks and handing out candy. Alongside that, expect a "Haunted Boo-tique" marketplace of vendors, live performances, a DJ, photo ops with decorated hearses, crafts for kids, and the kind of costume-heavy crowd that makes an October evening in Old Torrance feel genuinely festive rather than staged.

Why This One Stands Out

A lot of Halloween events in LA county are either mall parking-lot trunk-or-treats or full-blown ticketed haunts. Scaredown splits the difference: it is free, outdoors, and spread across an entire historic downtown district, so there is room to wander between the marketplace, the stage, and the trunk-or-treat line without feeling like you are stuck in a single roped-off area. For anyone building out a list of LA events this weekend that actually works for kids and adults together, a free street festival with live music and a haunted market checks a lot of boxes at once.

It also plugs into a broader fall pattern worth knowing about if you like this sort of thing: Southern California's downtown associations lean hard into street festivals every October, and Torrance's version has staying power precisely because it does not charge admission and does not require advance tickets.

Practical Info

When: Saturday, October 3rd, 4-9 PM Where: Old Torrance, near Sartori Avenue, Torrance, CA 90501 Price: Free Good for: Families, trick-or-treaters, costume enthusiasts

Because the festival closes off part of the downtown strip, plan to park a few blocks out and walk in. Street parking around the surrounding residential blocks fills up fast once the sun starts going down, so arriving on the earlier side of the 4 PM start gives you the best shot at a close spot and a shorter trunk-or-treat line.

Getting There

Old Torrance sits inland from the 405 and the 110, a straightforward drive from most of the South Bay and a reasonable one from central LA if you leave with the Saturday traffic in mind. There is no Metro Rail stop directly downtown, so this is largely a drive-in event; carpooling with another family is the easiest way to avoid the parking crunch.

For vendor applications and additional event links, the DTA posts updates through its own social channels, which the event listing points to directly.

Looking for more of what is happening around town this fall? Browse more festivals in Los Angeles for other things happening in Los Angeles, or check the neighborhoods guide for other pockets of the region worth a visit this season.