The Week Ahead
October 19, 2026
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Late October on Bainbridge Island brings a distinctive mix of seasonal traditions and cultural events. During the week of October 19, residents can experience Halloween from several perspectives: on a hay wagon winding through Battle Point Park, from the shoreline as costumed paddlers take to the water, and inside the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, where the Within/Earshot Jazz Festival continues its month-long exploration of jazz.
Together, the week’s events demonstrate the variety of ways community life takes shape on the island. Some traditions are playful and seasonal, while others provide opportunities to gather around music, art, and shared interests.
The Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District’s Haunted Hayride runs October 20 through 22 at Battle Point Park. The annual event combines a 25- to 30-minute hayride with Halloween scenes and activities at Boo Boulevard. The emphasis is intentionally more atmospheric than frightening, making the event accessible to a broad range of ages.
Later in the week, BIMA’s Within/Earshot Jazz Festival continues with two programs: Jazz with Jim on Thursday, October 22, and a performance by Pearl Django on Saturday, October 24. The festival, presented in partnership with Seattle’s Earshot Jazz, runs throughout October and uses live performance to examine jazz as both a historic musical tradition and a continually evolving art form.
The 6th Annual Witches Paddle adds another distinctly Northwest element to the week. Costumed paddlers take to the water dressed in witch-inspired attire, turning a familiar island activity into a seasonal community spectacle. Part recreation and part Halloween tradition, the paddle reflects the close relationship between Bainbridge Island and the surrounding waters of Puget Sound.
These three events offer a useful snapshot of the island in October: public parks transformed for Halloween, waterways becoming gathering spaces, and a local museum providing a setting for musicians and audiences to explore one of America’s most influential art forms.
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Haunted Hayride
For three evenings in late October, Battle Point Park takes on a different character as the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District hosts its annual Haunted Hayride.
Scheduled for October 20 through 22 from 5:30 to 9 p.m., the event centers on a 25- to 30-minute wagon ride through specially prepared sections of the park. Halloween decorations, characters, lighting, and staged scenes introduce an element of theater into a landscape more commonly associated with walking trails, sports fields, playgrounds, and daytime recreation.
The Park District describes the experience as “spooky, not scary,” an important distinction for an event intended to serve families and visitors across a broad range of ages. Rather than relying primarily on intense scares, the Haunted Hayride uses the atmosphere of the park after dark to create a seasonal experience.
The event extends beyond the hayride itself. Visitors can also spend time at Boo Boulevard, an activity area featuring live music, games, crafts, and other programming. Guests may arrive before their scheduled ride and return to the area afterward, although Boo Boulevard closes at 9 p.m.
Battle Point Park is particularly well suited to this type of event because of both its scale and familiarity. For much of the year, the park functions as one of Bainbridge Island’s primary outdoor recreation areas. During the Haunted Hayride, that familiar setting is temporarily reinterpreted through lighting, costumes, and seasonal programming.
Weather is also part of the event’s practical planning. The Park District states that the hayride takes place rain or shine unless severe conditions require cancellation. On event evenings, vehicles enter through the west entrance from Battle Point Drive NE, where parking attendants help direct traffic.
The popularity of the event is evident in advance ticket demand. The Park District currently lists the 2026 Haunted Hayride as sold out.
Cost, tickets and logistics:
October 20–22, 2026, 5:30–9 p.m.
Battle Point Park, 1299 Arrow Point Drive NE
Resident admission: $14
Non-resident admission: $16
Rain or shine unless severe weather requires cancellation
Get tickets here
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Within/Earshot Jazz Festival at BIMA
October is also jazz month at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, where the Within/Earshot Jazz Festival brings musicians, educators, and audiences together throughout the month.
Presented in partnership with Seattle’s Earshot Jazz, the festival is designed as more than a traditional concert series. BIMA describes it as a setting where sound, storytelling, visual art, and jazz history intersect. Performances take place in the museum’s Frank Buxton Auditorium as part of BIMA’s broader PRISM programming.
Two festival programs fall during the week of October 19.
On Thursday, October 22, Jim Cauter presents Jazz with Jim: Great Musicians We All Need to Know. The 90-minute program approaches jazz from an educational perspective, combining music listening with discussion of musicians and ensembles that have influenced the genre.
Cauter’s program includes figures from several generations of jazz, among them Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, Joni Mitchell, and contemporary performers. Rather than concentrating on a single era, the program traces some of the connections among musicians, instruments, ensembles, and stylistic developments that have shaped jazz over time.
Two nights later, on Saturday, October 24, Pearl Django performs at BIMA. The Seattle-based ensemble has spent approximately three decades working within the Hot Club jazz tradition associated with guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli.
Hot Club jazz developed in Paris during the 1930s and is known for acoustic instrumentation, improvisation, rhythmic guitar playing, and a strong relationship with American swing. Pearl Django has helped maintain and reinterpret that tradition in the Pacific Northwest while developing its own regional following.
The broader 2026 Within/Earshot program runs from October 2 through October 25 and includes performers Camila Ferrari, METTA Quintet, Afrocop, Jun Iida, Greta Matassa Group, Pearl Django, and several educational and family programs.
Its month-long format allows the museum to approach jazz not as a single style but as a musical language shaped by history, improvisation, individual expression, and continued reinterpretation.
Cost, ticket, and logistics:
Jazz with Jim: Great Musicians We All Need to Know
Thursday, October 22
7–8:30 p.m.
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, 550 Winslow Way E.
Pearl Django
Saturday, October 24
7–9 p.m.
All ages
Part of the 2026 Within/Earshot Jazz Festival
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6th Annual Witches Paddle
One of the more visually distinctive Halloween traditions on Bainbridge Island takes place not in a park or indoor venue, but on the water.
The 6th Annual Witches Paddle brings together paddlers dressed in witch-themed and Halloween costumes for a seasonal outing on the waters surrounding the island. Stand-up paddleboards and other small human-powered watercraft provide the unusual setting, with pointed hats, capes, costumes, and decorated boards replacing the equipment normally associated with an ordinary day of paddling.
The idea is simple, but its setting gives the event particular relevance on Bainbridge Island. Water is central to both the geography and everyday identity of the community. The island is defined by its shoreline, ferry connections, bays, harbors, and easy access to kayaking and paddleboarding.
The Witches Paddle temporarily combines that familiar maritime culture with the imagery of Halloween.
Unlike a formal race, the emphasis of this type of gathering is largely communal. Costumes and group participation turn the paddle into something that can be appreciated both by those on the water and by people watching from shore.
The event is also representative of a broader Pacific Northwest tradition in which outdoor recreation continues well beyond the summer months. An October paddle requires more awareness of weather and water conditions than a midsummer outing, particularly as temperatures decline and daylight hours shorten.
For participants, basic cold-water safety remains important regardless of the playful appearance of the event. Personal flotation devices, appropriate clothing, familiarity with local conditions, and awareness of changing weather can all be significant considerations when paddling Puget Sound waters in autumn.
For spectators, however, much of the attraction is visual: a group of costumed witches appearing against the familiar backdrop of Bainbridge Island’s shoreline provides an unusual expression of the Halloween season.
Now in its sixth year, the Witches Paddle has become another example of how seasonal traditions on Bainbridge Island often draw character from the island itself. Rather than simply recreating a conventional Halloween event, it places the celebration within one of the landscapes that most clearly defines the community—the water.
Cost, tickets and logistics:
Sunday, October 25, 10am-11:00am
Waterfront Park, 301 Shannon Drive, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Halloween costumes and witch-themed attire are part of the tradition
Participants should consult the event organizer for the confirmed launch location, time, participation requirements, and weather or water-safety updates
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