Center Moriches Fall Events 2026: Fair, Spooky Walk & More

"Visitors are encouraged to spend the day enjoying the music and food, browsing the vendors and stopping into the many local Main Street businesses that will be open throughout the fair," Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches president Jackie Osborne told The Tide of Moriches in September. The Chamber built the whole day around that sentence. Main Street closes to cars on Sunday, Oct. 18, so the stores that line it can sit inside the event.

The Chamber turns 100 this year, and its fall schedule shows how Center Moriches uses its downtown. Main Street closes to traffic twice in two weeks. A volunteer-run haunted walk at Camp Paquatuck fills four nights. The season closes in December with a dinner that marks a century of organizing the street. Even the newest names in town came in through this calendar.

Two street closures in fourteen days

Below is the season in order, from the Chamber's own listings and current local coverage. Here is the October 2026 calendar:

The dates fall in a useful order. The first Spooky Walk weekend runs Friday and Saturday, and the fair takes over Main Street the next morning. That makes Oct. 16 through 18 the busiest three days of the hamlet's fall.

The Fall Fair listing says the fair goes on rain or shine with no rain date. It promises more than 100 vendors, food trucks, the Main Street merchants and live music all day. This year's bands are Milagro, Hot Water St., Sitting Ducks, After Dark Duo with Jimmy & Jackie Osborne, 2 EZ Band and Classic Jam. Vendor spaces cost $100. Nonprofits and Chamber members pay $50. Food trucks pay $200 because each truck takes two spots. Neither the Chamber nor The Tide has published which blocks will close or where to park, so plan on Main Street being shut for the whole day.

March of the Goblins two weeks later is smaller. The October issue of The Tide describes it as trick-or-treating for the community's children along Main Street. Businesses on the street are encouraged to have candy ready, and the road closes from Chichester to Railroad avenues. The fire department has staffed the side streets that meet Main Street since the event began in 2002.

What the Chamber was founded to argue about

Closing the main road for a fall fair is a big civic move, and the Chamber's history explains it. In its Oct. 5 update in the Long Island Advance, the Chamber writes that local business and community leaders formed it in 1926. Its mission covered "the commercial, recreational and civic interests of the Moriches area." According to early newspaper records, members spent their first years discussing "roads, street lighting and traffic signals to community facilities, dredging and beautification."

A century later, the Chamber is still deciding what Main Street is used for. It ran the free Saturday-night summer concert series from July 11 to Sept. 5 as a centennial celebration. This fall it closes the street twice and leads a parade through the Moriches in November. The fall calendar carries on that summer program in a cooler season.

How the newest names came in

The 2026 business openings on Main Street came through the same channel. Each one was introduced to the community at a Chamber event.

1. Red Rocket Roasters Coffee held its ribbon-cutting on Sunday, June 14, during the hamlet's annual Spring Fair. Owners Frank and Alah Dolan of Manor Park were joined by Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico, Councilwoman Karen Dunne Kesnig, Legislator Jim Mazzarella and Chamber members. The Town's announcement calls Center Moriches "one of Brookhaven's most caffeinated hamlets per capita." It places the shop on Main Street without a street number.
2. La Volpe Ristorante & Anton Pizzeria at 611 Montauk Highway is now run by the Avino family, Merri, Jim and Michael Avino. They also own Avino's Italian Table in Bellport Village and Catch Oyster Bar in Patchogue. Greater Long Island reported in August that the family took over when the previous owners were getting ready to retire. Merri said a mutual friend thought it would be a good fit "to keep their tradition alive." The same report says the staff, chef and core menu stayed the same. The family is adding new specials, and the report also mentions a $25 three-course lunch.
3. Ruby Impact, a kickboxing and strength-training studio at 5C Canal Street, had its Chamber ribbon-cutting on Sept. 1.

The Fall Fair on Oct. 18 is the first one since the Dolans opened Red Rocket in June and the Avinos took over La Volpe.

Four nights at Camp Paquatuck

The Spooky Walk takes place at Camp Paquatuck on Chet Swezey Road, and it follows the same pattern of volunteers putting on a public event. It started in 1989 as a fundraiser run by the Camp Paquatuck Fundraisers, formerly the Moriches Paquatuck Squaws. All proceeds go to Camp Paquatuck, which describes itself as a camp for children and adults with special needs. The walk takes about 45 minutes, and spookywalk.com calls it the longest-running haunted walk on Long Island.

The Tide's October issue says more than 500 volunteers make the walk happen now. Many groups start building their exhibits right after Labor Day. Coordinator Marcella Weiss explained how the nights work. "The lines can be long, but when asked, customers don't mind the wait," she said. "We try not to rush anyone through, so everybody gets a good scare." After the walk there are burgers, hot dogs and sausage and peppers at Marie's Food Tent, and Long Island Farm Brewery sponsors a beer tent. Kids get a DJ on the great lawn, with music and lights from Chuck and Bonnie Schultz, the former owners of the Village Music Shoppe in Mastic. Weiss told the paper the camp makes improvements to its campus every year because of fundraisers like this one.

Tickets are $25. The four nights are Oct. 16, 17, 23 and 24, from 7 to 9 p.m.

For a daytime activity on the same weekends, Waterdrinker Farms at 663 Wading River Road in Manorville runs a fall festival daily through Oct. 31. It's open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or sunset, with pumpkin picking, hayrides, a corn maze and animals.

November's parade and a December party

After Halloween, the Chamber's season moves toward East Moriches and then indoors.

The Veterans Parade steps off at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8. It starts at East Moriches School on Adelaide Avenue and ends at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park, where a memorial ceremony follows, rain or shine. This year's grand marshal is Lee Sinnickson, a lifelong area resident who went to school in Center Moriches. He served in the Vietnam War as an infantryman in the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division. If you'd like to march, the Chamber asks you to email [email protected].

"Join us for an extra-special evening as we combine our annual holiday dinner with a once-in-a-century celebration of the Chamber's 100th anniversary." Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches, Long Island Advance, Oct. 5, 2026

The centennial party is now on Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Rock Hill Country Club, 105 Clancy Road. A September preview had listed Nov. 21, but the Chamber's current event page and its Oct. 5 update both give Dec. 8. Tickets are $75 and include a buffet dinner, open bar and live music by The New Millennium Jazz Band. In honor of the Chamber's 1926 founding, guests are asked to come in Roaring Twenties cocktail attire.

That's three months of events on and around one street: two closures for the fair and Halloween, four nights in the woods at Camp Paquatuck, a parade, and a dinner to mark 100 years. The street is the same one the Chamber's founders were working on in 1926.

If you're about to spend Oct. 18 walking Main Street and wondering how the stores around you are doing, I'm glad to talk it through over a coffee from Red Rocket. Samantha Bisagni keeps up with Center Moriches between events too. Let's Connect.