Longmont's October Isn't One Fiesta: Restaurant Week, Día de Muertos and the Downtown Weekends In Between

On the Biscuit Mike's food truck, the morning batch of biscuits was all the crew had for the day, because they couldn't bake during service. Since Lyn Simuns and her son Mike moved into 900 Coffman St. in March, the ovens keep running as orders come in. This is the shop's first Longmont Restaurant Week with a commercial kitchen and seating. Its special is two egg biscuit sandwiches with bacon, ham or sausage, plus two small brewed coffees, for $20.

Restaurant Week runs through Sunday, Oct. 11. On Oct. 10, the Saturday before it ends, the city's Día de Muertos season opens at the Firehouse Art Center. Most people know that tradition as one street party on Kimbark Street. In 2026 it actually runs from Oct. 10 to Nov. 2, and it overlaps the end of Restaurant Week at one end and the Halloween Parade at the other. Longmont's October is a chain of downtown weekends, with something on the calendar for each one.

The October Calendar, Weekend by Weekend

The Restaurant Week Days You Still Have

The 2026 event is the eighth edition. It runs 10 days despite its seven-day name, and organizer Jennifer Ferguson expected nearly 40 participating venues. Twenty-eight had posted their participation by late September. The format has changed a lot from the first one. The Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce started Restaurant Week in April 2018 with specials priced at $18.71, a nod to the year Longmont was founded. Ferguson, who owns Wonder Tours, brought it back in 2024 after a one-year pause. Today the $25, $35 and $45 price points are guidelines, and restaurants can offer $30 combos, buy-one-get-one deals or morning pairings that fit how they already operate.

Tangerine and The Post Chicken & Beer are taking part for the first time. Returning venues include 300 Suns Brewing, Pumphouse Brewery, The Roost, Flavor of India and Martini's Bistro.

At Red Cedar Bistro, 516 Main St., executive chef Larry Shore and artist Sandy Shore are offering two three-course prix fixe menus for their second Restaurant Week. The $35 menu includes grilled halloumi and a choice of two house-made pastas. The $45 menu includes crab scampi, grilled scallops, bison short rib ragout and seafood cioppino pasta. Both end with mocha fudge chocolate cake or tiramisu. The Shores estimate each menu costs about $15 less than ordering the same dishes individually.

A digital map run by Rad Raccoon is new this year. You can filter it for gluten-free items, patios and kid-friendly seating, and it includes a scavenger hunt with trivia, photo tasks and public art prompts that score points on a public leaderboard. Ferguson says the real test is whether the crowds come back after the specials end.

"It drives traffic during that week, but more importantly, it brings people back." Jennifer Ferguson, speaking to the Daily Camera

Oct. 10, When Dinner and the Galleries Overlap

The second Saturday of Restaurant Week is also opening day for the Firehouse Art Center's Día de Muertos exhibitions, with a reception that day. Both shows are free and open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., through Nov. 2.

The Main Gallery show, "Día de Muertos: Remembering is Resistance," centers on immigrant voices. Artists partner with community members to turn their stories and words into painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, film and design, shown anonymously. The South Gallery holds "Catrinas on Parade," local artists' versions of La Calavera Catrina. That figure began as a zinc etching by the Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada and has become an icon of the holiday.

That makes Oct. 10 the one day in 2026 when you can get a Restaurant Week dinner and see the opening of the Día de Muertos exhibits on the same trip.

A Sunday Afternoon at Parkway Food Hall

The weekend between those two events has its own anchor, and it's away from Main Street. The BarBoss Battle runs 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, at Parkway Food Hall, 2251 Ken Pratt Blvd. Local bartenders make drinks inspired by musical genres under the theme "Rock the Bar." Entry is free, and tasting tickets are sold separately. It comes a week after Restaurant Week ends, so it works as a final event for the food crowd, and the Día de Muertos exhibits are still up downtown.

Oct. 24, the Fiesta, and the Construction Next Door

The Family Fiesta is the event most people picture. This year marks the 26th anniversary of what the City of Longmont calls the longest-running public Day of the Dead celebration in Colorado. The city dates it to 2001 and says the broader celebration draws more than 6,000 people a year. A 2024 Longmont Leader report described how the celebration grew from the Longmont Museum into a citywide event.

The street festival runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 4th Avenue and Kimbark Street, and it's free. Plans include traditional live music and dance, face painting, sugar skull decorating, crafts, food trucks, a kids' play zone and local vendors. The Firehouse Gigantes Procession starts from the Fiesta at 2 p.m. Gigantes are giant puppets, roughly 10 to 15 feet tall, with papier-mâché heads mounted on tall A-frames. The 2026 listing doesn't include a street-by-street route. If you want a curbside spot, plan to be near the Fiesta a little before 2.

Parking is the practical catch. The city is building a two-story garage at its Safety and Justice Center, 225 Kimbark St., just up the street from the Fiesta. It will replace the building's northwest lot and increase parking from 45 to 87 spaces once it's done, with completion scheduled by December 2026. Until then, the city says construction around the center limits parking and suggests other ways of getting there. On the south end of downtown, the Times-Call reported that full construction on the 1st and Main Transit Center was expected to start this month. One option that wasn't around for last year's Fiesta is the BCycle e-bike-share, which launched July 29 with about 30 bikes and docks at locations that include the library, the Recreation Center and Rogers Grove.

Oct. 30 and 31, Two Traditions Back to Back

The last weekend of the month has two long-running events on back-to-back days.

On Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., the Longmont Museum's Noche de Museo fills the Stewart Auditorium. Rock band iZCALLi curates the program, which runs from ancient Aztec dance by Grupo Azteca Tlahuitzcalli to the band's own genre-bending rock and roll. Seating is reserved, at $23 or $20 for members. This is the one ticketed event of the season, and the auditorium has assigned seats, so it makes sense to book through the museum well before the day.

The next morning is the 47th annual Halloween Parade, more than two decades older than the Fiesta. Lineup starts at 9:30 a.m. and the parade leaves Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., at 10. It's a costume foot parade down Main Street with no registration required, followed right away by Trick or Treat Street at participating downtown merchants. Strollers and wagons are recommended, motorized vehicles aren't allowed, and dogs must be leashed. The city posts the parade map at LongmontColorado.gov/halloween.

The Firehouse exhibitions are still open that weekend and close Monday, Nov. 2. Downtown's Holiday Central starts five days later, on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Zana and the team at Real Realty Colorado have been following Longmont's downtown calendar for years. If all this has you wondering how your own place near Main Street or anywhere else in Longmont fits into the local market, we're glad to talk it through. Start with your free home valuation, and we'll follow up with a conversation when it suits you.