Larkspur's Halloween Runs on Two Clocks: The Mart by Day, the Lark After Dark

At Marin Country Mart, the heirloom pumpkins are sold on the honor system. You choose one, pay, and carry it home. The patch has been open since October 1 and closes October 31. On Magnolia Avenue, the Lark Theater has a different kind of October scheduled for its final week: horror double features, a séance film with a Q&A, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 10 p.m. on two nights in a row.

Every Halloween event at the Mart is over by 2 p.m. on the 31st, and most of the Lark's start after dark. Over the weekend of October 30 and 31, the Mart's outdoor season ends and the Lark keeps going. From that point into December, Larkspur's event calendar is mostly on Magnolia Avenue.

The Mart's season ends in its own courtyard

Since the start of October, Marin Country Mart has run something on almost every weekend. Marin Oktoberfest filled the Big Tent on October 4. The 14th Annual Pie Baking Contest was held at the Farmers' Market on October 10, with a $200 first prize and a kids-under-14 category. Three Babes Bakeshop and Salt & Straw sold pie à la mode by the slice. A Giant Pumpkin went on display at the Trading Post on October 3. Guesses on its weight are open until Halloween.

All of that wraps up in the last two days of the month:

• Friday, October 30: the last Movie Night at Marin Country Mart, at 6 p.m. The series began June 19, and its lineup has included Babe, The Aristocats, Toy Story, The Lion King and Coco. Mart eateries sell dinner, snacks, beer and wine.
• Saturday, October 31: the pumpkin patch's last day.
• Saturday, October 31, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: the Halloween Spectacular. A costume contest starts in the Courtyard at 11 a.m., and trick-or-treating around the Mart follows until 2 p.m. The Giant Pumpkin winner is announced during the event.

The Spectacular is over by 2 p.m. Halloween is on a Saturday this year, so the Mart's part of the holiday ends while it's still light out.

The Lark's horror week starts October 23

At 549 Magnolia Avenue, the Lark's Halloween run opens October 23, more than a week before the Mart's pumpkin season ends. The theater's showtimes page lists a full week of late-night horror, and the run gets closer to Halloween each night.

The two Frankenstein screenings aren't repeats. The Lark lists Miller as the Creature at 5 p.m. and Cumberbatch in the role at 7:30 p.m. Seeing both makes for a full evening.

On Friday, October 30, the Mart's last movie starts at 6 p.m. and SÉANCE starts at the Lark at 7:30 p.m. The final outdoor screening and the first of the Lark's two big Halloween nights fall on the same evening. On Saturday, the Lark shows Coco at 9 a.m., two hours before the Mart's costume contest. It shows Coco again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 1. The movie the Mart has run outdoors all summer moves into a theater the morning after the outdoor series ends.

The Mart's stores are already on to the holidays

The Mart ends its outdoor season at Halloween, but its retailers began the holiday season weeks before. Diptyque held an exclusive preview of its Holiday Collection on October 8, with champagne and RSVP-only entry. On Thursday, October 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Poppy and Sugar Paper are co-hosting a holiday styling event. Poppy puts together festive outfits, Sugar Paper pairs each one with a holiday card, and Sugar Paper's letterpress holiday cards are 20% off during the event.

The rest of October at the Mart is mostly trunk shows and talks:

1. October 16–17: Hero Shop hosts a My Dear Tejas trunk show of Susan Kim's one-of-a-kind deerskin jackets.
2. October 17, 11 a.m.: Copperfield's Books hosts a Read It & Eat It event with Stanford nutrition scientist Dr. Christopher Gardner, author of Food Sense: What to Eat and Why. Admission is free, but registration is required because seating is limited.
3. October 24, 6 to 8:30 p.m.: Outerknown and Salted Roots, an Oakland nonprofit that works on ocean access, screen Wipeouts. The evening includes giveaways and a one-time 20% storewide discount.
4. October 25, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.: Sant M founder Min Santandrea brings her Venetian slippers to Emily Joubert.

After the Halloween Spectacular, the Mart's events page lists nothing until Hero Shop's Yaser Shaw trunk show of hand-embroidered cashmere scarves on December 11 and 12. The Mart hasn't announced a 2026 tree lighting or holiday open house. The tree lighting page that turns up in searches is an archive from 2019. The one regular thing that continues is the Saturday farmers market. The state's certified market directory lists it as year-round, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

November is on Magnolia Avenue

While the Mart's calendar is quiet, the Lark's showtimes page runs straight through November and into December. Here are the listings past Halloween:

• Saturday, October 24, listed at 7:30 p.m.: Marin Jazz presents Jackie Ryan in a tribute to the divas of jazz. Earlier that day, Peter Pan. Syndrome plays at noon.
• Sunday, October 25, 7 p.m.: the Actors Reading Collective reads Witch by Jen Silverman.
• Saturday, November 7: The Last Picture Shows with a Q&A at 4:30 p.m., then a reading of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels at 7 p.m.
• Saturday, November 14, listed at 7:30 p.m.: Marin Jazz presents Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
• Tuesday, November 24, 6:30 p.m.: One Ocean Film Tour 6.
• Thursday, November 26: four screenings of The Wizard of Oz on Thanksgiving Day, from 11 a.m. through 5 p.m.
• December 2, 4 and 5: GIANT -- The Play on December 2 at 7 p.m. and December 5 at 1 p.m., plus a Polar Express Pajama Party on December 4 at 4 and 6:30 p.m.

The two Marin Jazz nights come with a caveat. The Lark lists both at 7:30 p.m., but Marin Jazz's own site shows a midday time for each. Check with the box office before you plan dinner around either one.

For dinner nearby, Tavola Rustica at 286 Magnolia Avenue is a short walk down the street. In early October, Larkspur Patch picked up an item from SFist's October 9 food roundup. It reported that The Rustic, owner Zoti Ali Turap's San Francisco restaurant, closed in early September and that he is still running Tavola Rustica in Larkspur. The restaurant describes its food as seasonal, traditional Italian with a farm-to-table approach. When the Marin Independent Journal reviewed it in February 2025, the paper described a casual place with a Mediterranean menu and wine list, run by Turap, who previously worked front of house at Chez Panisse. For a jazz night or a Saturday reading, it's the closest sit-down dinner to the theater.

Downtown hasn't set a date for its own holiday event yet. The Larkspur Chamber's Holiday Magic on Magnolia page still describes the December 7, 2024 event, held between Ward and Cane streets. As of today, the Lark is the only downtown venue with dates posted for late fall.

Planning the last two weeks of October

If you want both versions of Halloween, the schedule fits together cleanly. On Friday, October 30, the Mart's last outdoor movie starts at 6 p.m. and SÉANCE starts at the Lark at 7:30 p.m. Halloween morning can start with Coco at the Lark at 9 a.m., followed by the costume contest in the Mart's Courtyard at 11 a.m. and trick-or-treating there until 2 p.m. In the evening, there's Frankenstein at 5 or 7:30 p.m., and Rocky Horror closes the night at 10 p.m. Before all that, the Thursday Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness double feature on October 29 is the last of the weeknight horror. After the 31st, the Lark has most of the dated events until the Mart's December 11 trunk show, and the Mart's Saturday farmers market runs every week in between.

Eric Schmitt follows Larkspur closely, from which night the Mart's movies end to which week the Lark posts its December dates. He brings that same attention to selling a home here. If you're thinking about a move next year, you can request a confidential home valuation and start with someone who knows the town's calendar as well as its streets.