Family festivals in Las Vegas, season by season

Fall: the season everyone waits for

October is when family festivals in Las Vegas come back. Every parks department — City of Las Vegas, Clark County, Henderson, North Las Vegas — runs at least one fall festival with hay bales, a costume parade and a craft tent, usually at a regional park like Craig Ranch, Sunset Park or a Henderson plaza. Churches, schools, libraries and fire stations layer trunk-or-treat events on top through the last two weeks of the month.

Nevada Day falls in late October and brings its own run of civic celebrations, with the state museums and some libraries hosting history-themed family days around it. If you only pick one festival weekend, pick the one closest to Halloween; the calendar is densest then and the weather is finally reliable.

Our listing pulls these from dozens of organizer pages. Trunk-or-treats in particular are easy to miss because they are posted by individual churches and schools rather than a central calendar; we include them when the organizer states the event is open to the public.

Winter and spring: lights, then flowers

Holiday tree lightings start right after Thanksgiving and continue into early December. Henderson, downtown Las Vegas, Summerlin and several master-planned communities each hold their own, typically with a short performance, a visit from a man in red and free hot chocolate while it lasts. Library branches — Centennial Hills, Windmill and Henderson’s Paseo Verde are typical — add gingerbread, ornament and cookie-decorating events through the month, and a few host a holiday concert or two.

Spring picks up in late February and runs through April: spring festivals and egg hunts at the regional parks, Earth Day events at Springs Preserve and Clark County Wetlands Park, and the valley’s cultural festivals — Lunar New Year, Dia de los Niños and others — that are among the best free family days of the year. Most are one-day events that are over by early afternoon, so morning is the window.

• October: fall festivals, trunk-or-treats, Nevada Day — the busiest festival month.
• Late November–December: tree lightings, library holiday crafts, a few free concerts.
• February–April: spring festivals, egg hunts, Earth Day, cultural festivals.
• June–August: outdoor movie nights and pool events, mostly after sunset.

Summer: movie nights and what to expect

Summer festivals are rare for an obvious reason, but the parks departments keep one tradition alive: outdoor movie nights. From roughly June through August, Henderson, the City of Las Vegas and some HOAs screen family films in a park after dark. Bring chairs, a blanket and your own snacks; the ones with food trucks say so in the listing.

A few things are true of nearly every festival here. Parking fills before the event starts, so arrive early or expect a walk. Free admission does not mean free everything — face painting, bounce houses and food are usually paid vendors, and we say so when the organizer does. And wind cancellations happen in spring; every listing links to the organizer so you can check before you drive.

If you are looking at a specific weekend, the weekend page is the fastest way to see the festivals on. For planning further out, Little Funday Plus members can scan the calendar for the whole season; everyone gets the two soonest festivals on this page for free.