On Sept. 12, more than 50 volunteers spent the morning at Detective Luis G. Alvarez Memorial Park. They weeded flower beds, collected leaves and planted pansies and mums donated by Dee's Nursery. Those beds now get water from underground. Nassau County installed a new irrigation system there with funding from County Legislator Patrick Mullaney. It feeds the garden beds around the gazebo and the plantings beneath the Alvarez memorial sign. The cleanup came during the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and the timing gave it extra meaning, the Herald reported.
The Oceanside Community Warriors organized that morning. They are also behind the biggest Oceanside event on the October calendar. The rest of the month follows the same pattern. Oceanside's fall dates come from a volunteer group, the public library, a swim school, a birding society and a few local businesses. The Town of Hempstead's Halloween events this month are listed in Lido Beach. The schedule below is built around who is hosting what.
The Group That Planted the Mums Is Running the Fall Festival
The Warriors hold cleanups at Alvarez Memorial Park about four times a year. Their secretary told the Herald that the group has "taken it under our wings" to keep the park "a pleasant place that everybody can go and enjoy it however they want." The work isn't finished for the season. The Warriors plan to come back this month to plant bulbs and add mulch, so the new irrigation can do more of the watering. If you walk by in late October and see fresh mulch around the gazebo, that's their bulb planting.
The same group is hosting the Oceanside Community Warriors Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Parking Field 6 on Lawson Boulevard. The event listing gives the hours as noon to 7 p.m. and lists food trucks, live music, local vendors, children's activities, contests and raffles. Admission is free. Those hours come from a third-party calendar, not the organizers. Check them with the Warriors before you plan around the 7 p.m. end time.
The Oceanside Chamber of Commerce is a sponsor. The Chamber spent the summer bringing its members together, including an Aug. 26 Summer Send-Off with Baldwin businesses at Old Spirit Distillery and Quattro Amici Winery. The Herald reported that it planned to back the Oct. 17 festival. Local vendors have been booking up fast this fall. A first-time Small Business Showcase was held yesterday, Oct. 8, at the VFW Post on Lawson Boulevard. All 22 of its vendor spaces had sold out by mid-August.
Eight Days Later, the Library Turns Into a Convention
The Oceanside Library hosts its ninth annual OceanCon on Sunday, Oct. 25. The library calls it its yearly celebration of "Superheroes, Pop Culture, and Library fun." The 2026 program runs from noon to 4 p.m. Here are some of the highlights:
- In the staff parking lot, weather permitting: the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story, the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine and a life-size Lightning McQueen
- Special appearances: the 501st Legion of Star Wars costumers, Elsa from Frozen and Jessie from Toy Story
- Booker's Cafe: food from Jessy's Empanadas & Pastries, plus live video game and anime music from The Subspace Emissaries, who take requests
- Reading Area: NBA Jam and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 arcade cabinets, a Multicade with Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Centipede, retro Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64 games, and Pokémon battle stations, with no registration needed
- Giveaways: the first 100 guests of any age get a prize ticket at the door, and guests 13 and up can pick up a punch card for a pin giveaway while supplies last
The schedule also includes Pokémon trivia for ages 12 and up, a cosplay contest, an adults-only Mario Kart 64 tournament, a Pokémon drawing workshop for grades 2 through 6, a dance party for ages 4 to 8, and an adults-only Pikachu terrarium craft. Some activities are drop-in. The cosplay contest and several workshops require advance registration. The program doesn't say whether you need to register just to attend, so call the library if you're unsure.
The registration dates are what families need to plan around:
- Tuesday, Oct. 13: registration for OceanCon programs opens for Oceanside Library District residents at 7 p.m. for adult and teen programs and 8 p.m. for children's programs. You'll need your library card number and PIN. On the first day you can register online or in person, but not by phone.
- Friday, Oct. 16: nonresident registration opens.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20: resident registration opens for the library's November and December programs, at 7 p.m. for adult and teen programs and 8 p.m. for children's programs.
Sunday, Oct. 25 Has Three Halloween Options
OceanCon isn't the only event on Oct. 25. That Sunday has three family events with overlapping hours, two of them in Oceanside.
| Event | Host | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| OceanCon | Oceanside Library | Oceanside Library | Noon to 4 p.m. |
| Halloween Splash or Treat | Saf-T-Swim Oceanside | 3194 Lawson Boulevard | 3 to 5 p.m. |
| Fall Finale Halloween Car Show and Trunk-or-Treat | Town of Hempstead | Malibu Shore Club lot, 1500 Lido Boulevard, Lido Beach | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
The hours leave room for two of them. You could start in Lido Beach in the morning and reach the library by early afternoon. Or you could stay at OceanCon until the end and get to Lawson Boulevard after the 3 p.m. start. Saf-T-Swim's Splash or Treat includes a floating pumpkin patch, supervised open swim, Halloween crafts, treat stations and a photo spot.
The Town's car show is one of several Halloween events it has scheduled at its Lido Beach park this month. Its Fall Festival at the Malibu Shore Club runs today through Monday, Oct. 12. It has a haunted house, a haunted hayride, a hay maze, a pumpkin patch, an escape room, carnival rides and Oktoberfest activities, according to the Town calendar. Long Beach also has two events at Kennedy Plaza. Its Fall Festival is Oct. 10 and 11, with a costume parade for children in grade 5 and below leaving the Rec Center at noon on Oct. 10. Halloween in the Plaza is Saturday, Oct. 24, with trick-or-treating from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a costume parade and dance party at 11 a.m., the Long Beach Herald reported. With the Long Beach event on Saturday and Oceanside's three on Sunday, families can cover both without overlap.
Saturday Mornings at the Marsh
The Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area runs on a different schedule from the festivals. The South Shore Audubon Society leads free, public bird walks there on Saturday, Oct. 10 and Saturday, Nov. 14, both starting at 9 a.m. You register by text using the contact on the society's bird walks page. Walks are canceled for rain or snow or if the temperature is below 25 degrees. The page also gives directions in by way of Slice Drive. The October walk is tomorrow, the morning after the Town's Lido Beach festival opens. The November walk comes after all of this month's events are over.
Where the Local Businesses Fit
Oceanside businesses host their own events along with the community ones. Barrier Brewing's taproom at 3001 New Street, Unit A2, held its fifth annual Oktoberfest on Sept. 19. It had German-style food and drinks, live music, games and costume contests, the Herald reported. Barrier's own events page showed no upcoming dates when this was written, so check there before planning a Halloween week visit.
Dee's Nursery donated the flowers for Alvarez Memorial Park, and local businesses supported the September cleanup. The Chamber is sponsoring the Fall Festival. Jessy's Empanadas & Pastries is selling food at OceanCon. Saf-T-Swim is hosting its own Halloween event. On almost every Oceanside date this month, a local business is involved somewhere.
Here are the Oceanside dates in order: the bird walk Oct. 10, OceanCon registration Oct. 13, the Fall Festival Oct. 17, library program registration Oct. 20, and OceanCon and Splash or Treat on Oct. 25. The Warriors are also due back at Alvarez Memorial Park with bulbs and mulch sometime this month.
At Michael Karlen, we keep track of what's happening on Lawson Boulevard and at the library because South Shore families ask us about it. If you're new to Oceanside or have family coming to visit, contact us with questions about the town, and we'll help you plan.
