Wokingham Halloween 2026: Dinton After Dark 31 Oct, £9

October half term in Wokingham borough runs from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026, and the borough’s own Halloween night is Dinton After Dark on Saturday 31 October, 4.30pm to 6.30pm, at £9 an adult and £4 a child. The holiday dates are the council’s published calendar for community and voluntary controlled schools, which has term 1 ending on Friday 23 October and term 2 starting on Monday 2 November (Wokingham Borough Council term dates 2026 to 2027, PDF). Academies and voluntary aided schools set their own dates, so check yours.

Updated 16 October: Wellington has added a burger BBQ near the Lakeside Cafe for 24, 25 and 31 October only; Dinton’s dates, times and prices are unchanged.

Updated 13 October: the Guided Evening Paddle on 31 October has gone from Dinton’s events calendar and its page no longer loads, so we have taken it off (the next listed paddle is Saturday 21 November); Dinton After Dark is now described as a 1km family trail with activities by Reading Rep Theatre; Hollywood under the Stars has a new line-up and no longer prints a laser show start time.

Updated 3 October: the JL Events fun day is now the Pumpkin Fair, £2 entry with under-12s free; a new Pumpkins and Phantoms trail runs 24 October to 1 November; Paulo’s Circus is listed for 8 to 11 October; Wellington has published its farm talk times.

Almost everything worth booking is already listed, with prices, on the borough’s own countryside site. Here is the week as it stands.

The dates, in order

Except Wellington’s week and Twyford’s bonfire, which come from their organisers’ own pages (the bonfire is on our fireworks page), those dates and prices come from the borough’s countryside events calendar and the individual event pages behind it (Wokingham Countryside, events).

Dinton After Dark, Saturday 31 October

This is the one to book. It runs 4.30pm to 6.30pm on Halloween night itself and it is built as a walk, not a scare maze. The countryside service now describes a 1km family trail with activities run by Reading Rep Theatre: making a potion with the witches to light the trail, helping friendly ghosts find their treasure, bringing Frankenstein to life in the scientists’ laboratory and joining a skeleton band. Marshmallow roasting round the fire, a BBQ by JL Catering and drinks and sweets are on sale through the evening, and fancy dress is encouraged (Dinton After Dark).

The prices are set out per person, not per family:

• £9 per adult, 18 and over
• £4 per child, ages 3 to 12
• Under 3s free
• Parking is included in the ticket

A booking fee is added, marshmallows and food cost extra, and no under-18s are let in without an adult. Pre-booking is essential, so this is not a turn-up event. The organisers now say torches are required, and they advise warm clothing and sturdy footwear, which is fair for a park path at dusk in late October.

Barnes Fitness runs a separate fun run on the same site at 7.15pm, at £22 an adult and £17 for ages 11 to 17, and head or chest torches are compulsory: “NO TORCH = NO RUN”.

A Halloween-night Guided Evening Paddle on Black Swan Lake was listed earlier in October, but it has since been removed from the countryside calendar. The next evening paddle listed is on Saturday 21 November, 5pm to 7pm, at £30 an adult and £20 a child aged 8 or over (Guided Evening Paddle).

Daytime: the trail and the Pumpkin Fair

The Pumpkins and Phantoms Halloween Trail runs every day from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November, 9am to 4pm, from the Dinton Activity Centre. You pick up a map at Reception, hunt for hidden pumpkins and ghosts on a loop of just under 2km, about 45 minutes, and hand the finished map back for a small prize. The paths are wheelchair and buggy accessible, adults do not need to book, and normal parking charges apply. The listing does not print the price per map, which shows in the booking system (Pumpkins and Phantoms).

The Pumpkin Fair is on Sunday 25 October, 11am to 3.30pm, at Dinton Pastures: donkey rides, farm animals, craft stalls, children’s rides and food. Entry is £2 and under-12s go free, there is no need to pre-book, dogs on leads are welcome and usual parking charges apply. JL Events, the organiser, is blunt on one point: “this is not a pumpkin patch” (Pumpkin Fair).

Childcare that week: Wild Days

If you need the daytime covered rather than the evening, the Wild Days holiday sessions run Monday to Friday through the half term week, 9.30am to 4.30pm, for ages 8 to 14, at the Dinton Activity Centre by Black Swan Lake. They cost £27 a half day or £54 a full day, and the activities are land and water sports on the lake (Autumn and Winter Wild Days).

Hallo’Welly’Ween at Wellington Country Park

Wellington Country Park at Riseley runs its Halloween week from Friday 23 to Saturday 31 October 2026, 9.30am to 4.30pm daily, in what it calls its 13th year. The park has published a full daily timetable rather than a vague listing (Hallo’Welly’Ween):

• Family circus shows in the Big Top on the Main Green at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, about 45 minutes each
• White Marquee shows and discos at 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm, about 30 minutes each
• Recycled crafts with Junk Jodie, 10am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm
• Exotic animal encounters in the Adventure Room, 10am to 4pm, last entry 3.40pm
• Silent disco near soft play, 10.30am to 4pm
• Halloween train rides, 10.30am to 4pm, charged separately at £1 a person
• Pumpkin carving or decorating in a tent on the Main Green, 9.45am to 4pm, with pumpkins bought outside Main Reception and charged by size
• Sensory play and games in the Discovery Barn at the animal farm, 11am to 3pm
• A burger BBQ near the Lakeside Cafe, 11.30am to 2.30pm, on 24, 25 and 31 October only

The animal farm sessions are now published: ferret racing at 11am, a chicken talk at noon, goat meet and greet at 1pm, pig talk at 1.30pm, enrichment making at 2pm and tortoise meet and greet at 3pm. The park still does not publish the day ticket price on the event page, so the cost only appears once you start a booking. The park also warns that sound, lighting and special effects run through the site, and asks anyone sensitive to those to call ahead on 0118 932 6444.

The alternative to fireworks, Sunday 1 November

Hollywood under the Stars is the borough’s answer to a bang-free display, and it lands the day after Halloween. It runs 5pm to 8pm with live music from Saxcellerate and a local brass band, a BBQ and bar, rides, children’s activities and stalls, and a laser light show of 25 to 30 minutes set to film music. The event page no longer gives the show’s start time, so check your booking confirmation. Numbers are capped at 2,000 and there are no tickets on the gate. Tickets are £9.95 an adult, £5.95 a child and £7.95 for carers, who must show ID on arrival (Hollywood under the Stars).

The organisers are explicit about two things. Parking is a separate £5 per car, pre-booked only, valid from 4pm to 9pm, and dogs are not allowed, because of capacity limits and low lighting. Use the Davis Street entrance, RG10 0TH, with your confirmation email ready.

It is worth reading that alongside our fireworks page: the town’s own display at Cantley Park is a week later, on Saturday 7 November, and it is a very different evening.

Parking and getting there

Dinton Pastures charges for parking as normal, and only the Dinton After Dark ticket includes it; the trail and the Pumpkin Fair both say normal charges apply. The two entrances are Davis Street, Hurst, RG10 0TH for the country park and Sandford Lane, Hurst, RG10 0SU for the Activity Centre, which is where the Wild Days and the workshops run. Our parking page covers the town centre tariffs if you are combining a trip with the shops, and the roadworks and travel page has anything closing that week.

Still to be published

• Hallo’Welly’Ween day entry, which Wellington shows only inside its booking system.
• Wokingham Libraries’ half term programme, which in past years has included Halloween story sessions run with the Dinton rangers.

We will update this page as each is published.