Pink Witches Night Out is now tomorrow night, Friday, Oct. 23, on Broadway from 5:30 to 10 p.m. The breast cancer awareness fundraiser was set for Oct. 16, but weather moved it back a week. Denville Now reported the change, and the Kathy Olenowski Foundation's homepage now lists the new date.
This is the second Pink Witches event moved by weather this fall. A late-September nor'easter pushed the foundation's sold-out Pink Witches 5K to Sunday, Oct. 4. The night on Broadway has now moved too. It used to fall two weeks before Halloween. Now downtown Denville's biggest October night opens the final stretch before the holiday, eight days ahead of it.
Downtown's Halloween Belongs to One Fundraiser
No other group runs Halloween on Broadway. According to Denville Now's 2026 Halloween guide, the Downtown Denville business district has never held a formal downtown trick-or-treat. Whether a store takes part has always been up to the store. The same guide calls Pink Witches Night Out "the biggest Halloween-season night in town," with hundreds of people in pink and witch hats filling Broadway for vendors, music and drinks.
The event began small. The foundation says Pink Witches started in 2012 in a single store in Downtown Denville and grew from there:
"Now 13 years later the entire community comes out to support! It is truly the can't miss night of the year!"
The foundation says its Pink Witches committee has raised more than $200,000 for local women going through cancer treatment over those years. The Kathy Olenowski Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Organizers told Denville Now it has supported women and their families affected by cancer since 2012.
With the date moved, Broadway had no Halloween-season event on Oct. 16, and Oct. 23 now opens the busiest stretch of Denville's October.
How Friday Night Works on the New Date
Admission is free. The foundation raises money from donations, sponsorships and merchandise sales tied to the evening. Several paid add-ons sold out before the postponement was announced, so plan around that. Here's the evening in order:
- 5:30 p.m. The event opens along Broadway. Swag bag pickup starts at the same time.
- Swag bags. They cost $30 through the foundation's Give Lively swag bag page and are picked up at the event between 5:30 and 8 p.m.
- Drinks and VIP. As of Sept. 30, the foundation listed its $24 early-bird drink tickets as sold out. The $125 VIP lounge package, limited to guests 21 and over, was sold out too.
- 8 p.m. Swag bag pickup closes.
- 10 p.m. The night ends.
If you can't make it on the new date, you can still give through the foundation's donation page. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so Pink Witches lands inside the month it was built around even on the later date.
Which Storefronts Show Up on the Map
The vendor setup explains why downtown on this night looks different from an ordinary Friday. Downtown Denville businesses take part at no cost. Outside vendors pay for a 10-by-10-foot space in the vendor village, and nonprofits get discounted spots. When Denville Now checked on Sept. 30, every vendor tier was sold out.
One detail shapes how the night feels on the sidewalk. The 2026 vendor registration page says downtown businesses that didn't register won't appear on the event map. The free option for storefronts is a way onto the map. It is not automatic. So the map shows the shops that signed up, which may not be every door on Broadway.
Some guests come from outside town. Board & Brush Livingston says it will have a display table on Broadway on Oct. 23 from 5:30 to 10 p.m., with DIY kits and a raffle for one of its workshops.
Around the corner on East Main Street, Throttle Racing Club is in its first October. The motorsports-themed café at 27A East Main Street has coffee, pastries and racing simulators, and the Daily Record's coverage put its grand opening on June 13. The café promoted Pink Witches plans on its events page with free coffee samples, pink hoodies benefiting the foundation and a car display. That listing still showed the original Oct. 16 date, so check the page before heading over.
The Week the Postponement Built
Last weekend, the Witchery market at Ayres Knuth Farm ran Oct. 17, and the library's 7th annual Trunk or Treat ran Oct. 18 in the lot behind Hunan Taste. Here's what's still ahead, starting tomorrow night:
- Friday, Oct. 23. Pink Witches Night Out on Broadway, 5:30 to 10 p.m., free to attend.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 10:30 a.m. "A Morning with Edgar Allan Poe" at the Tabernacle in Trinity Park, Mount Tabor. It's free, it's suggested for ages 8 and up, and the Mount Tabor Historical Society and the Mount Tabor Branch of the Parsippany Library are hosting it. The phone number for questions is 973-975-0001. This one is just over the line in Mount Tabor, not in Denville itself, per Denville Now's listing.
- Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7 to 8 p.m. "The Haunted History of New Jersey," a free virtual talk by historian Greg Caggiano through the Denville Public Library. RSVP is required.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 1 to 3 p.m. Friday Films shows "The Addams Family" at the library, 121 Diamond Spring Road.
- Saturday, Oct. 31. Halloween.
For anything else on the library's schedule, see the Denville Public Library calendar or call 973-627-6555. Kids and teen programs register through Eventbrite, and registration usually opens on Fridays at noon.
After the busiest night downtown, the schedule moves indoors and online and ends with a Friday matinee the day before Halloween.
Saturday the 31st Still Has No Posted Hours
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. As of Oct. 10, Denville had not posted official trick-or-treat hours. Denville Now notes that most Morris County towns announce hours through their police departments in mid to late October. The township sends updates through Nixle, and you can sign up at denvillenj.gov. With no downtown trick-or-treat on Broadway, those hours are the closest thing Denville has to an official Halloween schedule.
If you'd like an organized event on or around the day, a few nearby towns have one. Denville Now's roundup lists these:
- Randolph Trunk or Treat, Saturday, Oct. 24, at Brundage Park. Trick-or-treating runs 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and the rain date is Sunday, Oct. 25. Details are on the Randolph special events page.
- Fall Farm Fun at Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, 73 Kahdena Road in Morristown. It runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 24, 25 and 31 and costs $15 per person, with cider pressing, wagon rides and pumpkin picking. A pumpkin is guaranteed only if you preregister through Morris County Parks.
- Downtown Morristown Trick-or-Treat, Friday, Oct. 30. Costumed kids collect candy from participating businesses around the Morristown Green.
- Parsippany Trunk or Treat, noon to 3 p.m., and the Morris Plains Halloween Parade, 4 p.m., both on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Watch Nixle for the township's hours. If your Halloween afternoon is free, the Parsippany and Morris Plains events on the 31st are the closest organized options.
If Friday nights on Broadway are a big part of why you like where you live, that kind of downtown is something buyers ask about. When you're curious what your Denville home is worth this fall, Anne Henderson is happy to put together a complimentary home valuation that reflects what makes your street and your part of town worth the price.
