At 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, one South Pasadena event ends and the next one begins. The city's first Emergency Preparedness and Community Fair closes at the South Pasadena Fire Department, 817 Mound Avenue, and at the same hour the Fall Arts Crawl opens across Mission Street and the blocks around it. The city announced both on October 7, and the crawl release says the crawl "kicks off after" the fair. In practice, the city has set its new preparedness program up as the opening act for the busiest night in the business district. The booths at that fair also lay out the city's fall calendar from Halloween through mid-December.
Eleven to three on Mound Avenue
The city's announcement reads more like a city open house than a safety lecture. Almost every department has a table, and two of them are on fixed times:
- 11:00 a.m. Special Storytime from the Library, along with a prize wheel and giveaways.
- 12:00 p.m. First-responder demonstrations from the Fire Department. Sidewalk CPR runs alongside.
- No listed time. Police vehicle tours and a photo booth. Public Works has construction truck tours, a water leak detection tutorial and water resiliency information. Community Services has games, giveaways and information on the Boo Bash and other fall events.
Two tables are new this year. City Hall is introducing its new Customer Success Center along with election information and job listings. Community Development is offering a first look at the city's Accessory Dwelling Unit Prototype Plans next to an interactive Code Enforcement display. For homeowners who have thought about a backyard unit, this is the first public preview of those plans.
The fair is also where the city introduces "Ready South Pas," its new emergency preparedness project. Staff will help people sign up for the new alerting system, and the city says more details will come out this fall. You don't have to wait for the fair to sign up. The release says the system is already running, and texting READYSP to 77295 enrolls you. Safety vendors, a food truck and family activities round out the four hours.
Three to nine on Mission Street
The crawl's own schedule is what makes the handoff possible. In 2024, the Chamber ran the fall crawl from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. That year's hours would have overlapped a fair that runs until 3:00. The 2025 crawl moved to 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., and 2026 keeps those hours.
The theme changed this year. Recent crawls were built around an Oktoberfest beer garden. This year the event is called "Oktober-Fiesta," and the city's release lists the family partners:
Family friendly programs will be provided by local merchants as well as the South Pas Chamber, Dads Uniting Dads in Education and Services (D.U.D.E.S.) and Vecinos de South Pasadena.
The 2026 release also lists programming at local businesses, live music, art exhibits and workshops, artisan pop-ups, a beverage garden and retailer specials. Neither the release nor the Chamber's 2026 event page names the participating businesses, gives a performer schedule or lists street closures yet. If the map follows last year's pattern, it should appear on the Chamber's site. The Chamber takes questions at (626) 441-2339.
What last year's map says about where the crawl concentrates
The 2025 crawl map can't predict who will set up this year. It does show how the event spread past Mission Street itself. These were last year's stops, from the October 2025 map:
- D.U.D.E.S. Oktoberfest at 915 Meridian Avenue, 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., with beer, wine, music and activities.
- Rialto 100 at 913 Meridian Avenue, and "Music by Felix" in the 901 Fair Oaks parking lot.
- A SPARC Gallery exhibit at the Chamber, 1121 Mission Street, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., and a 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. taiko performance in Library Park.
- Artisans' Alley vendors, including Artesania's, Bellagazoo, Bohemian Kitten Vintage, Breath of Light Crystals, and Hodis Learning & Music.
The Chamber counted more than 25 businesses on Mission and nearby blocks offering exhibitions, music, crafts, sidewalk sales and food and drink specials in 2025. Meridian Avenue was the second main street of that crawl. The address the map gave for Rialto 100, 913 Meridian at El Centro, is also the address the state lists for the Thursday farmers' market.
The date has history of its own. According to Friends of the Rialto, the Rialto Theatre opened on October 17, 1925. That puts this year's crawl on the theatre's 101st anniversary. The theatre closed in 2006 and has been leased to Mosaic Church since 2017. Its exterior was restored in 2020, and Mosaic renovated the interior in 2021. Coverage of the centennial in Pasadena Weekly described the building as still leased to Mosaic and did not report it reopening as a cinema. No anniversary programming has been announced for this year.
The calendar the fair hands you
The Community Services table at the fair is set up to promote the Boo Bash and other fall events. The next three months of city and community dates look like this:
| Date | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursdays, year-round | South Pasadena Certified Farmers' Market | 913 Meridian Ave. at El Centro | 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., per the state's October 1, 2026 market list |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Emergency Preparedness and Community Fair | South Pasadena Fire Department, 817 Mound Ave. | 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Fall Arts Crawl: Oktober-Fiesta | Mission Street and surrounding blocks | 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 23 | Boo Bash | Orange Grove Park, 815 Mission St. | 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.; food trucks, carnival games, inflatables, DJ, costume contests |
| Sun., Nov. 1 | Breakfast with Santa tickets go on sale | City of South Pasadena | $24 per person; children two and under free |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | SPARC "Italian Wannabe" opening reception and student exhibition | SPARC Centre Gallery, 1000 Fremont Ave. | 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., free |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | "Italian Wannabe" premiere | Visionarium | 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., ticketed |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holiday Lighting Event | Library Park | Further details pending |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Breakfast with Santa | War Memorial Building | 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. |
The farmers' market detail corrects a common assumption. This summer, Pasadena Now called the Thursday 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. schedule summer hours. The California Department of Food and Agriculture's certified market list, dated October 1, 2026, gives the same hours year-round. If the state listing holds, Thursday evenings on Meridian don't end with the summer. The Santa date is the one to plan ahead for. Tickets go on sale November 1, nearly six weeks before the December 12 breakfast, according to the city's special events page.
The west end of Mission Street, on the drawing board
The crawl covers the business district. At the west end of Mission Street, a separate city project has hit its own fall milestone. The Mission Street, Pasadena Avenue and Arroyo Drive Intersection Improvement Project received $900,000 in construction funding in 2026. Toole Design Group was selected in July to develop conceptual alternatives. The city's schedule has outreach and the choice of a design alternative in fall 2026, with construction starting in summer 2027. The city notes that the schedule may change. Public Works will be at the fair on October 17 with construction trucks and water information. The design for that intersection is being chosen this season, and construction is scheduled to start in summer 2027.
If the ADU prototype plans at the Mound Avenue fair have you thinking about your own lot, or about how a South Pasadena home might use its space differently, we're happy to talk it through. At Sabatella Delair Group, we look at architecture, design and value together, and we enjoy working out how a well-designed addition fits a character home. Work With Us.
