Downtown Campbell October Events 2026: Festivals Meet New Dining

If you last walked East Campbell Avenue before this spring, a good part of the street has changed. The corner at Central Avenue has a new name on the door. The Greek restaurant at 276 is run by a different company. A quarter-century of Italian dinners at 33 South Central Avenue has ended, and an izakaya has moved into the space. Over the next three weekends, Oktoberfest, a zombie dance crawl, trick-or-treating and a Halloween wine party will send more people down this half-mile than at any other time this fall. Many of them will be walking past rooms they have never been inside.

Most of the departures this year were rooms built around a formal sit-down dinner, and their replacements lean toward shared plates, cocktails and late hours.

What Changed Hands on the Avenue

The San Jose Blog, summarizing Silicon Valley Business Journal reporting in late August, put it plainly: downtown Campbell "has spent the past year swapping nameplates faster than a Friday night reservation list." Here are the swaps, block by block:

Other new names have filled in around those four. The City of Campbell's June 2026 economic development newsletter listed recent food openings at Maruwu Seicha at 296 E. Campbell Ave., Nature's Organic Ice Cream at 191 E. Campbell Ave., and Sultan's Kebab at 278 E. Campbell Ave., right next door to Elia. Distrito Federal at 379 E. Campbell Ave. has been reported as temporarily closed since August.

Why the New Rooms Look Different

The best documented of these changes is the one at the Central Avenue corner. Lira opened at 368 E. Campbell Ave. on Jan. 31, 2025, and closed after New Year's Eve 2026, as the East Bay Times reported. Before Lira, the building housed Flights, a restaurant built around trios of drinks, appetizers and desserts, and before Flights it was Socialight. According to The San Jose Blog, Lira's owners said "the fine-dining math no longer worked" in the 110-seat room, patio included.

The new operator is Jason Seele, who owns Los Gatos Soda Works and previously ran the Jack Rose Libation House in Los Gatos. Speaking to the East Bay Times, he described Trial | Error as a "modern, technique-driven cocktail bar centered around experimentation, creativity and the process of developing something unexpected." He was just as direct about the food: "We made a deliberate decision to stay focused on what we know and do best: an ambitious cocktail program paired with creative, delicious food designed for sharing." Executive chef Manuel "Manny" Santillan runs the kitchen. The San Jose Blog reported planned evening hours of roughly 4 to 11 p.m.

Two doors down the format shift continues, at Elia, the Pleasanton-born Greek and Mediterranean group, which brought mezethes, weekend brunch and Friday and Saturday hours that run toward midnight. Honō arrived with a bar in the middle of the room. Dough Zone serves xiao long bao and dan dan noodles. The San Jose Blog wrote that city staff have described the turnover as "concept replacement rather than a hollowed-out district," and concluded that "operators with cocktails, sushi, dumplings, and mezze moved faster than the vacancies."

That lineup is built for groups who order several things and stay a while. A festival weekend brings exactly that kind of crowd.

Oct. 17 and 18: Oktoberfest Takes Over the Street

The 31st Campbell Oktoberfest, put on by the Campbell Chamber of Commerce, runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18. Admission is free. The festival fills East Campbell Avenue from Third Street to Harrison Avenue and spills a block onto side streets and into parking lots. Expect more than 100 arts and crafts booths, four stages and a Kids Zone. Only service animals are allowed.

Some details matter if you live within walking distance:

• Closures start Friday night. East Campbell Avenue and the downtown side streets close at 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, and improperly parked cars may be towed.
• There is no farmers' market on Oct. 18. The Chamber confirms the Sunday market skips festival weekend. The Downtown Campbell market listing shows it back on Oct. 25, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Parking and transit. The Chamber points visitors to the free downtown garages, including the one behind Aqui Cal Mex off Civic Center Drive and the one at First Street and Rincon by the Water Tower. The Downtown Campbell VTA light rail station is at East Campbell and Railroad avenues.
• The Pruneyard shuttle. Per the Chamber's parking page, a free shuttle from the Pruneyard garage starts at 9:30 a.m. both days, with 30-minute breaks at noon and 3:30 p.m. The last runs are at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Drink tickets. Pre-purchased tickets cost $14 each or $50 for four, before fees. They are good on both days, and unused tickets are nonrefundable. You pick them up at Will Call, which is at every ticket booth in the festival.
• Stein holding. The contest starts at 2 p.m. both days in the Biersch Garten. Entry is $30 before fees, check-in opens at 1:30 p.m. and closes at 1:45 p.m.

The Zicke Zacke Band opens the Biersch Garten at 10 a.m. both days. The Best-Dressed Contest also runs at 2 p.m. On Saturday the East Stage has Petrichor Avenue at 10 a.m., Out of Office from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Midnight Revival from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday's Community Stage starts with the California Repercussions Marching Band moving along East Campbell Avenue from 10 to 11:30 a.m. After that come the Dream Achievers Band, New Hope Band, the GEMZ Fitness Dance Crew and Greg Farbizio's Vocal School. The Kinderplatz is in the parking lot past Second Street, across from Manresa and Bishops, with a climbing wall, bumper cars and an enclosed playground. The official festival map was updated Oct. 8, so check it again before you go.

Oct. 24 and 25: A Zombie Route That Maps the New Row

The following weekend is smaller, and it passes many of the new doors. The free Thrill the World Zombie Crawl runs Saturday, Oct. 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. Organized by Adira Dance and Costume, the zombies circle downtown counterclockwise and dance "Thriller" at each stop, about 10 minutes apart. The expected order is:

1. Elia, Sultan's and Willard Hicks, at 7 p.m.
2. Tratoria 360
3. 7 Stars Bar & Grill
4. Blue Line Pizza
5. La Pizzeria and Katie Bloom's
6. Sushi Confidential
7. Aqui's
8. Wild Rose
9. Doppio Zero
10. Tessora's Wine Bar
11. El Guapo's, around 8:55 p.m.

The organizers say the schedule can shift with conditions and no stop is guaranteed. The first stop includes Elia and Sultan's Kebab, two of this year's newcomers, standing side by side at 276 and 278 E. Campbell Ave. The route then runs past longtime downtown names, so the evening crosses old and new storefronts in about two hours.

Sunday, Oct. 25, the farmers' market is back from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In the afternoon, the Creepy Crawly Halloween Trick-or-Treat runs from 4 to 6 p.m., starting at East Campbell Avenue and North First Street. A family could do the market, an early dinner and the trick-or-treat without moving the car.

Oct. 31 and the Corner Still Waiting to Open

Halloween night falls on a Saturday this year. Tessora's Wine Bar, at 234 E. Campbell Ave., is hosting a free party from 7 to 11 p.m. with music, wine and a costume contest.

That leaves the Central Avenue corner. Both Palo Alto Online in July and The San Jose Blog in late August reported that Trial | Error was aiming for October. As of Oct. 12 we could not find a confirmed opening date. If it opens before Oct. 31, it will be the newest addition to a street that already turns over fast.

Another project is still in progress. According to The San Jose Blog, Alan Hicks has been building Ainsley's Spout House, a Scottish-Californian beer garden, in the old Ainsley Corporation offices on Harrison Avenue. That is the same street that marks one end of the Oktoberfest footprint. If you drive to any of these weekends from the north side of town, the city's Hamilton Avenue rehabilitation project is scheduled to run through December 2026. The city's notice warns of lane closures and parking restrictions, plus night work between Winchester Boulevard and Bascom Avenue. After Halloween, the downtown holiday calendar picks up with Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28, followed by Carol of Lights on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 7 p.m.

At Milestone Realty, we keep a close eye on downtown Campbell's storefronts because they shape what living near the avenue is like. If you're a Campbell homeowner wondering how the changes on East Campbell Avenue affect your home's value, reach out for a free home valuation or schedule a consultation with our team.