McKinney's October Has Left the Park and Moved Into Downtown
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
For five years, McKinney's Día de los Muertos Festival filled Dr. Glenn Mitchell Memorial Park. On Saturday, October 17, the ofrendas, marigolds and performances move to TUPPS Brewery at 402 E. Louisiana St. That's the same street as the boutiques on the square, a few hundred address numbers east.
That one move points the rest of the month toward downtown. The two ticketed downtown walks still on the October calendar work the same way. You check in near the square, pick up a map, and walk from one small business to the next. A park trail and a morning plant sale sit outside that loop, but each of the three Saturdays left this month brings you back downtown, and a fair few of the doors you'll walk through didn't exist in July.
The east end of the street is worth a quick look first, since that's where this October tips.
Grace+Emma opened its boutique at 101 E. Louisiana St. on Sept. 1, right on the square. Head east toward the old industrial buildings and you reach TUPPS at 402. Across the street, inside the McKinney Flour Mill at 407 E. Louisiana St., is Cafe LaFaye. Community Impact reported that it opened this summer, serving coffee, tea, muffins, banana bread and beignets.
So a new festival venue and a new café now face each other on the far end of a street that most people walk only as far as the square. Both show up again on the Saturdays below.
The 2026 McKinney Día de los Muertos Festival is free and open to all. Visit McKinney lists it from noon to 9 p.m. at TUPPS. The McKinney Chamber Foundation is hosting, and its event listing on Eventeny runs until 10 p.m. If you're planning a late arrival, it's worth checking which closing time holds on the day.
The organizers explain the move in their own words on the Visit McKinney listing:
"If you have spent any time in McKinney lately you already know that TUPPS has become one of the most beloved gathering places in our community. More space, more room for the moments you love, and a venue that has shown again and again that it knows how to bring McKinney together."
The best-loved part of the day comes along to the new venue. The festival's own site invites visitors to bring a photo of a loved one. The organizers supply a frame and place it on the community ofrendas, among the marigolds and candles. The site also promises all-day performances, music, and local craft and food vendors.
One bit of housekeeping. If you jotted the date down from a city update this summer, it may say Oct. 10. The City's Aug. 14 department update listed the festival on that date. The organizer's site, Visit McKinney and Eventeny all now say Oct. 17.
Families with younger trick-or-treaters have the month's one park event the same day. Downtown McKinney's calendar lists the Trick or Treat Trail at Bonnie Wenk Park on Oct. 17. That makes a tidy order for the day: costumes at the park while it's light, then the drive downtown for the ofrendas once the evening cools down. If you'd like a head start on the weekend, the Heard Natural Science Museum hosts Fright at the Museum on Friday, Oct. 16. It's an adults-only night with a mini trick-or-treat trail and an outdoor movie at 1 Nature Place.
The 24th rewards an early start, because the two best things on it overlap.
The Collin County Master Gardeners Fall Plant Sale runs from 9 a.m. to noon at the Show Barn at Myers Park & Event Center, 7117 County Road 166. The Master Gardeners' event page says the plants are locally grown, entry and parking are free, and the sale is cashless. They suggest arriving early with a cart or wagon. It's well away from the square, so it makes sense to do it first.
Then drive back to downtown for the Creepy Coffee Crawl, which runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to the Eventbrite listing, it works like this:
The listed shops are Habitat Plants + Coffee, Filtered, Bresnan Bread & Pastry, Collective Coffee, Lelo's and Cafe LaFaye. Cafe LaFaye is the one that changes the route. A summer opening inside the Flour Mill means the crawl now reaches East Louisiana Street, so your loop takes you past TUPPS a week after the festival. The ticket showed $42.42 on Eventbrite when this was written, and the listing warns that spots are limited.
You'll have caffeine and a free afternoon after 2 p.m., and several new downtown doors to fill it with. Community Impact's roundup of business news in central and East McKinney lists these August openings:
If you'd rather see some art, the MillHouse exhibition "Fragments of Form" is on through Dec. 30. It's at the McKinney Cotton Mill, 610 Elm St., which is a separate building from the Flour Mill on Louisiana, so check the address before you set off.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and SBG Hospitality's Spooktacular Brews & Boos Walk takes the daylight hours, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event's Eventbrite page describes a tasting cup and a map leading to 20 local shops pouring Texas craft beer or spirits. The ticket was listed at $42.34.
Line it up next to the coffee crawl and the shape of the month is obvious. Both events list 111 N. Tennessee St. as their location, both cost about the same, and both turn a ticket into a self-guided tour of downtown storefronts. The coffee crawl has six shops. Brews & Boos has twenty. Those twenty stops pass the shops above, along with whatever else has changed since you last walked the square.
One of those changes is still underway. Cadence Cyclery, the bike service, rental and custom-build shop, announced it would move this October from 119 S. Tennessee St. to 210 N. Tennessee St. The research for this post found nothing confirming the move is finished, so if you're dropping off a bike, check which address is open first.
Next month is already on the calendar. Home for the Holidays runs Nov. 27 to 29 in Historic Downtown McKinney, centered on 111 N. Tennessee St. Admission is free, and the tree lighting is Friday at 6:15 p.m., according to Downtown McKinney. It's the same check-in address as both October walks, and you'll know the shops around it rather better by then.
If all this walking around downtown has you wondering what your own McKinney home would fetch, Mike Farish is happy to give you a straight answer, ideally over a cup from one of those six coffee shops. Get your free home valuation whenever suits you.
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