Steam gala prices are out: £12 adult, £38 family, 24-25 Oct. Pumpkin trail from £15, free shield-making at Segedunum, Phantom Flyer ghost train from £7.

North Tyneside schools break up on Friday 23 October 2026 and go back on Monday 2 November, which the council’s 2026 to 2027 term dates set out in those words. Its own calendar puts the holiday itself at Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November, nine days.

Updated 3 October: the Autumn Gala now has prices (£12 adult, £38 family), the half-term heritage train ride has moved from Sunday 25 to Thursday 29 October, and Segedunum, The Exchange 1856 and Whitley Bay Ice Rink have added half-term events.

Half term ends the day the borough’s fireworks are fired, which is the single most useful thing to know when planning it.

Eight family events across the area are now dated, and seven of them priced. The council’s own leisure and library programmes are still to come.

Tynemouth Park pumpkin trail, all nine days

The Halloween Maze Pumpkin Trail at Tynemouth Park, Grand Parade, NE30 4JL, runs Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, covering the whole holiday bar the Sunday it ends.

  • Times: 9.30am to 4.30pm, with entry slots every 30 minutes
  • Child: £17.50, or £15 early bird on 24 and 25 October only
  • Adult: £2.50, paid on the door
  • Under ones: free with a paying child
  • Booking: children’s tickets must be bought online in advance

The park’s own description of what the child ticket covers: a pumpkin trail through the maze, a meet and greet with “spooky special guests” and photographs, pick your own pumpkin from the patch, a trick or treat goodie bag, and an ice cream with optional “vampire blood”.

Note the pricing shape. Adults pay almost nothing, children pay everything, so a parent with two children is £35 before the door charge. The early bird only exists on the opening weekend.

The Phantom Flyer, Saturday 31 October, from £7

The Stephenson Steam Railway on Middle Engine Lane, North Shields, NE29 8DX, runs the Phantom Flyer on Halloween itself.

  • Trains: 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm
  • Price: from £7
  • Included: ghost train rides plus entertainment from the theatre group The Moss Troopers
  • Costumes: the railway asks you to “don your best costume”
  • Booking: pre-booking recommended, through TicketSource

Four trains at £7 is the cheapest organised Halloween event in the borough by a wide margin, and it will go. The railway’s carriages cannot take wheelchairs, because the door openings are 55cm, and parking on site is free.

The rest of the railway’s half term

The same railway runs its Autumn Gala on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, the opening weekend of the holiday, with what it calls all available locomotives from the home fleet on a packed timetable of steam and diesel passenger and freight trains. It is organised by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association. Tickets are now on sale:

  • Times: 11am to 4pm on both days
  • Adult: £12
  • Child (under 16): £9
  • Under fours: free
  • Family: £38
  • Included: site entry and unlimited travel on the passenger trains, plus rides in the museum yard on a visiting Wickham trolley
  • Extra: a sausage supper on the 3pm train on Saturday 24 October, £8, booked in advance and only with an event ticket

Heritage train rides run on Thursday 29 October, a weekday in the middle of the holiday. The railway’s date list no longer includes Sunday 25 October, the gala weekend. Museum open 11am to 4pm, journey about 35 to 40 minutes on a four-mile return trip in 1950s carriages. Adult £11, or £9 without the optional donation. Concessions for over 60s and under 21s £9, or £7 without. Under fives free. Booking required.

Segedunum: a free shield-making day, Monday 26 October

Segedunum Roman Fort on Buddle Street, Wallsend, NE28 6HR, runs Make a mythical monster shield on Monday 26 October, 11am to 3pm: children decorate a spooky shield in the style of the Gorgons the Romans painted on theirs, and a Halloween pumpkin trail runs round the Roman Gallery, with pumpkins that spell out a word.

The museum lists it as a free event. Entry to the fort is free for anyone aged 21 and under and for NE28 residents; other adults pay the normal admission. Wallsend is the nearest Metro station.

The Exchange 1856: a half-term panto, Tuesday 27 October

Tommy and Tilly’s Magic Castle: A Spooktacular Pantomime plays The Exchange 1856, Howard Street, North Shields, NE30 1SE, on Tuesday 27 October, 2pm to 4pm. Songs, dance routines, illusions and audience participation, aimed at families. Tickets are listed from £12 to £15, with a booking fee added at checkout.

Whitley Bay Ice Rink: a Halloween skate morning, Friday 30 October

Whitley Bay Ice Rink, Hillheads Road, NE25 8HP, runs a one-day Polar Halloween Party for children aged six and over on Friday 30 October, 8am to 12pm: a two-hour lesson on the ice with Halloween games from 8am, breakfast at 10am, then off-ice games until noon. Costumes are encouraged. It costs £30, booked online and non-refundable, and children must arrive at 7.45am with skates on to register. Parking on site is free.

For adult figure skaters with some experience, the rink’s two-day Adult Spooky Skatecation on Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, 12pm to 4pm, costs £85 and ends in a Halloween performance on the Sunday.

Whitley Bay Playhouse: We Will Rock You, 28 to 31 October

The Playhouse has the Whitley Bay Musical Theatre Company’s amateur production of the Queen musical across the second half of the holiday: 7.15pm on Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October, then 2.15pm and 7.15pm on Saturday 31 October. The matinee is the only daytime performance of the run. Prices are not published on the listing; booking goes through AXS and a fee applies. Under 14s must be with an adult.

Two adult nights on Halloween itself: Tynemouth Park’s Los Capitanes Halloween party in The Greenhouse, 6pm to 11pm, £10, fancy dress encouraged; and The Exchange 1856’s Halloween Party from 7pm, over 18s only, costumes compulsory, £8 early bird or £10.

Then the fireworks, on the last day

The North Tyneside fireworks display is on The Links on Sunday 1 November, free, rides from 6pm and the display at 7pm. It is the final night of half term, four days before bonfire night itself. Anyone working back from 5 November will miss it.

What has not been announced

  • Half-term activity programmes from the council’s leisure centres and libraries, which usually appear about a fortnight out.

Seafront parking charges apply 9am to 6pm, so everything on this page except the fireworks and the evening performances falls inside them. Tariffs are on our parking page, and any closures will show on our roadworks and travel page.