Mark White has run Noble's on Gallatin Pike for nine years. In mid-October he told WKRN that the road outside his door has "a lot of big divots" right now. He also said that when crews hold traffic in one spot for hours, "nobody knows to come in the back side."
That detail about the back entrance explains this Halloween weekend. Gallatin Pike is halfway through a rebuild. The road has been milled and NDOT scheduled paving to begin the week before Halloween, but the new pedestrian crossings are still months away. Meanwhile almost everything happening Friday through Sunday sits in Five Points, along Woodland Street, or on a side street just off the corridor. This year the Pike is the road you cross to get to Halloween.
The Pike is between versions
Metro's Department of Transportation began the first phase of the Gallatin Pike and Main Street Safety Project on Sunday, Sept. 27. Phase one covers the whole corridor from South 5th Street up to Briley Parkway. In its September announcement, NDOT said lanes would close for paving, striping and repairs "over the next two months," depending on weather, with phase one finished by the end of the year.
Count two months from Sept. 27 and Halloween lands near the middle of that window. The October 19 WKRN report described the stretch from Kroger to South 5th Street, about two miles, as milled and uneven, with some lanes closed. NDOT's statement to the station said crews were repairing base failures, which means problems in the pavement structure. It also said paving would start as early as Wednesday, Oct. 21, and "certainly" by Sunday, Oct. 25. NDOT hasn't published day-by-day work zones, so any given evening could look different. Residents can report non-emergency road problems to hubNashville by calling 311 or at hub.nashville.gov.
None of the improvements people will actually walk on are finished yet. NDOT's August update lists what the $7 million project adds.
- $3.1 million in State of Good Repair funds for maintenance and $3.9 million in Vision Zero funds for safety work
- Left-turn calming at 17 locations
- More visible crosswalks
- Three new crosswalks with pedestrian hybrid beacons
- Leading pedestrian intervals, which give people on foot a head start at the signal, at 14 locations
- Lighting improvements at 15 locations
The beacon crossings come in phase two, starting in early 2027, and the full project is scheduled to finish in May 2027. NDOT calls Gallatin Pike one of the city's most dangerous corridors, and it's on the High Injury Network in the city's Vision Zero Action Plan. On Halloween night, people crossing the Pike will be using the old crossings, now inside a work zone.
Where the weekend actually happens
Most of the weekend's events are a block or more off the Pike.
| What | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| All Hallows East | Sat., Oct. 31, 4 to 10 p.m. | 110 S. 11th St., Five Points |
| Nashville Pride Halloween Party | Sat., Oct. 31 | Girlcrush Social House, 1112 Woodland St. |
| Hulaween at Chopper | Running since Sept. 29 | 1100 B Stratton Ave. |
| Black Flame Beer Works | Final day Sun., Nov. 1 | East Nashville Beer Works, 320 E. Trinity Lane |
Five Points on Saturday
All Hallows East bills itself as Nashville's biggest Halloween block party. This year it runs Saturday, Oct. 31, from 4 to 10 p.m. in Five Points, and its FAQ lists 110 S. 11th St. as the address for GPS. Admission is free, but you have to register. Good Neighbor Festivals organizes it through its Eventbrite listing. The lineup includes costume contests, live music, food vendors, and trick-or-treating at participating businesses.
The festival doesn't have its own parking. The FAQ points people to the surrounding side streets and asks them to follow posted signs and be considerate of neighbors. So the people heading to Five Points this year will be looking for parking on the same blocks off the Pike that are already taking traffic away from the work zone. The six-hour window helps. A family with young kids can arrive at 4 p.m. in daylight, and a later crowd can show up after dark.
The seasonal pop-ups close out
Two of East Nashville's themed bars are in their last stretch. East Nashville Beer Works on East Trinity Lane turned into Black Flame Beer Works, a pop-up themed on Hocus Pocus, on Sept. 24, and Nashville Guru lists Sunday, Nov. 1 as the final day. Chopper's spooky tiki pop-up, Hulaween, opened Sept. 29 at 1100 B Stratton Ave. If you haven't been to either one yet, Halloween weekend is your last chance at Black Flame.
Why the side streets carry Halloween night
Gallatin Pike won't have its new crossings until next year. That leaves the residential grid behind it, and Metro has a program for exactly that.
On Oct. 14, NDOT and Walk Bike Nashville reminded residents that they can apply for a free block-party permit to run a Halloween Open Street, which closes a neighborhood street to cars for the evening. NDOT also lends out signs and cones at no charge. According to the NDOT notice, the city issued 41 neighborhood street closures last year.
The rules are in the Open Streets toolkit. You apply at least two weeks before the event, get signatures from at least two-thirds of the homes in the closure area, and submit a traffic-control plan showing where the signs and barricades go. A block-party permit covers a one-day closure on a neighborhood street, for fewer than 75 people and with no structures set up in the street. Events on collector or arterial roads, or bigger events, need a special-events permit, according to Metro's Open Streets page.
Under the two-week rule, an Oct. 31 closure would have been filed by about Oct. 17. Metro hasn't published a list of approved streets, so the closed blocks will show up as signs and cones on the night itself. This is general information, not legal advice, and Metro's own pages and NDOT are the authority on what any particular street or event requires.
Some names keep coming up whether or not a street is closed. Nashville Moms' Halloween roundup lists Fatherland Street, Stratton, Greenfield and Eastland Street among East Nashville's trick-or-treating neighborhoods. That's reputation, not a schedule, and none of those blocks is confirmed as an organized closure this year.
New places on the same walk
Several new spots opened this fall, all on streets that already sit on most people's walk to Five Points.
- Bar Cala Cala, 930 McFerrin Ave., opened Oct. 1. It's an Italian hi-fi bar from Ryan Costanza of Present Tense and Joshua Walker of Xiao Bao, per Nashville Guru.
- Veselka has been serving at Lakeside Lounge, 921 Woodland St., since Aug. 19. The Nashville Scene reported that the Ukrainian restaurant from New York serves pierogi here, and its COO, Justin Birchard, said this is the brand's first location outside New York.
- Girlcrush Social House, 1112 Woodland St., opened Aug. 21. The Nashville Scene reports that Emily Dryburgh and Sumedha Sagar own and run this queer-focused social space, and it's hosting the Nashville Pride Halloween Party on Oct. 31.
- Best Friends, a vintage shop at 3237 B Gallatin Pike, opened Oct. 2. It's the only new opening on this list that's actually on the corridor, according to Nashville Guru.
Woodland Street and McFerrin Avenue are both off the Pike, so those three stops plus the Five Points festival make an evening you can walk without driving on the work zone. Best Friends is the exception, and the shops along the corridor are the ones dealing with the problem Noble's described to WKRN, where customers don't know there's a back way in.
After the costumes come off
Phase one paving and striping are scheduled to finish by the end of the year. The three new beacon crossings are due in early 2027, and the whole project should be done by May 2027. Charlie Weingartner, chair of the Vision Zero advisory committee, told WKRN that this work prepares the way for the larger Choose How You Move project on Gallatin Pike, which he said will start in 2030. So next Halloween, the Pike should have its new beacons, crosswalks and lighting in place.
East Nashville's streets, permits and openings are part of what Sandra Hill follows to keep Middle Tennessee's neighborhoods current. If you have questions about how Gallatin Pike's changes affect your corner of the east side, let's connect.
