What's on around Charleston in November 2026

Every date below was confirmed for 2026 with the organizer, the city, the county or the state park that runs it, and anything I could only find on a previous year's listing was left out of this post. Two festivals that still show up on November lists around here are not happening in 2026, and I have said which ones further down.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, in Beaufort County. What follows is public information, cited beside the date it came from, and it was checked on September 27, 2026. If you're looking at homes around Charleston this fall, the Charleston area buyer's guide covers the three counties, the tax rules and the flood questions that go with them.

The fair finishes, and so does the pumpkin patch

The Coastal Carolina Fair opened on Thursday, October 29 and runs for eleven days, which means most of it lands in November. It closes on Sunday the 8th at the Exchange Park Fairgrounds in Ladson, and the fair keeps different hours on different days of the week, with Mondays closed (Explore Charleston; Coastal Carolina Fair).

The Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch in Mount Pleasant finishes its run on Sunday, November 1. It has been open on select Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays since September 25, and it uses its own entrance off North Highway 17 rather than the Long Point Road gate (Boone Hall Plantation).

Tuesday the 3rd is the general election

Election day is Tuesday, November 3. Polls in South Carolina are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., you vote at the precinct you are assigned to, and you need an accepted photo ID (South Carolina Election Commission). Early voting ran October 19 through October 31, so the 3rd is the last chance to vote in person.

Two county questions on that ballot are worth reading before you get there, because both would change a sales tax rather than a property tax. Charleston County is asking voters to extend its transportation sales tax program (Charleston County). Dorchester County is asking about an education capital improvements sales tax, with groceries exempt (Dorchester County).

I am not taking a position on either question. If you're trying to work out how a county tax question could reach your monthly payment, the mechanics are in how escrow accounts work and in what happens to property taxes after you buy.

Books, art, and a football Saturday

The Charleston Literary Festival runs November 6 through 15 at the Dock Street Theatre on Church Street. The festival says it has more than 45 sessions and more than 60 authors across the ten days, and each session is followed by a book signing. Barbara Kingsolver, Tayari Jones, Steven Pinker, Lily King, Curtis Sittenfeld and Virginia Evans are among the confirmed speakers (Charleston Literary Festival; Post and Courier).

The festival opens on the same evening as the First Friday ArtWalk. The ArtWalk runs from 5 to 8 p.m. through the French Quarter galleries, and it happens on the first Friday of every month apart from January and July (Charleston Gallery Association). Both are walkable from Marion Square, so you can do one and then the other.

Saturday the 7th has two things going at once. Charleston County Parks holds its Harvest Festival at Johns Island County Park, with gates opening at 11 a.m. and live bluegrass starting at noon, plus hayrides, pumpkin decorating, a craft market and barbecue (Charleston County Parks). Across town, The Citadel plays Furman at Johnson Hagood Stadium at 2 p.m. for homecoming, and it is the last home game of the season (The Citadel Athletics).

Sunday the 8th is Second Sunday on King. The city closes King Street from Queen to Calhoun to through traffic at noon and reopens it at 5 p.m. Shops move displays onto the sidewalk, and artists and food vendors set up in the street (Explore Charleston; City of Charleston).

Veterans Day is on a Wednesday this year

Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, November 11. The area's usual observances include the City of North Charleston's tribute at the Performing Arts Center and free admission for veterans at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. Neither had posted its 2026 details when I checked on September 27, and the dates circulating online are last year's. So I have left both out rather than print a date I could not confirm (City of North Charleston; Patriots Point).

If you are shopping for a home here with a VA loan, VA loans in South Carolina covers how the program works across the state and what it looks like around the Beaufort installations.

Music

The Charleston Symphony plays a Bartók and Brahms program called Concerto for Orchestra at the Gaillard Center on Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21, both at 7:30 p.m. It is part of the orchestra's 2026-2027 season at that hall (Charleston Gaillard Center).

The lights come on at James Island

The Holiday Festival of Lights opens at James Island County Park on Friday, November 13 and runs nightly from 5:30 to 10 p.m. through December 31. This is its thirty-seventh year. Charleston County Parks describes a three-mile driving route with more than 750 lighted displays, and a place to park and walk to the gift shops, the train ride and the sand sculpture. Santa is there from November 13 through December 23, and admission varies by vehicle and by day of the week (Charleston County Parks).

If you live nearby, Riverland Drive carries festival traffic every evening for seven weeks, and the park publishes its own directions page for getting in and out (Charleston County Parks).

Barbecue and colonial trades, both on the 14th

Holy Smokes is at Riverfront Park in North Charleston on Saturday, November 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in its sixth year. The organizers say more than 50 pitmasters and chefs cook across four barbecue areas, with Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country and Lilly Hiatt playing. Proceeds go to Hogs for the Cause and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Charleston (Holy Smokes BBQ Fest; Holy City Sinner).

The same day, Charles Towne Landing on Old Towne Road holds Colonial Trades and Harvest Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Costumed interpreters work the trades and daily chores that kept the early settlement going, at stations inside the fortified area, and the day includes colonial games, cooking and black powder demonstrations (South Carolina State Parks).

Farmers markets, and when each one closes

November is when the last of the area's markets finish for the year.

The Charleston Farmers Market at Marion Square is on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the city's season runs through November 21 (City of Charleston). That gives you the 7th, the 14th and the 21st.

The West Ashley Farmers Market finished its regular Wednesday season in October, and the city then holds a separate Thanksgiving Market at Ackerman Park on Sunday, November 22 (City of Charleston). The North Charleston Farmers Market at the Park Circle Pavilion closed for the year on October 29 (City of North Charleston).

The Summerville Farmers Market is on Saturdays behind Town Hall on South Main Street, and it runs into mid-November. The town has still not published an exact closing date for 2026, so I have left it out of the dated list above (Town of Summerville).

Thanksgiving week

Before the holiday itself, the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic brings six teams to TD Arena on Friday, November 20 and Sunday, November 22, in its eighteenth year. Dayton, Minnesota, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Utah and Virginia Tech each play one game on each day, with three games a day (ESPN Events; Oklahoma State Athletics).

Middleton Place holds Fall Family Day on Saturday, November 21. It is built around the harvest, with live demonstrations of historic cooking and tastings, artisan crafts showing how natural materials were turned into tools and everyday objects, and hands-on activities. Middleton Place says it is included with general admission and that children 14 and under come in free (Middleton Place).

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and the Turkey Day Run & Gobble Wobble 5K goes off that morning from Marion Square. It is the forty-ninth year, and the organizers put 2025 at more than 9,500 registered runners, which they say makes it the largest 5K in South Carolina (Turkey Day Run). Packet pickup and the race expo are the day before, Wednesday the 25th, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 176 Patriots Point Road in Mount Pleasant, where parking is free (Turkey Day Run).

Two festivals that are not happening this year

The Charleston Scottish Games and Highland Gathering is canceled for 2026. The Scottish Society of Charleston announced it in January, said the reasons were outside the board's control, and is raising money and looking at venues with an eye on 2027. The Games moved from Boone Hall Plantation to Riverfront Park in 2021 and will not be returning to Riverfront Park (Post and Courier; Holy City Sinner).

Rockabillaque in Park Circle is also off after twelve years. The organizers pointed to production costs rising, sponsorship falling, and a free street festival barely breaking even (Post and Courier; Holy City Sinner).

One more thing I could not confirm: the Holiday Festival of Lights Fun Run and Walk, which normally runs on the nights before the festival opens. Every date I could find for it belongs to last year's schedule, so it is not in the list above.

What changed around the area

Old Towne Creek County Park opened in West Ashley. Charleston County Parks opened the 67-acre park on Old Towne Road on June 30, 2026, with accessible trails and boardwalks, marsh overlooks, a nature playground, an arboretum and a learning center with an outdoor classroom. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places this year (Charleston County Parks).

Two pieces of the Johns Island road work open by the end of the year. Charleston County says the first is the new roundabout where Main Road, River Road and Chisolm Road meet. The second is one of the ramps at the new Main Road interchange with US 17. Both are on track to open before 2027, and the full Main Road Corridor Segment A project finishes in September 2028. A separate widening of Maybank Highway moved forward in September (Main Road Corridor; Tidelines; Live 5 News).

A solar panel plant is starting up in Summerville. Translucent Solar is fitting out a vacant building of about 281,000 square feet in McQueen Industrial Park, near Highway 78 and Jedburg Road, to assemble solar panels. The company puts the plant's capacity at 1.2 gigawatts a year, and the announced job count is 167. Production is due to start by the end of 2026, and the company says it is recruiting now (Area Development; Live 5 News; Post and Courier).

Two new Berkeley County school buildings opened in August. Bee Tree Elementary is in the Jedburg area near Cane Bay Boulevard and Black Tom Road, built for about 1,300 students at a construction cost of $88.8 million. Midtown Middle is on Blueway Avenue in Nexton off US-17A, built for about 1,100 students at $87.4 million. The district says both were built to relieve crowding in the Cane Bay, Nexton, Jedburg and Summerville corridor (Berkeley County School District; Live 5 News).

Two of those touch a loan file directly. A job that starts here changes which documents a lender reads, and it matters early whether you are taking a salaried position or working for yourself once you arrive. Getting pre-approved in South Carolina covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in South Carolina covers the returns side of it.

Common questions

What is happening around Charleston at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Turkey Day Run & Gobble Wobble 5K starts that morning at Marion Square, with packet pickup the day before in Mount Pleasant. The Holiday Festival of Lights is already running nightly at James Island County Park (Turkey Day Run; Charleston County Parks).

When does the Holiday Festival of Lights open in 2026?

Friday, November 13, and it runs nightly from 5:30 to 10 p.m. through December 31 at James Island County Park. Santa is there from November 13 through December 23 (Charleston County Parks). Some listings still carry a November 14 opening, which was last year's date.

When is the last farmers market of the season around Charleston?

The Marion Square market's last Saturday is November 21. North Charleston's closed on October 29, West Ashley's regular Wednesday season ended in October, and the city holds a one-off Thanksgiving Market at Ackerman Park on Sunday, November 22 (City of Charleston; City of North Charleston).

Are the Charleston Scottish Games and Rockabillaque happening in 2026?

No. Both were canceled for 2026, the Scottish Games in January and Rockabillaque after twelve years in Park Circle, and both still appear on November event lists (Post and Courier; Post and Courier).

Are any of these events outside the City of Charleston?

Several are. Holy Smokes is in North Charleston, the Coastal Carolina Fair is in Ladson, the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch and the Turkey Day Run expo are in Mount Pleasant, and the Harvest Festival is on Johns Island. Which county a home is in changes its tax bill and its school district, and several towns here cross county lines, so a mailing address will not settle it. The Charleston area buyer's guide walks through that.

I am moving to the Charleston area this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with which county the home is in, because Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties set different tax rates and different school districts. After that, the South Carolina page covers the statewide rules. I work out of Bluffton, and the Bluffton page explains the tax reset that catches people on the coast, which works the same way in Charleston County.