On Saturday, October 10, the Downtown Novato Business Association puts on the 30th annual Nostalgia Days Car Show. In 2013 the association called that year's show the 17th, which puts the first one in 1997. The Novato Theater at 924 Grant Avenue closed in 1991. So every car show in the event's history has lined up along a stretch of Grant that includes a closed theater.
That may be about to change. On September 10, 2026, the city's Community Development Department conditionally approved a new three-story building on the theater site. The rest of downtown's October runs on a set schedule. Four Saturdays in a row carry an event, switching between Grant Avenue and the Civic Green on Sherman Avenue, and the Tuesday farmers' market runs underneath all of them until its last day of the season.
Four Saturdays and a Tuesday
Date | Event | Location | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
Fri., Oct. 9 | Nostalgia Days Hot Rod Cruise | Staging at Our Lady of Loretto, 1806 Novato Blvd. | Staging 4 p.m., cruise 5:15 p.m. |
Sat., Oct. 10 | 30th Nostalgia Days Car Show | Grant Ave., Redwood Blvd. to 7th St. | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
Sat., Oct. 17 | Not-So-Scary Halloween Magic Show | Novato City Hall | 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. |
Sat., Oct. 24 | Día de los Muertos | Novato Civic Green, 901 Sherman Ave. | 3 to 6 p.m. |
Tue., Oct. 27 | Last farmers' market of the season | Sherman Ave., Grant to De Long | 4 to 7 p.m. |
Sat., Oct. 31 | Safe Trick or Treat | Downtown businesses on Grant Ave. | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
The two Grant Avenue events come at either end of the month. The two city-run events in the middle take place at City Hall and on the Civic Green, which share the 901 Sherman Avenue address a block off Grant. October 3 is the only open Saturday on the downtown calendar.
The weekend the cars take Grant
Nostalgia Days is really two events. On Friday evening the Novato Police Department leads a Hot Rod Cruise through downtown. On Saturday the city closes seven blocks of Grant Avenue for the show itself. The organizer's own event site puts the show on Grant between Redwood Boulevard and 7th Street. The DNBA homepage describes it as 10 blocks, so the seven-block figure tied to those named cross streets is the more specific one.
Here's the schedule, taken from the event site:
- Friday, 4 p.m. Cruise cars line up at Our Lady of Loretto, 1806 Novato Blvd. Drivers enter the lot from the Grant Avenue side or from Virginia Avenue at the back. The organizers point out that there are no bathrooms at the staging area.
- Friday, 5:15 p.m. The cruise heads into downtown behind a police escort. It's free, and car-show registration is open that evening.
- Saturday, 6:30 a.m. Gates open for registered cars at 1st Street and Grant Avenue. Cars that aren't registered can still sign up on show day.
- Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show is open to the public with free admission. Mitch Polzak and The Royal Deuces play rockabilly from 1 to 3:30 p.m., and a DJ covers the rest of the day.
If you plan to show a car, pre-registration costs $45 and gate registration costs $55. Both come with a 2026 T-shirt. Awards cover more than 20 categories, and Best in Show and People's Choice come with cash prizes.
The cruise's staging lot sits at the Grant Avenue end of the city's Novato Boulevard project, which runs from Diablo Avenue to Grant. In late August the City Council approved a $16.8 million contract with Team Ghilotti, and the city estimated about two years of work starting in late September. A competing bidder filed a protest. The council's September 22 agenda proposed denying it and re-awarding the contract to Team Ghilotti, and the city hasn't given a firm start date. If you're driving to the staging lot, the city's project page has email sign-ups for Novato Boulevard updates.
What 924 Grant is set to become
The show's Redwood-to-7th stretch includes the old theater lot, and the 2026 approval is the most concrete plan the site has had since the theater closed. Here is how the city's project page describes it:
Proposed mixed-use development at the former "Novato Theater" site. This proposal involves the construction of a new three-story building which includes eight residential dwelling units and 2,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space that will front onto Grant Avenue.
The theater opened in 1946 and closed in 1991, when multiplexes were pulling audiences away, according to the Marin Independent Journal. In 2016 an effort to bring a theater back gutted the building's interior, keeping the side walls and reinforcing the front wall. In 2024 Matthew and Julia Burns bought the parcel for about $375,000. At the time, the IJ reported their plan as a ground-floor café with three apartments and an office above.
The approved plan is bigger than that. The applicant is Matthew Burns of Sandbank Construction Inc. The application, DR2025-396, went in on October 7, 2025, as a density bonus and design review request. The parcel is zoned Downtown Core Retail and falls inside the Downtown and Historic overlays. The city's page doesn't give a construction timeline. What passers-by will get on Grant is 2,000 square feet of storefront where a closed theater has stood for the event's whole 30-year run.
Sherman Avenue's two Saturdays
The middle of the month moves a block over. On October 17 the Parks, Recreation & Community Services Department hosts two free Not-So-Scary Halloween Magic Shows at City Hall, at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. No reservations are needed, and doors open 30 minutes before each show.
On October 24 the city holds its Día de los Muertos celebration on the Civic Green from 3 to 6 p.m. There will be traditional food, music, face painting and a community ofrenda where anyone can add a remembrance. New this year is the city's first Car Ofrenda Display, where participants turn the trunk or rear of a vehicle into an altar with photographs, marigolds, LED candles and papel picado. Entry is free, but space is limited and an application is required. The deadline is September 25, which is tomorrow. You can pick up an application at the Margaret Todd Senior Center, 1560 Hill Road, and return it there or email it to [email protected].
So downtown has a vehicle event two Saturdays apart: 300-plus classic cars on Grant on the 10th and decorated trunks on the Civic Green on the 24th.
The last market Tuesdays
The Downtown Novato Community Farmers' Market runs every Tuesday on Sherman Avenue between Grant and De Long through October 27. In October it closes at 7 p.m. instead of 8, the May-through-September closing time. That gives you four October Tuesdays with an hour less of market each evening, and the season ends four days before Safe Trick or Treat.
Getting downtown without a car is straightforward. The market sits between the Novato Downtown SMART station and the Redwood Boulevard & Grant Avenue Transit Station, and bike racks are available at Sherman and Cain Lane and in the City Administrative Offices lot. The SMART station is at 695 Grant Avenue, and its free parking is shared with the city, with a 72-hour maximum. The DNBA also advertises two hours of free parking throughout downtown.
Where to eat on Grant
Marin Magazine's Novato dining guide, updated in August 2026, lists several Grant Avenue spots within walking distance of these events.
- Finnegan's Marin, an Irish pub and grill, 877 Grant Ave.
- Marvin's Restaurant, 1112 Grant Ave.
- HenHouse Brewing Co.'s Record Room, a taproom, 1301 Grant Ave.
- Rustic Bakery, 1407 Grant Ave.
- Bacon Novato, 1500 Grant Ave., Suite 1400.
- Creekside Bakery, 1719 Grant Ave.
The magazine suggests confirming hours directly with each business, which is worth doing on a street-closure Saturday.
October 31, and then December
The month ends back on Grant. Safe Trick or Treat is held on the Saturday closest to Halloween, and this year that's Halloween itself. Downtown businesses hand out treats from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit Novato lists the event at 881 Grant Ave. Its page currently shows "This event has ended," but the DNBA's calendar confirms the 2026 date.
Next comes Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when downtown stores start holiday shopping with special offers, sip-and-shops and live music. Then on December 5, the Community Tree Lighting Festival runs from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Old Town's streets close to cars for the evening, and Santa arrives by fire truck.
Want to know what a building going up on the old theater lot could mean for the downtown blocks near your home? Kyle Frazier and the Imagine Marin team follow approvals like 924 Grant as they move through City Hall. Book an appointment and we'll go through what's approved, what's pending, and how it fits with the rest of Old Town.
