Downtown Arlington is getting its first taste of a renaissance faire, and organizers picked the spookiest night of the year to do it.

Shakespeare LIVE! and the nonprofit Create Texas are staging the inaugural Shakespeare LIVE! RenFest at Levitt Pavilion on Saturday, October 31.

The festival runs from noon to 6 p.m., with vendor booths, music and demonstrations spread across the downtown green space.

Admission is free, which organizers say was a deliberate choice to keep the event open to the whole community.

It is an unusual mashup by design.

Rather than running a standard costume contest or trick-or-treat trail, organizers are blending three traditions at once: Renaissance faire pageantry, Halloween costuming and Dia de los Muertos imagery.

Guests are encouraged to show up in whichever of the three styles suits them, and organizers say they expect a mix of all three wandering the grounds at once.

During the afternoon session, an artisan marketplace will fill the plaza with original work from regional makers, including jewelry, ceramics, fiber arts, illustration, sculpture and woodworking.

Strolling musicians will move through the crowd between booths, and choreographed sword fight demonstrations are planned throughout the afternoon, giving the event a bit of theater before the actual theater starts.

Food vendors will be on site as well, including a stand selling turkey legs, a staple at faires across the state.

The night shifts into a different gear once the sun goes down.

At 7 p.m., Shakespeare LIVE! will stage a free outdoor performance of Macbeth on the Levitt Pavilion stage, giving the day event an evening centerpiece.

Staging one of Shakespeare's darkest tragedies on Halloween night is no accident, and the timing lines up neatly with the witches, ghosts and bloodshed already baked into the script.

Organizers are billing the whole day as family-friendly, with activities aimed at younger kids during the afternoon market hours before the tone shifts for the evening show.

No tickets or reservations are required for either the daytime market or the evening performance, and seating at Levitt Pavilion is open lawn-style, so visitors are encouraged to bring their own blankets or chairs.

Parking is available throughout the surrounding downtown Arlington district, within walking distance of the pavilion.

For a city best known for its stadiums and theme park, a free Shakespeare production paired with a craft market is a genuinely different kind of Saturday night.

Organizers say they plan to grow the event if turnout is strong, with hopes of making it an annual fixture on the downtown calendar.

Levitt Pavilion has increasingly become downtown Arlington's go-to venue for free public programming, and this event adds a new entry to that lineup heading into the colder months.

Residents looking for something outside the usual haunted house or trunk-or-treat circuit now have an alternative that blends performance, shopping and costuming into a single free outing.

Whether it becomes a lasting tradition will depend largely on how the crowd responds this first year.

Either way, Halloween in Arlington just got a new option on the calendar.

Full event details and vendor updates are tracked by Arlington Network.

Levitt Pavilion's full lineup of free downtown programming is posted by Levitt Pavilion Arlington.

Visitors can check parking and downtown logistics through the City of Arlington.