Hours, yen, and the booth list sit on the Soto Fes event page. This is the walk from Ebisu-bashi on 31 October and 1 November 2026, and why the carnival mall is neither the square nor the canal.
The canal is not a permit
31 October 2026 is a Saturday. People will still walk Dotonbori-suji in costume. OSAKA-INFO files Osaka Halloween under pop culture, not under a licensed street party. In 2025 it rained hard and police tightened the cordon. There is no ward page that hands you a drinking licence for that night. If you came for a programme with a start time, the canal is the wrong map.
CHIMNEY TOWN HALLOWEEN already left Namba Square on 18 October. acosta on the canal was 17 and 18 October. Those weekends are over. Treating 31 October as a sequel to either of them will waste the daylight.
The square is Minami Fes
Eight to twelve minutes south of Ebisu-bashi, Namba Square is Minami Fes 2026, 10:00-20:00 both days. Chuo ward calls the Saturday 11:00 block Minami's daytime Halloween. That is a stage. Saturday 18:00 is Dotonbori Kawamo Butai. Sunday from about 10:45 is the 16th Yosakoi Osaka Tournament. Kitchen cars sit on Nansan-dori, not in the plaza. The civic page already exists. Do not stand in the square expecting tents of camping stoves.
Soto Fes is the cut between the two malls
Namba Carnival Mall is the outdoor slice between Namba Parks and Namba CITY, 2-10-70 Namba-naka, Naniwa-ku. NANKAI runs Soto Fes Vol.5 there both days, 11:00-17:00. Walking in is free. You pay for gear, workshops, and ice cream. Parks tenants Alpen Outdoors, A&F COUNTRY, and Orange come off the shop floor and pitch next to visiting brands. That is the whole idea of an urban outdoor fes here: the shops you already pass on a Parks errand, plus people who arrived with a stall.
Houyhnhnm, the Tokyo magazine, takes a booth with collab pieces you usually only mail-order. The FreshService utility shooting coat is printed at ¥57,200. Sanso Iijima's knit vest is ¥19,800. A rajabrooke furoshiki and a ZEPTEPI bag-in-bag sit beside them. Three Tokyo guests stand the booth. Nishino Daishi of NEAT is listed 11:00-13:00 both days, then the magazine staff. Miyazaki Prefecture runs a dried-shiitake fill-your-bag stall as regional sponsor. J:COM backs it.
If Sunday is yosakoi, do the mall in the morning. Soto Fes ends at 17:00. The square keeps going until 20:00. You cannot stand in both queues at 16:30.
Same building, different floor
Namba Unkai is still on Parks Garden 2F-8F through 1 November. Same complex as Soto Fes, different floor, different reason to be there. Unkai is mist and a lantern. Soto Fes is tents you can touch. GREATER NAMBA FESTIVAL stamp rally runs to 15 November across Parks, Takashimaya, and Tsutenkaku. Useful walking. It is not a third fes, and Tsutenkaku is already outside the canal identity.
Nankai has not printed a 2026-27 Hikaritabi still we can use. Last year's PDF ended 15 February 2026. Skip it. From the canal, walk south through Namba CITY or along Midosuji. The carnival mall is the gap, not the station plaza. Nankai Namba is connected. Metro Midosuji Namba is about seven minutes. You do not need Osaka Station.
Practical Details
- Dates: 31 October and 1 November 2026
- Time: 11:00-17:00
- Venue: Namba Carnival Mall, 2-10-70 Namba-naka, Naniwa-ku, between Parks and CITY
- Nearest station: Nankai Namba (connected). Metro Midosuji Namba about 7 minutes
- Price: Free to enter. Gear, workshops, and food charge
- Website: namba-sotofes.com
