This fall, the corner of Main Street and Auburn Avenue is a job site. The City of Auburn broke ground in May on a new 300-seat Auburn Avenue Theater, a $13.7 million project. It replaces the old theater, which was structurally damaged at the end of 2021, condemned in January 2022 and demolished in 2024. The Auburn Reporter reported in April that Marpac Construction of Seattle won the $11.3 million construction contract. The City's project page still targets mid-2027 to finish the theater and the new park next to it. The April story quoted an earlier estimate of early 2027.

Between now and New Year's, the city's calendar runs mostly out of three places: Green River College for ticketed shows, the Les Gove campus for daytime family events, and the stretch of Main Street from Auburn High School to City Hall for parades and art. A free holiday concert at Auburn Performing Arts Center fills in one more date. Each site keeps its own schedule, and the most important date on the Les Gove side falls in mid-December.

The ticketed shows moved up the hill to Green River College

Auburn Arts & Events is booking its fall and holiday season at the Green River College Student Affairs Building, 12401 SE 320th St. Most of these shows would have played downtown when the old theater was standing.

The Little Mermaid runs two weekends. There are 7:30 p.m. curtains on Oct. 16 and Oct. 23, matinee and evening shows on Oct. 17 and Oct. 24, and 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 18 and Oct. 25. The Dec. 6 concert costs nothing, but you still need a ticket to get in.

The Les Gove campus handles the daytime, and its last day is Dec. 15

The daytime events cluster around Les Gove Park. The Auburn Senior Activity Center at 808 Ninth St. SE, the Auburn Community & Events Center at 910 Ninth St. SE and the White River Valley Museum at 918 H St. SE are all within a few blocks of each other. The Auburn Farmers Market used this park all summer, and its last day was Sept. 20, according to the Auburn Examiner. The campus calendar fills back up right after that.

The Senior Activity Center holds a free Harvest Bazaar on Oct. 16 from noon to 5 p.m. and Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. That same Saturday morning, the museum hosts a BOHO Caftan Brunch at 10:30 a.m. It's for ages 21 and up and costs $30. The brunch ties into the museum's BOHO exhibit, which runs through Nov. 1. Admission is free, and the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.

The city's Halloween Harvest Festival and Trunk-or-Treat is Oct. 24 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Les Gove Park. It has games, crafts, a BOO-seum and trunk-or-treating for kids ages 2 to 10. The city says all food-vendor spots are taken.

After BOHO closes, the museum switches to holiday mode. Its Festival of Trees opening and holiday bake sale is Wednesday, Nov. 18, starting at noon. Admission is free. This year's theme is "Feature Flix," with movie-themed trees. Museum staff and volunteers bake the goods, and the sales fund free and reduced-cost field trips. The museum hasn't posted a closing date for this year's exhibit yet.

The calendar's real deadline is the Gingerbread Contest at the Community & Events Center. Public voting runs Dec. 1 through 12, in youth and adult categories, during the center's regular hours:

• Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Fridays, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Winners are announced Monday, Dec. 14. The center then closes to the public Dec. 16 through Dec. 31 for floor repairs, so builders have to pick up their displays by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15. That means the campus's holiday season wraps up a week and a half before Christmas, while the shows at Green River College keep going through Dec. 19.

Main Street still gets the parades

The construction hasn't moved Auburn's two big parades. Both still run down Main Street, right past the job site.

The 61st annual Veterans Parade and Observance is Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. It travels west along Main Street from E Street to A Street NW/SW. Auburn has held the parade since 1965, and the city describes it as one of the largest of its kind in the country. It usually draws more than 120 units and nearly 4,000 participants, including more than 10 marching bands. The city's listing for the day includes:

• A community breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. at the Auburn Senior Activity Center, co-sponsored by American Legion Auburn Post #78. It costs $12 and includes pancakes, eggs and ham.
• A remembrance ceremony and lighting of the flame from 9:45 to 10:15 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, 411 E Street NE.
• An open house from noon to 5 p.m. at Auburn VFW Post 1741, 130 W Main St., open only to veterans and active-duty personnel.
• The Auburn Noon Lions Veterans Luncheon at 1:30 p.m. at Merrill Gardens of Auburn, 18 First St. SE. Seating is limited and reservations are recommended.
• A parade bingo card. You can pick one up at the static display area while supplies last or print it at home. There are no prizes.

The city asks people not to park in local business lots on parade day. The city's parade materials suggest the Transit Center Parking Garage at 110 Second St. SW, open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. KOMO 4 livestreams the parade for anyone watching from home.

Postmark, next door to the construction, runs on Second Saturdays

The Postmark Center for the Arts at 20 Auburn Ave. sits right beside the theater site. Once the theater is built, the plan connects the two buildings visually through an Arts Alley on the north side. For now, Postmark is the arts space that's actually open downtown.

The main gallery's new exhibition, the Korean American Artists Association of Washington's (KAAW) "The Beauty of Korean Identity," runs Oct. 21 through Jan. 8, 2027. The opening reception is Oct. 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. In the Vault Gallery, an exhibition by Laurie Kallsen-George runs Oct. 16 through Jan. 4, 2027. The Oct. 24 reception lands on the same afternoon as the Halloween Harvest Festival at Les Gove, so both fit in one Saturday.

Postmark's Second Saturdays are free, open to all ages and run noon to 4 p.m. On Nov. 14, the Hopa Trop Folk Ensemble of Seattle hosts a Bulgarian Cultural Celebration with dancing, crafts and light snacks. On Dec. 12, artist Teruko Nimura leads a modeling-clay workshop where participants make winter creatures inspired by Japanese folklore.

Dec. 5 is when all the downtown pieces line up

The Saturday, Dec. 5 schedule runs from Postmark to the parade route to City Hall.

1. Noon to 4 p.m. Holiday Art Market at Postmark, 20 Auburn Ave. Cookies, Cocoa, and Craft runs there from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., for ages 5 and up, for $5.
2. 3:30 p.m. Parade entries line up at Auburn High School.
3. 4 p.m. Free live music at City Hall, 25 W. Main St.
4. 4:30 p.m. The Lighted Santa Parade heads west on East Main Street from Auburn High School, past Washington Elementary and through the civic area toward the Auburn Transit Center. It then loops north and east around City Hall and ends at Division Street.
5. After the parade. The tree lighting in front of City Hall, a visit from Santa and more live music.

Every parade entry needs a lighted element and has to register by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20. The city also picks a child who lives inside Auburn city limits, ages 5 to 9, at random to help Santa light the tree. Nominations are open now. The city hasn't posted 2026 street closures for the parade yet and lists them as coming soon. The next afternoon, the free Red, White & Blue concert at Auburn Performing Arts Center rounds out the weekend.

The park next to the theater doesn't have a name yet

A new downtown park is being built on the east side of the theater site. Under the theater design, its lobby will have an entrance facing the park, with its own marquee reader board. The Auburn Reporter reported in September that the city's naming survey lists Center Stage Park, Civic Park, Main Stage Park, Main Street Green, Marquee Park, Spotlight Park and The Green off Main. It also accepts other suggestions. When the story ran, the city hadn't set a deadline for responses. The survey is still linked from the City's downtown project page. That means people who spend this season walking past the fenced-off corner on the way to the parades and Postmark can still help pick what the place will be called when it opens in 2027.

If you're thinking about where you'll be living when Auburn's new theater opens, whether that's a few blocks from Main Street or out by the lake, Kimber Lee Real Estate can show you what daily life looks like in each part of Auburn and nearby Pierce County. Schedule your complimentary consultation.