From Thursday, October 29, through the Saturday before Thanksgiving, four of Hoover's best-known community events share one address, 5508 Stadium Trace Parkway. That covers trick-or-treating with the fire department, an art festival named for a nature preserve, a morning honoring veterans and the Junior League's holiday market. All of them happen at the Hoover Met Complex and Finley Center, and the reason for that is mostly parking.
October 29, the Finley Lot Becomes a Trick-or-Treat Route
HalloweenFest 2026: Heroes & Haunts runs Thursday, October 29, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. This year the city combined it with the Hoover Police and Fire departments' Public Safety Night Out. Families get vendor trick-or-treating, a kids zone, a costume contest, police and fire vehicles to climb around, popcorn, music and a movie, spread inside and outside the Finley Center.
The event takes over the Finley Center parking lot, so the Hoover Met Complex event page sends visitors to the surrounding lots. Parking is still free.
Regulars on the indoor walking track should check before driving over. The Met's calendar lists an all-day closure of indoor rec and the walking track for October 29, with no pickleball and no open gym. The same calendar also shows the usual 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. track schedule for that date. A quick call to the venue will settle it.
The Festival That Left Its Namesake
The Moss Rock Festival comes back to the Met on Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. A two-day pass costs $13 in advance or $15 at the gate, and anyone 18 and under gets in free. The organizers list Art + Design, a Nature and Smart Living market, the Beer Garden, a café, WonderKid Studios, Planet Projects, Take Root and special exhibitions.
The name comes from where the festival started. According to a 2021 Hoover Sun report, it spent 14 years in The Preserve neighborhood next to Moss Rock Preserve, which the paper described as a 350-acre nature park. In 2020 the organizers moved it to the lower lot beside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Their concern was the shuttle buses that carried festivalgoers from the usual parking area at Prince of Peace Catholic Church.
The festival never went back. The Hoover Sun reported that The Preserve's neighborhood association and management ended their relationship with the festival. The paper also reported that organizers liked what the Met gave them. Parking was right at the stadium, so shoppers could carry purchases from artists' booths straight to their cars, and the extra room allowed wider walkways and more space for eating.
That logistics story is why the rest of Hoover's fall calendar sits at the Met too. A big, free lot right next to the event solves the problem every large gathering has.
The organizer's parking directions page is still labeled for 2025. The Alabama Travel listing for this year says parking is free, and it adds live music and dance, food trucks and the 15th Beer Garden to the lineup.
Taking the Festival Back to the Boulders
The festival left the preserve, but the preserve is still a short drive away. A Moss Rock weekend can start with a morning on the trails and finish with an afternoon at the Met. The City of Hoover's directions and parking guide lists three ways in:
- Boulder Field trailhead, 617 Preserve Parkway. The city says this is the preserve's assigned address. A GPS will get you close to the Boulder Field lot but not always to it. Trails from here pass small waterfalls, streams and a sandstone glade.
- Sulphur Springs Road gravel lot, near 4600 Preserve Parkway. These routes cross boulders, rock outcrops and streams.
- Simmons Middle School lower lot, 1575 Patton Chapel Road. This entrance connects to the Orange/Boulder Gorge trail and the Natural Bridge.
The trails have changed somewhat since that guide was posted. The city's July 2025 Parks and Recreation newsletter reported that Red Rock Trail signs went up along the Power Line Trail on June 26, 2025, and that an updated preserve map was in the works. The directions guide carries no date, so confirm the details before heading out.
November Keeps the Same Address
After Moss Rock wraps up, two more November events come to the Finley Center.
| Event | Date | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salute to Service | Tuesday, November 10 | 8:30 to 11 a.m. | Not listed |
| Market Noel preview | Wednesday, November 18 | Not yet posted | Varies by special event |
| Market Noel general shopping | Thursday, November 19 | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. | $15 adults, under 12 free |
| Market Noel general shopping | Friday, November 20 | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. | $15 adults, under 12 free |
| Market Noel general shopping | Saturday, November 21 | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. | $15 adults, under 12 free |
The city's Salute to Service honors local veterans, city employees among them. It falls the morning before Veterans Day.
Market Noel is the Junior League of Birmingham's holiday shopping event. This year it runs November 18 through 21. Tickets can be paid with cash or card at the door, and buying online adds credit card fees. The Enjoy Hoover listing promises more than 100 vendors, and the shopping supports the Junior League's work. Free parking, including accessible spaces, is available at the Finley Center. Strollers are not allowed during Preview Noel.
Where to Eat Between the Lots
Stadium Trace Village sits between I-459 and Stadium Trace Parkway, close enough that dinner after an event means a short drive across the development. These are a few current options sorted by what you're after:
- Coffee before Moss Rock opens: O.Henry's Coffee, 1024 Marble Terrace, Suite 110.
- A sit-down dinner after Salute to Service or Market Noel: LongHorn Steakhouse at 1063 Amber Drive, Cajun Roux at 5220 Peridot Place, Suite 132, or Walk-On's at 5249 Peridot Place.
- Quick and family-sized after HalloweenFest: Five Guys at 1028 Marble Terrace Street, Culver's, or Urban Cookhouse, which the Hoover Sun reported opened at Stadium Trace Village on January 19, 2026.
- Dessert on the way to the car: Kilwins, 5220 Peridot Place, Suite 112, for ice cream, fudge and chocolates.
The Met's own dining guide also lists Big Whiskey's nearby. If you still have Hero Diner in your memory as the diner stop, Bham Now reported that it closed its Stadium Trace location at 1031 Marble Terrace on April 12, 2026.
The City Just Bet on This Lot
The parking that drew Moss Rock to the Met is also squeezed for space. In June, AL.com reported that developer Broad Metro had laid out a plan for Stadium Trace Village's second phase worth more than $200 million. The paper quoted Hoover City Administrator Brian Muenger counting "3.5 million visits in a year" at the development and reported his view that phase two would help ease existing parking constraints.
The Hoover City Council approved the phase II and III incentive agreement on July 13. The Hoover Sun later put the package at $23 million, made up of a $4 million upfront stormwater payment and up to $19 million in tax and fee incentives. A separate extension of up to $5 million in phase-one rebates was delayed two weeks by an advertising error and then approved, which brought the year's total possible new incentives to $28 million.
Several pieces of the plan directly affect the kinds of events in this post:
- Village Green, a gathering space AL.com describes as built for events, concerts, festivals and family activities.
- Chasing Aces, a golf entertainment center.
- About 10 acres of stormwater ponds with landscaped boardwalks and more green space.
- An extension of Peridot Place to Brock's Gap Parkway, adding another way into and out of the area.
The plan also includes South Haven Surgical Plaza and senior living facilities. Broad Metro says planning, engineering and construction work has moved forward since the July agreement, but it has not announced opening dates for any of these pieces. For now, Hoover's fall events still run on the lots at 5508 Stadium Trace Parkway, and Market Noel closes out the season there at 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 21.
Rich and CoCo follow projects like Stadium Trace closely because of their construction background. If you're curious how projects like Phase II tend to show up on the streets around it, the team at August Real Estate is glad to talk it through over coffee at O.Henry's. Schedule a Free Consultation whenever it suits you.
