This Is The Best Fall Festival In Your State, According To Travel Blogs

Fall, a season known for its bountiful crops, is when temperatures drop from summer highs, days shorten, and trees changing color bring a sense of theatrical splendor to nature's scenery. It's also a time of celebration, when a pleasant climate makes time spent outdoors pure bliss. Up and down the United States, fall festivals present moments of fun while also bringing people together. 

Many of these shindigs are tied to the concept of harvest— particularly iconic fall vegetables like the pumpkin — while others are just ways for locals and intrigued visitors to let loose outdoors. While there is no shortage of festivals during the season, we've identified the best ones in each state using travel blogs and online expertise. All that's left is get ready to enjoy yourself and bring your appetite: food and drink are common themes in many of these festivals.

Held during the first weekend of November in Mobile, Alabama, the Alabama Pecan Festival isn't only a get-together that celebrates the craggy nut. Visitors will also find fun games, live music, and antique cars — and everything is free! There are, of course, pecan-related goodies, like plenty of pies, and a pecan queen.

It's strange but true: Alaska, where bears can be seen in their natural habitat, was once part of Russia. It became part of the United States in 1867 through a commercial transaction, and the grand Alaska Day Festival marks the occasion. Expect marching bands, sea kayak races, speaker forums, and historical re-enactments at this event in Sitka.

Set in a Phoenix park close to I-10, the Arizona Fall Festival is a community event. Hundreds of local vendors set up for a day in November to hawk everything from crafts to food. Beyond the shopping, there is live music, a kid's play area, and a silent auction.

In the city of Sheridan, about 30 minutes south of Little Rock, Arkansas, the locals celebrate Timberfest, a fair that's centered around wood. It's held on the first weekend in October, and one of its core attractions are the lumberjack competitions. In addition, attendees can enjoy a parade, games for kids, and arts and crafts.

The Golden State grows 95% of the country's avocados, and the area around Carpinteria is a particular hub for growing this beloved fruit. The town marks its unusual annual harvest with the California Avocado Festival. Anticipate a guacamole contest in addition to three days of live music across numerous stages.

At La Junta Tarantula Fest, which happens in a town southwest of Colorado Springs, you can learn all about the venomous creepy crawlies. Visit in late September to take tours that uncover the natural habitat of tarantulas, and enjoy a parade as well as local art.

At Bethlehem, Connecticut's Garlic & Harvest Festival, visitors can attend workshops on growing garlic, watch cooking demonstrations that feature the root, and purchase hand-crafted kitchen items. You can also peruse a large array of fresh garlic for sale, or sample garlic ice cream while listening to live music.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is a popular summer destination for its sun, sea, and sand — and in the days before Halloween, one of those natural attributes is celebrated with vigor. The Sea Witch Festival has tons going on, from performances by magicians to outsize monster art. You can also watch fun parades and go trick-or-treating.

Expect plenty of eating at the three-day Pensacola Seafood Festival during the last weekend in September, in a state that has some great islands for a vacation. In addition to a plethora of food vendors, look forward to arts and crafts stalls and musical performances.

Close to Atlanta, Stone Mountain Park is packed with outdoor activities. It's also the setting for the Yellow Daisy Festival, a huge arts and crafts fair that takes place in early September. The event features hundreds of stalls, with music, food, and a beer garden in addition to the craft vendors.

Running for more than a week in the beginning of November, the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival first started in 1970. It honors the state's rich coffee history, with the crop grown on the islands for more than two centuries. Travelers will learn all about coffee from farmers, small batch growers, and avant-garde thinkers.

The origins of sheepherding can be traced back about 10 millennia, and it's this discipline that is celebrated at the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. Held in early October, the event features classes that teach participants different ways to use wool — spinning, knitting, and more — farm-to-table dinners, sheepdog trials, and a parade of 1,500 sheep.

You'll find more than 100 handmade figures competing for the top prize at the Scarecrow Weekend held in St. Charles, Illinois. In addition to straw-filled mannequins, visitors will find an area of family-friendly fun and live shows, and plenty of places for snapping memorable photos. Consider a visit while making America's most underrated road trip through Illinois.

The largest festival in Indiana is the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. Surprisingly, it's not in one central location, but scattered throughout the county. The festival begins in mid-October and lasts for 10 days, celebrating  the 31 covered bridges in the county.

Giant pumpkins inhabit a special place at the Anamosa Pumpkinfest, where a weigh-off is held to determine the biggest pumpkin of them all. Visitors can expect some really huge orange gourds — 2023's winning pumpkin weighed more than 2,000 pounds. The festival also offers a parade, haunted house, and pumpkin carving.

This festival, dubbed Neewollah, might sound strange, until you realize that it's Halloween spelled backwards. Held in Independence, Kansas, in the latter half of October, the festival is packed with things to do. You'll find carnival rides, a pageant to find Queen Neelah, several parades, and a 5K run.

Laurel County, Kentucky, is where KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders opened his first restaurant, which would go on to spawn a global fast-food sensation. In the county's town of London, Kentucky, the World Chicken Festival celebrates that history. Held at the end of September, it features live music, Sanders look-alike contests, and fried chicken from the largest stainless steel skillet on the planet.

New Orleans' famous sweet treat, a popular pick-me-up for locals, is the draw at the city's Beignet Fest. Staged in mid-November at New Orleans City Park, the festival doesn't only provide beignets dusted in sugar, but also ones with cheese, seafood, or other ingredients. Beyond the beignets, travelers can listen to live music and sip a brew at the beer garden.

It's not often that you can watch a car get crushed by a mammoth pumpkin dropped from the sky, but it's a real-life event at the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. Set over the Indigenous Peoples' Day long weekend, the event celebrates the large orange squash in all shapes and sizes. That's why you'll find foods made from it and even boats built from it that are actually sailed.

Music, food, and crafts are all on the bill at Ocean City, Maryland's Sunfest, which happens over four days at the tail end of October. The action takes place at the southern end of the city's storied boardwalk, where you can find large stages for bands and stalls where vendors from near and far sell food, crafts, and lovingly made creations.

The Big E is one of the largest festivals in the country, and features many free events over its two-week span. So much is going on at this Springfield, Massachusetts, event that it's hard to pin down the highlights. You might see glass-blowing demonstrations or ride a mechanical bull. Or perhaps you'll watch some live music, a parade, and a circus performance all in one day.

Occurring in early September, the Plymouth Fall Festival is a smorgasbord of food, exhibitions, and fun. There are pancake breakfasts where locals get together and catch-up over a beloved morning treat. Elsewhere, you can expect a car show, live entertainment, a carnival, and plenty of booths and stalls selling handmade items.

Ever wondered what life might have felt and sounded like hundreds of years ago? You can get an idea when you step back in time at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Running over seven weekends from mid-August to the end of September, the event presents period displays (including jousting), team members in full costume, and a large artisan marketplace.

The first word of the Wing Dang Doodle Festival gives away the focus of this event held in Forest, Mississippi, at the end of September. Chicken wings are not just celebrated, but rewarded, with a $1,000 prize for the best wings. Arts and crafts ensure there's also plenty more to do for the whole family.

Thousands of pooches congregate at Dogtober Fest, where contests include the best tail-wagger. Taking place in Blue Springs, Missouri, the event celebrates its 30th year in 2024. In addition to competitions like the best biscuit eater and dog-owner look-alikes, visitors can peruse stalls selling pet-related products.

You can see giant birds in their full glory at the Bridger Raptor Festival in Bozeman, Montana. The festival is held in early October, when you can learn more about these winged wonders. Look forward to walks in the wilderness that are enjoyable and educational, plus displays of raptors in full flight, featuring Golden Eagles.

If you subscribe to the idea that one person's trash is another person's treasure, head to Junkstock in Waterloo, Nebraska. Started in 2012, the festival, which happens in late September and early October, now has more than 200 vendors. They specialize in antique and vintage items, and shoppers are sure to stumble across one-of-a-kind finds.

About 20 miles south of Nevada, on a dried-out lake near the town of Jean, you'll see a wondrous sight in early October. Thousands of lanterns illuminate the night sky at the Rise Festival. The lanterns are large, usually a couple of feet tall, and visitors write hopes, dreams, and fears on them before launching them up, up, and away.

If you like to munch on something sour and crunchy, you might consider signing up for the eating contest at the Winchester, New Hampshire, Pickle Festival. It's one of the highlights of this annual get-together held in late September. You'll also see people dressed all in green, pickle-inspired gifts, and even a pickle parade.

The family-friendly Great Pumpkin Festival includes face painting, sand art, and lots of hay-themed activities. A long festival that runs from mid-September until early November, and located on Heaven Hill Farm in Vernon, New Jersey, it's very much an event attuned to the season. Expect a corn maze, apple cider donuts, and even pig races.

Balloons of all sizes and colors populate the sky at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Held over nine days in early October (in one of the best film cities in the country) the event has balloon launches at all hours, as well as chainsaw carving demonstrations. Drone shows and fireworks also create a visual extravaganza in the night sky.

Nighttime is when the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze comes to life. A tableau of thousands of illuminated, hand-carved pumpkins in Croton-on-Hudson, a beautiful, overlooked small town in New York, the event runs from mid-September to mid-November. Look forward to animal sculptures made of carved pumpkins, grand light displays, and even a giant spider's web.

For some, wooly bear caterpillars, also known as wooly worms, are believed to be predictors of the weather. You can learn more about this at the family-friendly Wooly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, North Carolina, in late October, where plenty of wooly worms are part of the fun. They feature in races and visitors are welcome to let them crawl on their sleeves.

Celebrate Scandinavian culture at the four-day Norsk Høstfest, held at the end of September. You'll see Viking fights, dancers wearing traditional Norwegian sweaters, and even an eating contest where entrants gobble up "lutefisk," a fish brined in lye and steamed. Visitors can try archery with an old-fashioned bow and arrow, or watch traditional artisans at work.

Beer drinkers in Ohio rejoice, because Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is the largest Oktoberfest in the country. Spanning four days in the middle of September, it welcomed more than 800,000 visitors in 2023. Sure, there's music and people dressed in lederhosen, but the highlight might just be the 300-foot, 1,000 person beer tent. Prost!

Classic trucks and muscle cars are on display at the Original Fall Festival at Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma. The mid-October event, set against a backdrop of glowing fall foliage, also supplies lots of food, handmade knitted accessories and jewelry, rides for adults and kids, and live music. At night, warm yourself next to a roaring bonfire.

There's a good chance you'll spend your time at September's Fall Kite Festival in Lincoln City, Oregon, marveling at the creative creations in the sky. You might see giant whales rippling in the wind or fighting kites slicing through the atmosphere. In addition to the kite shows, there are classes on kite-making, great for any budding flyers out there.

Spread over a couple of weeks in the first half of October, the National Apple Harvest Festival celebrates this crunchy, fall-ready fruit. You'll find it served in all kinds of ways, pictured on signs to denote the different areas of the festival, and even see the fruit hanging from trees during orchard tours. Other attractions include music, car shows, and pony rides.

Celebrating its 10th year in 2024, the Ocean State Oyster Fest in Providence, Rhode Island, is one-day-only in early October. It's a forum to educate visitors on the state of aquaculture in Rhode Island, and also a way for seafood fans to gorge on this slippery delight.

For more than 40 years, the Aynor Harvest Hoe-Down Festival has been celebrated over a day in late September. It has a little bit of everything, with parades and music to celebrate the season. Travelers can easily spend the whole day at the fest, with food stands offering tasty bites, plus entertainment ensuring kids don't lose interest.

Watching the thundering round-ups at the Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival is an unforgettable sight. Late September is when you can enjoy the spectacle, with horse riders shepherding about 1,300 buffalo into corrals. Visitors should get there early to eat breakfast before the main event begins.

The International Cowpea Festival and Cook-Off brings together a variety of chefs who compete for bragging rights over the best dish made using the humble cowpea. Held in the first half of September, the shindig also features a photo contest and live musical performances.

Dia de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) is an important celebration across Mexico, but in the U.S., the biggest event happens in San Antonio, Texas. There, the festival extends from mid-October to early November. You'll see altars strewn with flowers and candles, a parade of riotously decorated river barges, and a festival with live music.

Residents of Ogden, Utah, mark the end of the growing season at the Harvest Moon Celebration, held in the second half of September. The one-day festival, which lasts almost 12 hours, provides a mixture of live music, pumpkin crafts for the family, and artisan products including fresh local produce.

You'll see some crazy contraptions that hurl projectiles into the air at the Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival. The event in Stowe, Vermont, is all about fun, and all structures that chuck the pumpkins are made by hand. The record toss is 861 feet, longer than two football fields.

Hundreds of artisans show off their wares at the Occoquan Fall Arts & Crafts Show. The program is staged over the last weekend of September, with 300 vendors selling art, clothes, jewelry, and more. Food stalls and live music round out the good times.

The rich tapestry of the immigrant experience is celebrated at the Tacoma Moon Festival. Held at Chinese Reconciliation Park for a day in the middle of September, it mainly celebrates Asian cultures, though sometimes adds other cultural ingredients. In 2024, for instance, the festival folded in Latinx performers.

For something a little detached from the everyday, head to the New River Gorge Bridge on the third Saturday in October. This is when the annual Bridge Day occurs, a festival where daredevils leap from great heights into the gorge below. It's a wild day, with 341 jumpers participating in 2023.

You can go on a marsh walking tour during the Warrens Cranberry Festival, an event that honors the tart, red fruit. Held on the last weekend of September, it's a three-day bash, with hundreds of stalls selling arts and crafts, flea-market goods, and food. There's even a pancake breakfast where cranberry syrup is the star ingredient.

The Rendezvous Royale mixes art, dance, and design for just under a week in September. Taking place in Cody, Wyoming, it's a dream event for art lovers, with art sales (some of the pieces are sold in auctions), lectures, and even workshops that let visitors perfect their brush strokes.

There is no precise record or tally of the number of festivals in the US each year, but they are certainly likely to number in the thousands. To choose the best fall festival in each state, we dissected lists on sites like US News and World Report, MidwestLiving, Tripsavvy, and the official USA tourism site. We honed in on festivals that recurred, but also tried to ensure the final list had variety in the experience offered. Where possible, we chose the biggest festival of its type in the country.