Peddler's Village Fall Events 2026: Scarecrows vs. OctoberFeast
October 1, 2026
October 1, 2026
Drive past Peddler's Village on a weekday right now and the scarecrows are still out, propped along the brick walkways in front of shops that are just opening for the day. No music, no crowd, no line for parking. Earlier this month, on Saturday, September 19, those same walkways were packed, a bluegrass band was playing near the gazebo, and Route 202 backed up half a mile before the turn into Lahaska.
Both of those are "Scarecrow Season" at Peddler's Village. They are not the same event, and mixing them up is the easiest way to either miss the good part or get stuck in traffic for something you could have seen for free on a Tuesday.
Scarecrows in the Village, the actual display of handmade figures lining the walkways, is up from Monday, September 7 through Monday, October 26. This is its 47th year, which makes it older than most of the restaurants currently operating in the Village itself. More than 150 scarecrows are on display this season, built by Philadelphia-area residents and community organizations and entered for public voting through the Peddler's Village mobile app, with voting open through October 14. Admission is free every single day of that seven-week window. There's no ticket, no timed entry, and no reason to plan around a specific date if all you want is to see the scarecrows.
The Scarecrow Festival was a different thing entirely. It ran two days, September 19 and 20, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and it was the version of Scarecrow Season that actually needed a plan. Scarecrow-making workshops ran throughout both days at $40 per kit, which included straw, clothing, decorations and instructions to build a life-size scarecrow to take home. Live entertainment included Station Hill Bluegrass at the gazebo, the Lost Crickets String Band in the courtyard, and Give & Take Jugglers out on Red Barn Field, alongside axe throwing at ThrowHouse on Street Road Green. Food vendors for the weekend included Cousins Maine Lobster, Free Will Brewing, Kono Pizza Buck Co., The Lucky Cupcake Company, FresCafe Food Co, Hewn Spirits and Nissley Vineyards, on top of the Village's own full-service restaurants. Shops stayed open until 8 p.m. on Saturday only, worth remembering for next year if your plan is to shop after dinner instead of before.
The festival was presented by the Trenton Ironhawks, and admission and parking were both free, with pay-as-you-go pricing on food, workshops and activities. The event ran rain or shine, which mattered less this year than the crowd size once the gates opened.
Three weeks after the Scarecrow Festival, Peddler's Village runs OctoberFeast on October 10 and 11, and it's easy to assume this is just more autumn programming layered onto the same scarecrow theme. It isn't. OctoberFeast is in its 10th year, which means the Village has been running this specific event since well before "Scarecrow Season" became the umbrella marketing term for the whole fall calendar. The theme is German food and beer, not pumpkins or ghosts: live performances from the Philadelphia German Brass Band and the Galena Brass Band, a beer garden, food trucks, and a repeat appearance from Give & Take Jugglers on Sunday. Pumpkin painting and a petting zoo are part of the weekend too, but the core identity of OctoberFeast is closer to a beer garden than a Halloween party.
Like the Scarecrow Festival, general admission and parking are free, though OctoberFeast adds a wrinkle the September weekend doesn't have: a limited number of VIP parking spaces available for advance purchase, useful if you'd rather not walk from an overflow lot with a stroller or a cooler of leftovers.
The scarecrow display is still up during OctoberFeast weekend, since it doesn't come down until October 26. That means visitors get both experiences in the same trip, but the two events themselves are still built around different things: one is a competition and craft weekend built around family activities, the other is a beer-and-brass-band weekend built around food and drink.
The seven weeks between September 7 and October 26 aren't just bookended by two festival weekends. Every day in between, the Village operates as it normally does: more than 60 specialty shops and boutiques, full-service restaurants, seasonal gardens, and Giggleberry Fair, the indoor family entertainment center that matters most on the days when the forecast doesn't cooperate. None of that requires a festival weekend to justify the trip. If the appeal of Peddler's Village for you is walking the scarecrow display without a crowd, checking a specialty shop off your list, or getting a table at one of the restaurants without a wait, a quiet weekday between now and October 26 does that better than either headline weekend.
| Event | Dates | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| Scarecrows in the Village | Sept. 7 – Oct. 26 | Free daily display, public voting through Oct. 14 |
| Scarecrow Festival | Sept. 19 – 20 | Ticketed workshops, live music, food vendors |
| OctoberFeast | Oct. 10 – 11 | German food and beer festival, 10th year |
Peddler's Village typically adds more programming in the final stretch before the display comes down, including past years' pumpkin-carving contests and separate day and evening Halloween events. Those specifics shift from year to year, so it's worth checking Peddler's Village's event calendar directly if you're planning around late October.
Peddler's Village sits at the corner of Routes 202 and 263 in Lahaska, close enough to New Hope that a Village visit and a stop in downtown New Hope fit into the same afternoon without much extra driving. For anyone wanting a spookier add-on after dark, Ghost Tours of New Hope run through the fall, gathering at the corner of Ferry and Main Streets. It's a natural pairing: scarecrows and shopping in the daylight, a lantern-led walk through New Hope once the sun goes down.
If you missed the Scarecrow Festival crowd, OctoberFeast is still coming up, and the display itself doesn't come down until October 26. Showing up on a quiet Wednesday in between is still a real option, not a consolation prize.
If you're weighing whether a town with this kind of fall calendar fits the life you're building, our Bucks County neighborhood guide is a good next stop. And if Peddler's Village is the kind of thing you'd want thirty minutes from your own front door year-round, The Cronmiller Team is happy to talk through what that looks like.
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