Fall festival season around Washington opens earlier than most people expect — Gaver Farm on September 4, Belvedere Plantation on September 12, Summers Farm on September 13, and then the two anchors, Cox Farms and Butler's Orchard, both on September 19 — and the best of it runs deep into November. What varies wildly between farms is not the attractions, which rhyme, but what a ticket actually includes: Cox Farms hands you a pumpkin with admission, Butler's charges $0.79 a pound on top, Gaver Farm lets you pick pumpkins and ride the hayride with no ticket at all, and Yankey Farms has no gate fee in the first place. This guide sorts the 2026 season by what it costs and what you get, flags the two that sell online only and sell out, and covers the thing nobody's roundup mentions: a hard spring freeze wrecked the apple crop at several orchards this year.
Cox Farms in Centreville, Virginia — coxfarmsva.com, not coxfarms.com, which is an unrelated agribusiness — runs September 19 through November 8, 2026, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays all season. Hours are 10am to 6pm with last entry at 5pm in September and October, and 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm in November. Pricing runs on a four-tier date calendar at $15, $20, $25 and $30 per person; which dates land in which tier is only visible inside the ticket calendar, so check before you commit to a Saturday. Everyone two and older pays the same — there is no child or adult split, no senior discount and no group rate — while under-24-months is free. Parking is free, re-entry is allowed with a wristband through the main entrance, and admission includes a patch pumpkin to take home. Tickets are online only and date-specific; there is no box office, and the farm warns that busy dates sell out. What's included: nine-plus giant slides (the Safari Slide is 180 feet across eight lanes, the Dino Slide 142 feet across six), the twenty-minute World-Famous Hayride, the Cornundrum corn maze, Foamhenge, a Kiddie Zone, Goat Village and farm animals, milking demos, the Imaginature Trail and a live music stage. Butler's Orchard in Germantown, Maryland is the Maryland-side counterweight and the closest full festival farm to Bethesda and Rockville. Its Pumpkin Festival runs September 19 to November 1, Wednesday through Sunday plus Columbus Day, 1pm to 6pm Wednesday to Friday and 9am to 6pm on Saturday, Sunday and Columbus Day, with last entry at 4:30pm either way. Admission pricing for 2026 had not been published as of mid-August — the page said “2026 pricing coming soon” — but pumpkins are confirmed at $0.79 per pound, weighed at purchase rather than included. Advance reservations are strongly encouraged: weekends sell out and walk-ins are refused at capacity. Included are pick-your-own pumpkins, hayrides, jump pads, a playground, hayloft jumping, farm animals, a corn maze, live music, slides, cornhole and pedal tractors.
The Maryland Renaissance Festival is the region's biggest non-farm fall event and the one with the strictest ticketing, so it needs its own paragraph. The 2026 season runs weekends from August 29 through October 25: August 29 and 30; September 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27; and October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25. Hours are 10am to 7pm, at 1821 Crownsville Road in Crownsville, outside Annapolis. Tickets are sold online only — there are no gate sales at all — and they are date-specific, so a spontaneous Saturday detour is not an option. Prices are $31 for adults aged 16 to 61, $27 for seniors and $17 for children aged 7 to 15, with six-and-under free but still needing a ticket, plus a 10% Anne Arundel County amusement tax and fees on top. Military personnel get $4 off with ID, and a four-day “Villagers of Revel Grove” pass runs $124, which pays for itself on the fourth visit if you're the sort of family that goes back. The practical read for parents: the six-and-under-still-needs-a-ticket rule means a family of five books five tickets even if two of them are three years old, and the no-gate-sales rule means you buy the night before at the latest. It is a full day out at seven hours of operating time, and the late-October dates are the ones that combine best with a pumpkin stop elsewhere in the state.
Gaver Farm in Mt. Airy, Maryland has the longest season here — September 4 to November 1, daily 10am to 6pm, at 5501 Detrick Road — and the most transparent pricing model: $14.50 on weekdays, $20.50 on September weekends and $24.00 on October weekends, with under-24-months free and a $55 season pass. There are 65-plus attractions including a seven-acre corn maze, slides, a zipline, jumping pillows and animals. Two details make it unusually good value: hayrides are free, and pick-your-own pumpkins are pay-after-picking at the market, so you don't need an activity ticket at all if the pumpkin is the point. Daily tickets are limited and October weekends can sell out. Great Country Farms in Bluemont, Virginia charges $14 on weekdays and $18 at weekends with pumpkins priced separately at $0.59 per pound, September 19 to October 31, with the market, bakery and play area open daily 9am to 5pm. Included: wagon rides, goats, two jumping pillows, rustic mini golf, a 15-acre play area with mazes and slides and rope swings, a Farm Ninja obstacle course and the corn maze, with October weekends adding live music, pig races and cider-pressing demos; feed cups are $3 and gem-mining bags start at $6.99. Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon runs its Farm Harvest Fest and Carnival October 16 to 18, with Big Truck Night on the Friday 5 to 7pm, the carnival Friday 5 to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday 11am to 9pm, and Farm Harvest Days Saturday and Sunday 10am to 3pm — parking is $10 per vehicle and unlimited-ride wristbands are $23.25 presale through 5pm on October 16, $28.25 after. Belvedere Plantation near Fredericksburg runs September 12 to November 7 and is the only one here open Friday evenings, 6 to 10pm; its per-person admission wasn't published as of mid-August, but gate tickets cost $5 more than online, it is a fully cashless site, and the season ends with Pumpkin Smashing on November 7. Yankey Farms in Bristow charges no gate fee at all from September 26 to October 31 — $0.89 per pound for pumpkins and an $8 activities wristband if you want the maze, hayride and cow train.
This is the thing to know before you drive an hour for apple picking this year. A hard spring freeze in 2026 damaged tree fruit across the region, and several of the orchards families default to have said so on their own sites. Homestead Farm in Poolesville, Maryland reports no stone fruit and no apples at all this year. Marker-Miller Orchards outside Winchester lost the majority of its apple crop to April freezing temperatures and is not offering pick-your-own from the trees — it will sell fresh apples in its farm market and says it may put bins out in the orchard, but the U-pick experience isn't happening. Hartland Orchard in Markham states that a hard spring freeze severely reduced its crop, cancelled cherries outright, and had it picking weekdays only in mid-August, closed at weekends, explicitly because the harvest is small; it is also cash and checks only, no cards, which is worth knowing before you arrive. None of this affects pumpkins, which are a different crop on a different calendar — every festival farm above is running normally. The practical rule for the 2026 season: if apples are the point of the trip, phone the orchard the morning you plan to go rather than trusting a website that may not have been updated. If pumpkins are the point, book Cox Farms or Butler's Orchard and stop worrying. Great Country Farms is still advertising September apple picking alongside its harvest festival, which makes it the best combined bet — but call ahead there too.
Exact dates land here automatically once they hit our catalog — we refresh weekly from local Washington-area sources. Check the official site above, or sign in for picks tuned to your family.
Earlier than most people plan for. Gaver Farm opens September 4, Belvedere Plantation September 12, Summers Farm September 13, and both Cox Farms and Butler's Orchard on September 19. The Maryland Renaissance Festival starts earliest of all, on August 29. Several run past Halloween — Cox Farms goes to November 8 and Belvedere to November 7.
$15, $20, $25 or $30 per person depending on the date tier, with everyone two and older paying the same rate and under-24-months free. Parking is free and admission includes a patch pumpkin. Tickets are online only, date-specific, and busy dates sell out — there is no box office and no group rate.
Cox Farms has a dedicated Kiddie Zone alongside its animals and hayride, and Great Country Farms' jumping pillows and 15-acre play area work from about two. Frying Pan Farm Park's Big Truck Night on October 16 is a genuine hit with vehicle-obsessed three-to-seven-year-olds. Save Gaver Farm's zipline and seven-acre maze for school-age children.
For three of them, effectively yes. Cox Farms sells online only with no box office and warns that busy dates sell out. The Maryland Renaissance Festival has no gate sales at all — online, date-specific, six-and-under still needs a ticket. Butler's Orchard strongly encourages reservations and turns walk-ins away at capacity on weekends.
In fewer places than usual. A hard spring freeze damaged the crop: Homestead Farm reports no apples this year, Marker-Miller lost most of its crop and isn't offering pick-your-own from the trees, and Hartland Orchard cut back to weekdays only. Great Country Farms still advertises September apple picking. Call before you drive.