New Jersey's directory lists 16 events between September and November 2026 tagged as fall festivals. September holds seven of them and October holds nine, with every event in the set falling between September 12 and October 31.
Five of these events land on the same date, September 19, which is the single most contested weekend in the fall calendar. This page breaks the 16 down by month, admission, repeat host towns, and every overlapping weekend, so you can plan a fall weekend without discovering the conflict after you have already committed to one event.
How the fall season breaks down by month
The season opens with the Rose Squared Fall Chester Craft Show on September 12 and 13 in Chester. September carries seven events in total: that show, the Bergen County 4-H Fair, running September 18 through 20, the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park on September 19 and 20, the Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival, the Point Pleasant Beach Festival of the Sea, the All About Downtown Street Fair in Jersey City, and the Irish Fall Festival in North Wildwood, running September 25 through 27.
October is heavier, with nine events: the Collingswood Book Festival, Oktoberfest at Historic Smithville, the Cranberry Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts on Farnsworth, and Bottle Hill Day all on or around October 3 and 4, then the Ocean City Fall Block Party and Westfield Street Fair & Craft Show (Fall) on October 10, the Chatsworth Cranberry Festival and Downtown Toms River Harvest Arts Festival around October 17, and the Toms River Halloween Parade closing the list on October 31.
Free admission versus unpublished pricing
Eleven of the 16 fall festivals list admission as free: Bergen County 4-H Fair, Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival, All About Downtown Street Fair, Collingswood Book Festival, Oktoberfest at Historic Smithville, Cranberry Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts on Farnsworth, Bottle Hill Day, Ocean City Fall Block Party, Westfield Street Fair & Craft Show (Fall), Downtown Toms River Harvest Arts Festival, and the Toms River Halloween Parade.
The remaining five do not publish a price: Rose Squared Fall Chester Craft Show, Sea.Hear.Now Festival, Point Pleasant Beach Festival of the Sea, Irish Fall Festival, and Chatsworth Cranberry Festival. An unpublished price is not confirmation of a paid ticket, just confirmation that this dataset does not have the number. Check the individual listing before you budget for one.
Toms River hosts three of the 16
No other town in this list repeats more than once, but Toms River, in Ocean County, hosts three separate fall festivals: the Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival on September 19, the Downtown Toms River Harvest Arts Festival on October 17, and the Toms River Halloween Parade on October 31. All three are free to enter, and together they cover food, arts and crafts, and a Halloween event across three separate weekends, effectively giving one downtown a fall festival every few weeks through the season.
Weekends that force a choice
Eighteen pairs of fall festivals share overlapping dates, and the heaviest single date is September 19, where five separate events overlap: Bergen County 4-H Fair in Ridgefield Park, Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park, Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival, Point Pleasant Beach Festival of the Sea, and All About Downtown Street Fair in Jersey City. Ridgefield Park and Jersey City sit at the state's northeastern edge, while Asbury Park, Toms River, and Point Pleasant Beach are shore towns well south of there, so this date splits the state cleanly between a north-Jersey cluster and a shore cluster.
The next cluster lands October 3 and 4, with four events: the Collingswood Book Festival in Camden County, Oktoberfest at Historic Smithville in Atlantic County, the Cranberry Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts on Farnsworth in Burlington County, and Bottle Hill Day in Morris County. Galloway and Madison sit close to opposite ends of the state on the same weekend, with Collingswood and Bordentown filling the middle of that same date.
October 10 is a two-way split between Ocean City Fall Block Party in Cape May County and Westfield Street Fair & Craft Show (Fall) in Union County, another south-versus-north conflict. October 17 pairs the Chatsworth Cranberry Festival against the Downtown Toms River Harvest Arts Festival, a shorter distance apart but still two separate stops on the same day.
Most fall festivals double as craft fairs
Eleven of the 16 events in this list also carry a craft or artisan category tag: Rose Squared Fall Chester Craft Show, Bergen County 4-H Fair, Point Pleasant Beach Festival of the Sea, All About Downtown Street Fair, Oktoberfest at Historic Smithville, Cranberry Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts on Farnsworth, Bottle Hill Day, Ocean City Fall Block Party, Westfield Street Fair & Craft Show (Fall), Chatsworth Cranberry Festival, and Downtown Toms River Harvest Arts Festival. If vendor booths and handmade goods are the point of the trip, that covers most of the fall calendar already.
Non-craft options in the same window
The remaining five events skip the craft and artisan tag entirely and cover other ground: the Sea.Hear.Now Festival is tagged for music, the Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival is food-focused, the Irish Fall Festival combines cultural and music programming, the Collingswood Book Festival is cultural, and the Toms River Halloween Parade is a seasonal event. All five are worth knowing about specifically because they will not turn up if you filter this directory for craft vendors alone, and two of them, the book festival and the Halloween parade, are the only entries on this list built around something other than crafts, food, or music.
Between the month breakdown, the admission split, and the overlap dates above, the 16 events in this window reduce to a smaller set of real decisions: which weekend you have free, whether a free event matters more than an unpublished one, and whether you would rather chase the north-versus-shore split on September 19 or take one of the quieter single-event dates instead, such as September 12 and 13 in Chester or October 31 in Toms River.
