The Valley Weekly guide

October in the Valley

Six weekends, the last of the fairs, and the best month this valley has. Every date below was read off the venue's own site, and where a venue has not published its hours this page says so rather than guessing.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and Columbus Day is Monday October 12, so two of these weekends are bigger than the rest.

Weekend by weekend

October 3 and October 4

The Big E · West Springfield
Dates published. Daily hours not published.
The last seventeen days of it land in October, and the final weekend is the one to plan around.
1305 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA 01089
Admission not published.
Mike's Maze at Warner Farm · Sunderland
Fridays 11am to 5pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Columbus Day 9am to 5pm. Wagon rides and face painting are not available on Friday.
Eight acres cut into a new design every year, and one of the few places around that publishes its Columbus Day hours.
Admission not published.

October 10 to October 12, Columbus Day weekend

Mike's Maze at Warner Farm · Sunderland
Fridays 11am to 5pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Columbus Day 9am to 5pm. Wagon rides and face painting are not available on Friday.
Eight acres cut into a new design every year, and one of the few places around that publishes its Columbus Day hours.
Admission not published.
Ashfield Fall Festival · Ashfield
10am to 5pm both days.
Columbus Day weekend in the hills, on both public and private property around the town centre.
Admission not published.

October 17 and October 18

Mike's Maze at Warner Farm · Sunderland
Fridays 11am to 5pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Columbus Day 9am to 5pm. Wagon rides and face painting are not available on Friday.
Eight acres cut into a new design every year, and one of the few places around that publishes its Columbus Day hours.
Admission not published.

October 24 and October 25

Mike's Maze at Warner Farm · Sunderland
Fridays 11am to 5pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Columbus Day 9am to 5pm. Wagon rides and face painting are not available on Friday.
Eight acres cut into a new design every year, and one of the few places around that publishes its Columbus Day hours.
Admission not published.

October 31, Halloween

Mike's Maze at Warner Farm · Sunderland
Fridays 11am to 5pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Columbus Day 9am to 5pm. Wagon rides and face painting are not available on Friday.
Eight acres cut into a new design every year, and one of the few places around that publishes its Columbus Day hours.
Admission not published.

Apples and pumpkins

20 valley farms pick apples and 10pick pumpkins, each one verified against the farm's own site rather than a listings directory. Hours move with the weather, so the farm's own page is always the last word.

The full pick-your-own directory

Halloween

Halloween is a Saturday this year, which it has not been since 2020.

Most Valley towns have not set trick-or-treat hours yet. They go up through the second half of October, usually on the town's own page or its police department's. We will list them here once they are published, and we will not guess.

What we are still chasing

This guide is built through the month rather than published finished. These are the gaps we know about, which is better than filling them with something plausible.

Oktoberfest, anywhere in the Valley
Searching turns up aggregators and Facebook events only. No Valley venue found publishing 2026 Oktoberfest dates on its own site yet.
Haunted attractions and haunted houses
Not scraped by the pipeline and not verified by hand yet.
Trick-or-treat hours by town
Towns have not set them yet. They go up through the second half of October, and we will not print last year's.
Corn mazes other than Mike's Maze
Only Mike's Maze verified so far.
Foliage peak timing and where to drive
Wanted this to be a measured claim rather than a vibe. Nothing verified yet.

Just after the month ends: Franklin County CiderDays runs November 6 to 8, across Franklin County. Everyone assumes it is an October weekend. It is not.