Maryland almost lost its apple season this year. A record freeze on April 21 wiped out as much as 94% of Maryland’s apple crop. So orchards everywhere are feeling a squeeze that has nothing to do with fresh apple cider.
Here's what we're putting on our fall bucket list for 2026 – the stuff worth blocking off a Saturday for, plus a few deadlines that are closer than you think.
🍎 Pick apples in Woodbine, but call first
Even with the freeze, Larriland Farm is running its Fall Festival September 8 through October 31. New this year: a field ticket is required for pick-your-own. Weekends are $14 per person and cover the hayride, the corn maze, the sudex maze, the Boo Barn, and live music at the market from about noon to 3 PM. Tuesday through Friday, entry is $3 and the mazes are pay-as-you-go. Kids 2 and under are free, and the farm market never charges at the gate.
Larriland was candid about the reason for the ticket: "A single spring frost can wipe out an entire apple crop overnight. We have experienced two major frosts in the last couple years."
Elsewhere, the freeze did what it does. Milburn Orchards in Elkton cancelled u-pick apples for the first time in more than 30 years. Homestead Farm in Poolesville posted "No Cherries, Peaches, or Apples this Year due to Freeze." Catoctin Mountain Orchard is down to two u-pick days, dates still to be announced. Larriland's harvest hotline (410-442-2605) updates daily, and it is worth a call before you load up the car.
🎤 Use up the rest of the Merriweather season
Six shows left after this week, and then the pavilion goes quiet for a while.
Friday, September 4 – Empire of the Sun with Polo & Pan (gates 6 PM, show 7:30 PM)
Friday, September 18 – Mt. Joy. On September 22, 2016, an unknown band released a weird little single called Astrovan. 10 years (and more than a billion global streams later), they’re now a household name. This tour is a celebration of that. (gates 7 PM, show 8:30 PM)
Friday–Sunday, September 25–27 – Woman-focused All Things Go Festival, 45+ acts led by Mitski, Hayley Williams, and Brandi Carlile (gates 3 PM Friday, 11 AM Saturday and Sunday)
Saturday, October 3 – Power To The People Festival
Sunday, October 4 – Logic & G-Eazy with Juicy J (gates 5:30 PM)
Saturday, October 10 – beabadoobee with Wisp, the last show of the 2026 season (gates 6:30 PM, show 8 PM)
Tom Morello's Power To The People Festival is the one people will talk about for years: Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Jack Black, and Cypress Hill on two stages, doors at noon. It sold out faster than a Pokémon card drop in 1999.
🎃 Do the pumpkin patch you grew up on
Clark's Elioak Farm opens its pumpkin patch September 19 and runs seven days a week through November 8, including every Monday in October. Admission is $8 per person, ages 1 and up, which covers the petting farm, the play areas, and the rescued Enchanted Forest figures that date to 1955. Hayrides, the cow train, and pony rides are $3 each. Tickets are sold at the farm, not online.
Two dates to circle: Halloween costume parades October 24 and 25 at 11 AM and 2 PM, and Pumpkin Chucking Weekend November 7 and 8, when a catapult launches pumpkins across a farm the Clark family has worked since 1797.
👻 Book a haunt before the discount expires
Legends of the Fog in Aberdeen is running 50% off all tickets until August 30 for its 20th season. Combo tickets covering the hayride, the Farewell Hotel, Cornstalkers, and the Slaughterhouse normally run $43 to $53.
Closer to home, Field of Screams Maryland in Olney reopens September 26 through November 1 after skipping 2025 entirely for a rebuild. It comes back "newly expanded into 29 horrifying stations," with one Screams Pass covering the whole property and online-only tickets. And Bennett's Curse says 2026 is its final season at Eastpoint Mall after a decade there, though it has not posted dates yet.
⚔️ Catch the Renaissance Festival's 50th season
The Maryland Renaissance Festival is in Crownsville, about 35 minutes away, and 2026 is its 50th season – nine weekends, ending October 25, open 10 AM to 7 PM. Tickets are $31 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $17 for kids 7 to 15, plus Anne Arundel's 10% amusement tax and a ticketing fee.
Read this part twice, because it is new: tickets are online only and date-specific, nothing is sold at the gate, and the festival says it will turn away StubHub and SeatGeek listings. If your date is sold out, get on the official waitlist – extra tickets are released Mondays and Fridays for the coming weekend.
P.S. We know this isn’t in Howard County but our friends down the road at Naptown Scoop assure us it is a very big deal and it is worth the drive.
🌽 Spend a free Saturday at Corn Fest
Manor Hill Brewing throws Corn Fest 26 on Saturday, September 26 from noon to 7 PM at the farm on Manor Lane in Ellicott City. It's free to walk in. Two stages of music, corn-themed food truck specials, and the debut of "14 Acres," a light corn lager named for the farm's 14 acres of non-GMO corn – the same field that goes into every beer Manor Hill brews.
🎸 Watch Main Street Music Fest come back
Main Street Music Festival returns to Historic Ellicott City on Saturday, September 19 starting at noon, after taking 2025 off. Past editions put 40-plus independent artists on roughly ten indoor and outdoor stages, all free. The Ellicott City Partnership still lists the 2026 lineup as to be announced, so for now, just hold the date.
Also on the Partnership's calendar: Wizarding Weekend on October 3 and Trick or Treat on Main Street on October 31.
🌰 Take a fall walk with the Conservancy
The Howard County Conservancy at Mt. Pleasant in Woodstock is 232 acres with five miles of trails, free and open sunrise to sunset. Two fall programs worth the calendar:
Wednesday, September 23, 5–7 PM – Fall Equinox Hike and Campfire, $5 per person, free for kids under 10, s'mores included.
Saturday, October 3, 11:30 AM–1 PM – Jazz in the Garden with the High Caliber quintet in the amphitheater. Free. Bring a picnic.
Their 19th annual Wine in the Garden / Beer in the Barn is Thursday, September 17 from 5 to 8 PM, ticketed.
🍂 Walk a lake loop at peak color
Central Maryland usually peaks in late October or the first days of November. Maryland DNR's weekly fall foliage reports start in early October, and its own foliage picks include the Hollofield and McKeldin areas of Patapsco Valley State Park.
If you'd rather not drive: the paved loop around Lake Elkhorn is about two miles, and Centennial Park's lake loop is about 2.6 miles and five minutes from Clark's, so you can stack a walk and a pumpkin in one morning.
🐴 Ride a free hayride in Brookeville
Sharp's at Waterford Farm opens its fall weekends September 26 through November 8, 10 AM to 5 PM, about 35 minutes from Columbia. The hayride to the pumpkin patch is free – you pay for the pumpkins you pick – and it's a 565-acre working farm with a seven-acre corn maze, a pizza truck, and a brewery tent every weekend.
Fall extras: Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue visits September 26, fox-hunt horses and hounds ride through the farm October 3 and October 11, and the 10th annual Dog Days lands on Halloween, when your dog can trick-or-treat the farm in costume.
Print it, screenshot it, or just wing it. Either way, that's fall in Howard County – and yes, the apple fritters are worth the $14.
