Conecuh County Alabama Conecuh Sausage Festival

Every October, hickory smoke rolls across an airfield in Evergreen, Alabama, and the small planes parked along the runway share the grounds with grills, vendor tents and hungry crowds. The Conecuh County Alabama Conecuh Sausage Festival is a long-running autumn gathering built around one hometown product: Conecuh Sausage, the hickory-smoked sausage that has been made in Evergreen since 1947. Few festivals anywhere pair a food celebration with an aviation event, yet here the sausage festival runs side by side with the Middleton Field Southeastern Fly-In, so visitors can watch aircraft come and go between bites.

The result is a Saturday that feels equal parts county fair, community reunion and small-airfield open house. Families drift from food stalls to craft booths, car enthusiasts circle a show field, and children claim their own corner of the grounds while the smell of smoked sausage hangs over everything.

Admission costs nothing, which keeps the day open to the whole county, and the edition numbers tell their own story of staying power: a festival that reached its 23rd Annual billing in 2026 has long since passed the point of being a novelty.

About the Festival

The festival celebrates the sausage that put Evergreen on grocery shelves far beyond Alabama. Conecuh Sausage has been produced in this town since 1947, and the annual festival gives the company and its hometown a shared day in the spotlight. Sources style the event several ways, and those name forms are worth recording as they appear rather than blending them into one label. A magazine layer and chamber vendor documents call it the Conecuh Sausage Festival, the chamber’s own event page headlines it the Evergreen Sausage Festival, university event listings bill it the Conecuh County Sausage Festival, and a magazine alternate styling calls it the Annual Sausage Festival and Fly-In.

That last name points to the festival’s defining quirk: it is held together with the Middleton Field Southeastern Fly-In, also styled the South Eastern Fly-In and shortened to SERFI. One source layer describes that fly-in as one of the oldest and largest private fly-ins in the Southeast, which means the festival grounds double as a working gathering place for pilots each year.

For a useful comparison, see the Colbert County Alabama Oka Kapassa Return to Cold Water Festival for another county festival.

Evergreen hosts the event, and Evergreen is also the county seat of Conecuh County, so the festival sits at the county’s civic centre as well as its culinary one.

Quick Facts

Fact	Detail
Festival name forms	Conecuh Sausage Festival; Evergreen Sausage Festival; Conecuh County Sausage Festival; Annual Sausage Festival and Fly-In
Host town	Evergreen, the county seat of Conecuh County, Alabama
Venue	Middleton Air Field (Middleton Field), 14134 Highway 84, Evergreen, AL 36401
Usual slot	The third Saturday in October, also described as the third weekend in October
Most recent billed edition	23rd Annual, Saturday, October 17, 2026
General admission	Free
Companion event	Middleton Field Southeastern Fly-In (SERFI), held on the same grounds
Product celebrated	Conecuh Sausage, hickory-smoked and made in Evergreen since 1947
Programme highlights	More than 100 arts, crafts and food vendors, a car show, live entertainment and a children’s area
Presenters in the 2018 layer	Conecuh Sausage Company, the City of Evergreen and the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce

History of the Conecuh Sausage Festival

The festival’s story starts with the sausage itself. Conecuh Sausage has been made in Evergreen since 1947, and over the decades the hickory-smoked links became the town’s signature food, stocked well beyond Conecuh County. A festival honouring that product grew into an annual fixture, and its billed edition numbers show how long the tradition has run: the 16th Annual edition took place on Saturday, October 20, 2018, the 22nd Annual followed on Saturday, October 18, 2025, and the 23rd Annual was billed for Saturday, October 17, 2026. Those ordinals are recorded exactly as the sources bill them; they mark the festival’s longevity without turning into a claimed founding year.

The grounds have their own layer of history. An older chamber article placed the 10th Annual edition in downtown Evergreen, while the airfield is the documented venue for the 2018, 2025 and 2026 editions, so the festival appears to have moved from the town centre out to Middleton Field as it grew. The 2018 edition also stretched beyond a single day on the programme side, adding a three-day PCA rodeo that ran October 18 through 20 alongside the festival Saturday.

The paperwork trail shows how the organising names shifted over time as well. The chamber’s current site uses the form Evergreen-Conecuh Chamber of Commerce, while an older chamber article used Evergreen-Conecuh County Chamber of Commerce. A 2018 chamber flyer billed the presenters as Conecuh Sausage Company, the City of Evergreen and the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce, a three-way partnership of the product’s maker, the town and its chamber that captures how deeply the event is woven into Evergreen itself.

What to Expect

Expect a full field. The documented programme for recent editions includes more than 100 arts and crafts and food vendors, so the grounds fill with handmade goods, festival cooking and, of course, sausage prepared in the hickory-smoked style that made the brand famous. A car show gives automotive fans their own draw, live entertainment keeps a stage busy, and a dedicated children’s area means younger visitors have space set aside rather than being an afterthought.

Above and around it all, the fly-in adds motion that no ordinary food festival can match. Pilots bring their aircraft into Middleton Field for the Southeastern Fly-In, and the comings and goings of small planes give the day a rhythm of engines and landings behind the music and crowd noise. Visitors who arrive for the sausage often stay longer than planned simply to watch the runway.

Some editions have stretched the programme wider still. In 2018 the festival Saturday sat inside a three-day PCA rodeo run from October 18 through 20, giving that year’s visitors a western-sports layer alongside the food, crafts and aircraft. That rodeo belonged to the 2018 edition specifically, and later billings do not promise it as a permanent fixture, which is a good reminder that the festival’s core stays constant while its side attractions rotate from year to year.

Separate ticketed components have appeared in some years without changing the festival’s free general admission. One secondary fall festival guide layer for its 2024 edition listed car show entry at twenty-five dollars and rodeo admission at ten dollars for adults and five dollars for children, with children two and under free. Those figures belong to that guide and that year, and they describe side events rather than the cost of walking onto the festival grounds.

Planning Your Visit

Aim for the third Saturday in October, the slot the chamber uses for the festival, and treat the airfield address as your anchor: Middleton Air Field, also called Middleton Field, at 14134 Highway 84 in Evergreen. Because the event occupies an active airfield shared with the fly-in, arriving earlier in the day makes parking, vendor browsing and plane watching easier before the grounds reach their busiest.

Hours deserve a careful read before you go, because the published layers do not fully agree. Event listings and the chamber gave 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the 2025 edition, while a magazine layer gave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the 2026 edition. Rather than merging those into a single promise, plan to arrive in the morning so the difference in closing times cannot cut your visit short.

Budgeting is straightforward: general admission to the festival is free, a point the event listings state outright and the magazine coverage echoes. Bring money for food, crafts and any separately ticketed side components that a given year’s programme may include, but the day itself carries no gate charge. Layers of clothing suit an October day on an open field, and anyone hoping to see particular aircraft should remember that fly-in traffic depends on weather, just as any outdoor festival does.

A Festival Day in Evergreen

A relaxed Saturday might begin with a mid-morning arrival, when the vendor rows are fully open and the first aircraft movements of the day are still easy to catch. Start with a slow loop past the arts and crafts stalls, then claim an early lunch of grilled sausage while the lines are short. The middle of the day suits the car show and the children’s area, with the stage entertainment filling the gaps between. By mid-afternoon, find a spot with a clear view of the runway, watch the fly-in traffic, and make a final pass through the food vendors before the closing hour, keeping in mind that published closing times have varied between editions.

Sausage Smoke and Airplane Engines: Two Events, One Field

Plenty of Alabama towns hold a food festival, and plenty of small airfields host a fly-in, but Evergreen folds the two into a single weekend identity. A conventional sausage festival would lean entirely on tastings and cooking, while a conventional fly-in would focus on aircraft and pilots. Here each event lends the other an audience: aviation families discover a regional food tradition, and food lovers who might never visit an airfield spend a day around working runways. The pairing explains the festival’s alternate billing as the Annual Sausage Festival and Fly-In, and it is the detail first-time visitors mention most afterwards.

Planning Checklist

• Confirm the year’s date against the third Saturday in October before travelling
• Note the venue as Middleton Air Field, 14134 Highway 84, Evergreen
• Arrive in the morning so differing published closing times cannot shorten the day
• Bring cash or cards for food, crafts and any ticketed side events
• Pack sunscreen and a layer for open-field October weather
• Leave time to watch fly-in arrivals and departures between vendor visits
• Plan a stop in downtown Evergreen to see the county seat beyond the airfield
• Check whether a rodeo or car show component is running in the current year

Beyond the Festival Grounds

Evergreen rewards a little extra wandering. As the county seat of Conecuh County, the town carries the civic buildings and courthouse-square character that go with that role, and a short drive from the airfield puts visitors in the middle of it. The sausage story continues in everyday form as well, since the product celebrated at the festival is part of the town’s working life all year rather than a costume it wears for one Saturday. Travellers crossing south Alabama in October often treat the festival as the anchor stop of a wider autumn drive through the region’s small towns.

The airfield location also changes what a detour looks like. Middleton Field keeps its ordinary aviation role outside festival weekend, and the same Highway 84 corridor that carries festival traffic serves the town year-round, so visitors who enjoyed the grounds can return to a quieter version of the place on any ordinary trip through Conecuh County.

Why the Conecuh Sausage Festival Matters

The festival matters because it celebrates something genuinely local at full strength. The sausage is not a theme borrowed for a weekend; it has been made in Evergreen since 1947 and remains the town’s best-known product. By pairing that food heritage with one of the Southeast’s notable private fly-ins, Evergreen built an event that shows off two of its assets at once and draws vendor, aviation and family audiences onto the same field. For Conecuh County, the third Saturday in October is when the county seat tastes, sounds and looks most like itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sets Conecuh sausage apart from other smoked sausages?

Conecuh Sausage is a hickory-smoked sausage made in Evergreen, Alabama, and it has been produced there since 1947. That combination of hometown manufacture and hickory smoke is what the festival exists to celebrate, and the brand’s reach far beyond Conecuh County is a point of local pride.

Does the fly-in run as a separate event beside the festival?

The festival is held together with the Middleton Field Southeastern Fly-In, also styled the South Eastern Fly-In or SERFI, on the same airfield grounds. The two gatherings share the weekend and the site rather than running in different places, and one source layer describes the fly-in as one of the oldest and largest private fly-ins in the Southeast.

Why do the published closing times differ between editions?

The listings simply do not agree, and the honest answer is to report both layers rather than merge them. Event listings and the chamber gave 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the 2025 edition, while a magazine layer gave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the 2026 edition. Arriving in the morning removes the risk either way.

Were the early editions always staged at the airfield?

No. An older chamber article placed the 10th Annual edition in downtown Evergreen, while Middleton Field is the documented venue for the 2018, 2025 and 2026 editions, so the festival’s home shifted from the town centre to the airfield as the event grew.

What to Expect From the Next Conecuh County Alabama Conecuh Sausage Festival

How often is Conecuh County Alabama Conecuh Sausage Festival held?

The festival returns each October, with the chamber describing its place in the calendar as the third weekend in October and the third Saturday in October. Recent editions have followed that pattern, from the 22nd Annual on October 18, 2025 to the 23rd Annual on October 17, 2026.

When is the next Conecuh County Alabama Conecuh Sausage Festival?

Following the documented third Saturday pattern, the next edition would be expected in October of the coming year, on the third Saturday of that month. Because published hours have varied between editions, checking the current year’s listing close to the date is the surest way to confirm both the day and the closing time.

Will the dates change?

The festival’s October slot has been consistent across the documented editions, and every recent billing has kept the third Saturday or third weekend framing. Weather or airfield considerations can affect any outdoor event held alongside a fly-in, so a final check of the current year’s details before travelling remains wise.

The Conecuh Sausage Festival endures because it does two things at once without diluting either: it honours a hickory-smoked sausage that has defined Evergreen since 1947, and it shares its field with a fly-in that fills the sky above the vendor rows. For one October Saturday each year, the county seat of Conecuh County smells of wood smoke, rings with live music and hums with aircraft engines, and that combination is worth the drive.