Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival
On the first Saturday of October, the barns and fields of Old Maryland Farm fill with the noise of a county farm day. The Fall Farm Festival, as the parks department prints the name, takes over Watkins Regional Park in Kettering for a single day, from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon, and the 2026 edition fell on Saturday 3 October. Entry costs nothing, the programme stays close to the farm itself, and the whole day reads as a working farm opened up for families. Pumpkins wait in the patch, the barn doors stand open, and the games, vendors and food trucks sit within a short walk of the animals. Kettering is not the county seat — that honour belongs to Upper Marlboro — yet for one October Saturday the farm becomes the county’s front porch.
About
The festival belongs to the county parks department. M-NCPPC, Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County, organises the day, and its own October events announcement gives the shape of it: a day-long October festival at Old Maryland Farm, in Watkins Regional Park, built around the farm rather than around a stage. A family-guide layer and a children’s-activities layer agree on the 2026 date and hours, and the parks department and a regional news layer both call it an annual event with the same early-October pattern.
The published name is simply Fall Farm Festival. The longer sheet form, Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival, is never printed exactly, so the article keeps the shorter printed name wherever the event itself is meant and reserves the full sheet form for the title and the outlook heading.
The day is deliberately small in scope. A pumpkin patch anchors the farmyard, farm-themed games run through the day, hands-on activities give children something to make and do, and the open barn lets visitors meet the farm’s friendly animals. Local craft vendors set out stalls nearby, and food and local produce trucks feed the crowd. A regional news layer adds three particulars that give the day its flavour: hobby-horse races, pumpkin bowling, and a children’s bingo card with prizes for the young players who complete it. Nothing about the programme strains for spectacle. Its appeal lies in the opposite direction — a real farm, in a real county park, doing what a farm does, with visitors invited to join in rather than merely watch.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Sheet title | Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival |
| Published name | Fall Farm Festival |
| Host town | Kettering, Maryland |
| County seat | Upper Marlboro, Maryland |
| Venue | Old Maryland Farm, Watkins Regional Park |
| Organiser | M-NCPPC, Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County |
| 2026 edition | Saturday 3 October 2026 |
| Hours | Ten in the morning to three in the afternoon |
| Admission | Free |
| Pattern | Annual, early October |
History
No founding account survives in the layers read. The parks department and a regional news layer both describe the Fall Farm Festival as an annual event, and a family-guide layer records the same early-October pattern, but none of the layers gives a first year, a founder, or a founding story, and none is derived here. The 2026 edition, on Saturday 3 October, is the single dated edition pinned down in the layers read, and it anchors everything the article says about the festival’s shape.
For a useful comparison, see the Montgomery County Maryland Wheaton Arts Parade Festival for another county festival.
That thinness is worth stating plainly. A festival with one dated edition and an annual pattern is not the same as a festival with a decade of dated editions, and the article does not pretend otherwise. What the record does give is consistent: the same venue, organiser, early-October slot and farm-centred programme, described by the parks department’s own announcement, a family-guide layer, a children’s-activities layer and a regional news layer. That agreement is the strongest evidence available that the day is a settled fixture rather than a one-off.
Old Maryland Farm itself is the constant: a working farm inside Watkins Regional Park, whose barns, animals and fields are not a backdrop but the substance of the day. The pumpkin patch, the open barn and the farm-themed games all depend on the place being a farm first and a festival ground second.
What to Expect
The day runs from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon, and the hours matter because the festival is a single-day gathering with no evening session. Arriving near opening time gives a visitor the full five hours, and the programme is spread across the farmyard rather than packed into a single hour, so no single moment must be missed.
The pumpkin patch is the natural first stop, sitting at the heart of the farmyard, close to the barn and the games, where visitors choose pumpkins from the patch itself. Farm-themed games run through the day, and the hands-on activities are pitched at children who want to do something rather than watch. The open barn is the quiet centre of the festival: the farm’s animals are there to be met, and the barn doors stand open for the whole of the day.
A regional news layer records three of the day’s most distinctive contests. Hobby-horse races send children galloping around a course on stick horses. Pumpkin bowling turns the harvest’s most familiar fruit into a game. A children’s bingo card, with prizes for those who complete it, gives younger visitors a reason to wander the farmyard, collecting marks as they go. None of these needs a ticket or a booking; they are part of the free day.
Local craft vendors line the farmyard, and food and local produce trucks serve the crowd through the day. The trucks sell food to eat on the spot and produce to take home, which suits a farm festival: the eating and the shopping both come from the land around the visitor. No layer read mentions live music, rides or a midway, so visitors should expect a farm day rather than a fair, where the noise is conversation, children’s games and animals, and the pace is the farm’s own.
Planning Your Visit
Arrive near ten in the morning. The festival runs for five hours, ten until three, and the morning holds the freshest pick of the pumpkin patch and the quietest hour in the open barn. Midday brings the full crowd and the longest lines at the food trucks, while the last hour, from two until three, is the gentlest time to wander, finish a bingo card and choose a pumpkin without hurrying.
Entry costs nothing, and no ticket or booking is mentioned in any layer read, so no advance purchase is needed. Bring cash or a card for the craft stalls and the trucks, since those are the day’s only spending. The farmyard is outdoors, and no layer read states a rain policy, so check the parks department’s announcement before travelling in bad weather, and wear shoes that suit grass, dirt and barn floors.
Kettering is not the county seat, and visitors driving in from elsewhere in the county pass through Upper Marlboro, the seat, on the way to Watkins Regional Park. Old Maryland Farm sits inside the park, so follow the park signs for the farm rather than for any other part of the grounds. Families with small children will find the day easy going: the site is compact, the programme is built for children, and five hours is short enough that nobody needs to pace a long haul.
A Sample Day
Ten in the morning: arrive at Old Maryland Farm as the festival opens, and head first for the pumpkin patch while the choice is widest. Choose a pumpkin and set it aside, then walk to the open barn to meet the animals before the midday crowd gathers.
Late morning: take on the farm-themed games and the hands-on activities. Try the hobby-horse races and pumpkin bowling, and pick up a children’s bingo card to give younger visitors a trail through the farmyard.
Midday: eat from the food trucks and browse the craft vendors and produce trucks. This is the busiest hour, so take it slowly and look at the stalls rather than rushing between games.
Early afternoon: finish the bingo card, collect any prize, and return to the pumpkin patch for a last look, then revisit the barn, when the animals are quieter and the farmyard has thinned.
Three in the afternoon: the festival closes. Carry the pumpkin home from a working farm that spent one Saturday in October as the county’s front porch.
How It Compares
Three other events sit close enough to this one to cause confusion, and each is a different gathering.
The Fall Festival at Montpelier Farms, in Upper Marlboro, runs for multiple weeks and pairs a corn maze with a pumpkin patch. It is a longer, larger farm festival at a different farm, and it does not rescue or merge with the Fall Farm Festival. A visitor who wants a single Saturday at a county farm should look for Kettering; a visitor who wants a multi-week maze should look for Montpelier Farms.
The Calvert County Fall Farm Festival is a multi-farm event in a different county altogether. Its name is close, and its theme is close, but its geography is not: Calvert County is not Prince George’s County, and the two belong to different organisers in different places.
Halloween on the Farm is the nearest neighbour of all, because it takes place at the same venue — Old Maryland Farm — later in October. It is a separate event, not a second weekend of the Fall Farm Festival, and its Halloween theme sets it apart from the early-October harvest day. The shared address is a coincidence of place, not of identity.
Checklist
- Arrive near ten in the morning for the widest choice in the pumpkin patch.
- Wear shoes that suit grass, dirt and barn floors.
- Bring something sturdy to carry a pumpkin home in.
- Pick up a children’s bingo card early so the day has a trail to follow.
- Try the hobby-horse races and pumpkin bowling before the midday crowd.
- Visit the open barn twice — once early, once late — to see the animals at their quietest.
- Save time for the craft stalls and the produce trucks before the three o’clock close.
- Check the parks department’s announcement before travelling in bad weather.
Beyond the Festival
Watkins Regional Park is the setting, and the festival occupies only the farm within it. A visitor with time to spare can walk the wider park grounds before or after the festival hours, though the festival ends at three in the afternoon and the farmyard closes with it.
Upper Marlboro, the county seat, lies on the road to Kettering for many county visitors, and it is worth a pause for the county’s civic centre. Kettering itself is a residential community rather than a market town, and the festival is its most visible public day of the autumn. The farm, the park and the seat together give a compact picture of Prince George’s County: a working farm preserved inside a county park, a county seat a short drive away, and a parks department keeping the two connected with a free October day.
Why the Festival Matters
A free farm day run by the county parks department matters because it asks nothing of its visitors except that they turn up. There is no ticket, no booking and no charge at the gate, and the programme is built from the farm itself rather than bought in from outside. Children meet animals, play farm games and carry a pumpkin home, and the day costs a family nothing beyond what they choose to spend at the stalls and trucks.
The festival also shows what a county park can be. Old Maryland Farm is a working farm kept inside Watkins Regional Park, and the Fall Farm Festival is the day the farm opens itself most fully to the public. The parks department’s decision to stage an annual October day there, and to keep it free, says something about how the county values its farm heritage: not as a museum piece behind glass, but as a place where children can meet a farm animal, bowl a pumpkin and race a hobby horse.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can children do at the Fall Farm Festival?
Children are the festival’s main audience. The programme gives them farm-themed games, hands-on activities, hobby-horse races, pumpkin bowling and a bingo card with prizes, alongside the pumpkin patch and the open barn.
How does Halloween on the Farm differ from this festival?
Halloween on the Farm is a separate later-October event at the same venue, Old Maryland Farm, with a Halloween theme. The Fall Farm Festival is the early-October harvest day, held on Saturday 3 October in 2026, and the two are not two weekends of one festival.
What food and produce can visitors buy on the day?
Food and local produce trucks serve the crowd through the day, and local craft vendors sell from stalls in the farmyard. Entry is free, so the only spending is what visitors choose to buy from the trucks and stalls.
What should families bring for the day?
Comfortable shoes for grass, dirt and barn floors, and something sturdy to carry a pumpkin home in. Entry is free and no ticket is needed, so there is nothing to book in advance; the only spending is at the craft stalls and the trucks.
What to Expect From the Next Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival
How often is Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival held?
The parks department describes the gathering as an annual event, and a family-guide layer records the same early-October pattern. The festival returns each October rather than running through the year.
When is the next Prince George’s County Maryland Fall Farm Festival?
The 2026 edition fell on Saturday 3 October. No following date has been published in the material reviewed, so the next edition’s exact day will come from the parks department’s announcement. The annual pattern points to early October, and the venue, organiser and free entry are least likely to shift.
Will the dates change?
The early-October pattern has held in the layers read, and the 2026 edition kept to it. Dates are set by the parks department each year, so a visitor planning ahead should check the announcement rather than assume the first Saturday. The pattern is steady; the precise day is the parks department’s to confirm.
The Fall Farm Festival is a small day, honestly made: one farm, one Saturday in early October, five free hours, and a programme built from pumpkins, animals, games and neighbours. Kettering’s farm does not try to be more, and it does not need to. For families in Prince George’s County, it is the October day that costs nothing and gives back a pumpkin, a bingo card and an afternoon among the animals.
