Spring Wildflower Season Drives
Region-wide
Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush peak across the back roads. Not an event so much as a moving target — chase the bloom reports.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
What's on
The year in the hills
Festivals, harvests, river days, and holiday lights — the Hill Country runs on a seasonal calendar. Here's the shape of the year.
Spring Spring Bluebonnet Festival
Burnet
The “Bluebonnet Capital of Texas” throws a spring street festival with a parade, market, and live music as the flowers peak.
Burnet Bluebonnet Festival
Spring Wimberley Market Days
Wimberley
One of the largest open-air markets in Texas — more than 490 booths of art, antiques, and food at Lions Field. Free to get in, $5 to park.
Wimberley Lions Club
Spring Gruene Hall Spring Sessions
Gruene
The 1878 hall fills its spring calendar with Texas songwriters and dance nights — many afternoon shows are free.
Gruene Hall calendar
Spring Kerrville Folk Festival
Quiet Valley Ranch, Kerrville
One of the longest-running songwriter festivals in the country — eighteen days of stages, campfires, and new songs on a ranch outside town.
Kerrville Folk Festival
Summer Blanco Lavender Festival
Blanco
Three days around the old Blanco County courthouse at the height of lavender season — farm tours, distillers, artisans, and live music.
Blanco Lavender Festival
Summer Stonewall Peach JAMboree & Rodeo
Stonewall
A small-town celebration of the Hill Country peach harvest — rodeo, parade, peach everything, and a dance. Sixty-one years and counting.
Stonewall Chamber of Commerce
Summer River Float Season
Guadalupe & Comal Rivers
Outfitters open along the rivers for the summer tubing season. Check flow and the forecast upstream before you book — this is also flash-flood season.
Visit New Braunfels
Summer Bat Flights at Old Tunnel
Old Tunnel State Park, near Fredericksburg
Up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats pour out of an abandoned railroad tunnel at dusk. Tickets are required after 5 p.m. and sold in advance only.
Old Tunnel State Park (TPWD)
Summer Dark Sky Star Parties
Enchanted Rock
Ranger-led night programs at the certified International Dark Sky Park. Reserve a pass ahead — after-hours access is limited.
Enchanted Rock park events
Summer Gillespie County Fair
Fredericksburg
The oldest continuous county fair in Texas, running since 1881 — livestock, a Main Street parade, a carnival, and two days of pari-mutuel horse racing. The 138th.
Gillespie County Fair Association
Fall Texas Wine Harvest & Wine Month
Wine Road 290
Crush season fills the tasting rooms with new-vintage energy, and October brings passport programs and special pours up and down the road.
Texas Hill Country Wineries Fall Fredericksburg Oktoberfest
Marktplatz, Fredericksburg
The town’s German roots on full display — five stages of oompah and Texas music, beer, food, and dancing in Marktplatz. Forty-five years running.
Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg
Fall Bandera Fall Trail Rides
Bandera
Cooler weather brings horseback weekends and honky-tonk nights to the Cowboy Capital of the World.
Bandera CVB Fall Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest
Fredericksburg
Four days built around a Grand Tasting in Marktplatz with 75-plus food and drink stations. Every winery, chef, brewer, and distiller in it is Hill Country–based.
Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest
Fall Fall Color at Lost Maples
Lost Maples State Natural Area, Vanderpool
The relict bigtooth maples of the Sabinal Canyon turn scarlet for about three weeks. TPWD posts a weekly foliage report from mid-October — read it before you drive.
TPWD foliage reports Fall Wurstfest
New Braunfels
Ten days of sausage, polka, and Gemütlichkeit on the banks of the Comal — one of the biggest German festivals in the country.
Wurstfest
Winter Lights Spectacular
Johnson City
More than two million lights on the Blanco County courthouse square, Memorial Park, and the PEC headquarters. Dusk to midnight, free.
Lights Spectacular
Winter Walkway of Lights
Lakeside Park, Marble Falls
A walk-through light display on the shore of Lake Marble Falls, plus the Light Up Parade that opens the season. A couple of dollars a head.
City of Marble Falls Winter New Year’s Eve Dance Hall Nights
Gruene & beyond
Ring in the new year two-stepping under century-old rafters — the dance halls go all out for NYE, and the good ones sell out in November.
Gruene Hall calendarConfirmed dates say the year; everything else is a typical window. Calendar last reviewed August 2026 — always check the organizer before you build a trip around a date.
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