Autumn is when the Hill Country calendar gets crowded. Four events carry most of the weight between late August and mid-November, and if you book lodging a week out for any of them you will be sleeping in Junction. Here they are, with dates.
Gillespie County Fair — Aug 27–30
The oldest continuous county fair in Texas, running since 1881, and the 138th edition this year. Livestock, household and agricultural exhibits, an antique tractor show, a 42 domino tournament, a carnival, and — the part that surprises people — two days of pari-mutuel horse racing on the fairgrounds track. The Main Street parade is Friday morning at ten.
Fredericksburg Oktoberfest — Oct 2–4
Forty-five years of Texas Gemütlichkeit in Marktplatz: five stages running at once, oompah bands and Texas acts, and a downtown that closes ranks around it. Advance tickets are cheap — $15 for a day, $25 for all three — and there is a park-and-ride so you are not circling Main Street.
Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest — Oct 22–25
Four days that close out October, Texas Wine Month, properly. The centerpiece is a Saturday Grand Tasting in Marktplatz with more than 75 food and drink stations, plus an opening-night party, a four-course downtown dinner, and a closing brunch. Every winery, chef, brewery, and distillery on the roster has to be Hill Country–based, which is the rule that makes it worth the ticket.
Wurstfest — Nov 6–15
Ten days of sausage, polka, and beer on the banks of the Comal in New Braunfels, and one of the largest German festivals in the country. It does not pretend to be anything other than what it is. Come hungry; wear shoes you can dance in.
Book lodging the day you decide to go. Fredericksburg fills for all three of its fall weekends, and the rates follow.
And the quieter ones
- Bandera trail rides through October weekends — horseback days, honky-tonk nights.
- Texas Wine Month all through October, with passport programs up and down Wine Road 290.
- Fall color at Lost Maples from late October into late November — check the weekly foliage report.
- Wimberley Market Days, first Saturday of the month right through December.
- The holiday lights switch on the weekend after Thanksgiving in Johnson City and Marble Falls.
