When people think about October in the Lakes and North Country regions, the leaves get most of the attention. Fair enough, they do a lot of the work. But the leaves are the stunning backdrop, not the main event. The main event is happening at a fairground in Center Sandwich, on a lakeside lawn in Meredith, and in downtown in Laconia on a street that is about to turn very orange.
Laconia has hosted the pumpkin festival since 2015, when it moved over from Keene, where it had run for twenty-four years. Some places take in a tradition and make it their own. I’m partial to those places.
Something shifts this time of year. The marinas finish hauling boats, weekday parking gets easy again, and the Lakes Region goes back to being a place people live rather than a place people visit. The ones who stayed start running into each other at the same events on the same nights, which is the best part of a small region and the part nobody puts on the brochure.
For myself, its the time of year when I slow down on my drives, sometimes literally gasp in awe at a particularly bright red or orange against a grey sky and act like a tourist and pull over to snap photos of the same places I drive past every day because I can. Here’s one someone else too that captures one of my favorite views in Lincoln, NH.
Here’s a selection from the month. A few of these sit right at the edge of the region, because I draw the borders generously. As always, let me know what I’ve missed by leaving a comment!
Fairs & Festivals
Mt. Washington Valley Fall Craft Fair, Schouler Park, North Conway. October 2-4. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A little north of the Lakes Region, but a short drive if you’re on the Carroll County side of things.
Autumn Craft Festival on the Lake, Mill Falls Marketplace, Meredith. Saturday, October 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, October 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free, rain or shine. Over 70 juried booths of crafts and specialty foods along the water, now in its 27th year, with leashed dogs welcome and free parking around downtown. A civilized way to start the holiday shopping before anyone is ready to admit that’s what they’re doing.
Antique & Vintage Fair on the Green, Clark Museum Complex, Wolfeboro. Saturday, October 3. Vendors set up on the museum grounds for the last of these fairs this year. Check the Wolfeboro Historical Society for hours.
Sandwich Fair, 7 Wentworth Hill Road, Center Sandwich. October 10-12, Columbus Day weekend. Livestock shows, oxen and tractor pulls, an antique auto show, a parade, a cornhole tournament, a Lego competition, and both a keg toss and a skillet toss, which I would like to see attempted by someone other than me. It tends to land right in peak color. Check thesandwichfair.com for the daily schedule and admission.
The Village at Paugus Bay October Makers Market, 131 Lake Street, Gilford. October 17-18, starting Saturday at 10 a.m. and wrapping Sunday at 3 p.m.
Laconia Pumpkin Festival, downtown Laconia. Friday, October 23, 4 to 10 p.m., and Saturday, October 24, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Friday evening soft opening is new this year, so you get a warm-up. Expect the Runaway Pumpkin 10K and 5K (the course runs past Lake Opechee), the pumpkin tower stacked with glowing jack-o’-lanterns, a kids’ costume parade, a parade of costumed pets, a zombie invasion, food trucks, a beer tent, live music, and laser shows. It is the kind of day you plan around the tower and then end up somewhere near the fried dough. I’ll be there with a booth for Lakes and Peaks Provisions Co. Stop by and say hello.
Haunts & Halloween
Haunted Winnipesaukee, Meredith Town Docks. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through October 24. Ninety minutes aboard the Winnipesaukee Belle with a Ghost Host, 18 tales of local horror and bizarre history, seasonal desserts, and cocktails made with Tamworth Distillery spirits. It turns out the lake has a darker side, and a bar that makes a mean cocktail.
Fear Farm, Beans & Greens Farm, Gilford. Fridays and Saturdays throughout October, plus Halloween night (Saturday the 31st, 7 to 10 p.m., last entry at 9:30). A woodland trail leads into abandoned greenhouses full of scare actors. Anyone under 18 needs to be with an adult. Not for the faint of heart, or for anyone who has ever been in a greenhouse at night. By day the same farm runs Fall Fun on the Farm, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Happy Hauntings, Story Land, Glen. Weekends through October 25. Trick-or-treating, pumpkin painting, bubble dance parties, and story time with Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Costumes encouraged.
Hocus Pocus, The Flying Monkey, Plymouth. Wednesday, October 14, 6 p.m., doors at 5. The Sanderson sisters on the big screen, with $1 from every ticket going to Pemi-Valley Habitat for Humanity.
The Edgar Allan Poe Afterlife Radio Show, Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Meredith. October 29-31. The Winni Players Community Theatre imagines Poe trying to keep his stories alive from beyond the grave through an otherworldly radio studio and a cast of wandering spirits. The master of the macabre, it seems, has a few things to learn about radio.
Trick or Treat, Clark Museum Complex, Wolfeboro. Saturday, October 31.
Stage & Gallery
Peter and the Starcatcher, The Colonial Theatre, Laconia. October 9-11. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, the same group behind August’s Shrek, is back with the prequel to Peter Pan.
Also at The Colonial Theatre. The Michael Jackson HIStory Show on Wednesday the 14th, Girls Night The Musical on Saturday the 17th, and Bat Out of Helloween, a tribute to Meat Loaf and Rocky Horror, on Friday the 23rd. That last one lands on the same night as the Pumpkin Festival soft opening, which makes Laconia a very full place that evening. Check coloniallaconia.com for times.
Wind & Waves, Lakes Region Art Gallery at the Tanger Outlet, Tilton. New work inspired by the changing light, shifting skies, and seasonal color of a New Hampshire fall. Open daily.
Fundraisers & Community Good
Hops for Habitat, Black Rock Social Club, Portsmouth. Wednesday, October 21, 5 to 7:30 p.m. Portside Real Estate Group’s annual benefit for Habitat for Humanity, done this year in two places on the same night. The Portsmouth side benefits Southeast New Hampshire Habitat for Humanity, and a sister event at Flight Deck Brewing in Brunswick, Maine, benefits Habitat for Humanity 7 Rivers. Food, auction items, and beer, co-hosted by Absolute Title, with 100% of proceeds going to Habitat. Tickets are through the Portside Foundation page. Not the Lakes Region, but an evening on the Seacoast in service of affordable housing is the kind of thing I’m happy to point at.
On the Water & Out on the Land
Castle in the Clouds, Moultonborough. Open daily through October 25, the last day of the 2026 season. Lake views, daily tours of Lucknow Mansion, and a new exhibition, “From Private Estate to Public Treasure: Lucknow after Thomas and Olive Plant.” On Friday, October 2, the head gardener leads a Lucknow Garden Tour from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, Holderness. Last call for pontoon season. Cruise with a Naturalist runs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. through October 8, and the Discover Squam guided cruise runs daily, 1 to 2:30 p.m., through October 12. The Live Animal Exhibit Trail stays open daily through November 1.
Weekly Rituals
Tilt’n Diner Cruise Night, Tilton. Thursdays, 5 to 7 p.m., classic cars out front. The final one is October 29.
Thursty Thursdays, Notch Biergarten at Beans & Greens Farm, Gilford. Thursdays from 5 p.m. Live music, table and yard games.
Live Music on the Patio, Hermit Woods Winery, Meredith. Fridays, 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturdays, noon to 3 p.m., rain or shine. They move inside if the weather turns.
Farmers’ markets. Weirs Community Park in Laconia, Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., through October 3. Barnstead, Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., through October 10. The last weekends of the season for both.
Free First Friday, The Belknap Mill, Laconia. Friday, October 2, free museum admission, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Anytime in October
Apple picking is still on at Surowiec Farm in Sanbornton and at Stone Mountain Farm and Smith Orchard in Belmont, though hours thin out as the month goes on, so check before you drive.
October doesn’t wait for you to be ready for it. The color comes in when it comes in, the fairs happen on the weekends they’ve always happened, and the light goes early now, early enough to catch you off guard in a parking lot. Here’s to the last warm afternoon, the first fire in the stove, and whatever you end up holding at the pumpkin tower.
🧭 Jennifer
Keys to the Lakes
