Unplug This Weekend: Garlic, Ski Swaps and an Early Oktoberfest (September 26–27)

An Unplugged Cabins weekend guide — for everyone who’d rather be outside.

TL;DR

Near Clove Creek (Catskills, ~2–2.5 hours from Manhattan)

• Hudson Valley Garlic Festival — Sat–Sun, Saugerties
• Hunter Mountain Homecoming & Ski Swap — Sat–Sun, SkyRide 9–4
• Oktoberfest at Jägerberg — Fest Saturday 2–9pm, Hunter
• Cruisin’ on the Mountaintop car show — Sun, Tannersville Main Street
• Byrdcliffe Open Studios — Sat 1–5pm, Woodstock
• Hope Rocks Festival — Sat 11am, Bearsville Theater
• Laith Al-Saadi at Levon Helm Studios — Fri–Sun, 8pm

~2 hours from Manhattan

• Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze — Fri–Sun evenings, Croton-on-Hudson
• Mountaintop Oktoberfest at Mohonk — Sat–Sun, New Paltz
• Grape stomp at Robibero Winery — Sat–Sun, New Paltz
• Fishkill Farms harvest weekend — Sat–Sun, Hopewell Junction
• Bethel Woods Harvest Festival — Sun, Bethel

~3 hours from Manhattan

• Caffè Lena Fiddles & Foliage — Sun, Saratoga Springs
• Blacksmith Weekend at Fenimore Farm — Sat–Sun, Cooperstown
• Delhi Harvest Festival and the Schoharie fall antique show — Sat (and Sun in Schoharie)

~5 hours from Manhattan

• Naples Grape Festival — Sat–Sun
• Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival — Fri–Sun
• Oktoberfest at Whiteface — Sat–Sun, Wilmington

Last weekend the good stuff was spread across the state. This weekend it comes to us. Most of what’s worth the drive happens within forty minutes of Route 214, and three of the best things are ten minutes from the cabin door.

Start with the smell. Saugerties hosts the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival on Saturday and Sunday, the Kiwanis Club’s 36th year of it: a garlic marketplace, a food alley where garlic is the point of every dish, and a crowd that knows exactly why it came. Buy advance tickets before Friday at 5pm and it’s $10. At the gate, it’s $15. Kids under 12 are free.

Then go up the mountain. Hunter Mountain calls this its homecoming weekend. There’s a ski swap Saturday morning for anyone already thinking about December, and the SkyRide runs 9 to 4 both days. From the top, you get your first real look at how far the color has moved. Our foliage towns guide explains how to read the leaf report. The SkyRide just shows you.

Three of this weekend’s best things are ten minutes from the cabin door. Leave the car parked for most of it.

Hunter’s Main Street has its own early Oktoberfest. Jägerberg’s beer hall opens three weekends of it on Friday, with its first Fest Saturday from 2 to 9pm and an accordion player Sunday afternoon. Don’t confuse it with Hunter Mountain’s own festival. That one is renamed “Colors in the Catskills” this year and starts October 3.

Sunday belongs to Tannersville. The village closes Main Street for Cruisin’ on the Mountaintop: hot rods, classics and motorcycles parked nose to tail, a pop-up market, and Whiskey Cross playing from 11 to 3:30. It’s free to wander. Get a coffee and walk the line twice.

Woodstock is the art-and-music half of the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, Byrdcliffe, the historic arts colony above town, opens its artists-in-residence studios for the last time this season, then moves to readings and performances at the Byrdcliffe Theatre. Earlier that day, Hope Rocks, a benefit concert on addiction and isolation, takes over Bearsville Theater at 11am, admission by donation, with Gail Ann Dorsey, Jim Weider and Mike Farris. And three nights running, Laith Al-Saadi plays Levon Helm’s barn at 8.

Want quieter? The Mountain Top Historical Society in Haines Falls closes its 250th-anniversary season on Saturday with a free talk on the Hudson River School, then a visit into the landscape the painters worked from. Windham’s farmers’ market runs Saturday morning. On Sunday, Wyld Blu plays a free afternoon show in Big Indian Park. And if you’d rather earn your view, the Catskill Center’s guided hike to the Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower is free, with registration required.

Willing to drive the long way up? The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in Croton-on-Hudson is on all three nights, with advance tickets only. Mohonk turns its mountaintop into a beer hall for a German buffet and alpenhorn on the lake. Robibero Winery in New Paltz lets you stomp grapes, and Fishkill Farms has picking, a corn maze and bluegrass on Saturday. On Sunday, Bethel Woods fills the 1969 festival grounds with a harvest market.

Farther still: Caffè Lena’s Fiddles & Foliage in Saratoga’s High Rock Park on Sunday, blacksmithing and a new scarecrow trail at Fenimore Farm in Cooperstown, and, five hours out, the Naples Grape Festival, Ithaca’s Apple Harvest Festival and Whiteface’s Oktoberfest. Those are long-weekend trips. Book the extra night.

For this one, you don’t need to go far. Garlic in the morning, a SkyRide at noon, a stein by late afternoon, and back to the hot tub before dark.

Staying close to all of it? Clove Creek Cabin in Lanesville is ten minutes from Hunter and Tannersville, with a hot tub, sauna and fire pit waiting when you get back. Book Clove Creek. Everything above is on our events calendar.