The weekend before Halloween is the Catskills’ loudest weekend of the fall. A free three-day Halloween festival runs 38 minutes from the cabin at Blackthorne Resort in East Durham, Palenville hosts a candlelit ghost tour and an all-day harvest festival on the same road 25 minutes out, and the season’s big pumpkin trails, the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze and Bethel Woods’ Peace, Love & Pumpkins, light up after dark. On Sunday, the Catskill Farmers Market holds its last market of the year. Last weekend’s picks are in our October 17–18 guide.
Below: every pick on our events calendar for October 24–25, grouped by drive, with hours and admission from each organizer’s own page, checked on October 21. Organizers can change prices on the day, so check the official page before you go.
Every pick this weekend
Within an hour of the cabin
| Event | When | Admission | From Clove Creek |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Birds of a Feather”: Twelfth Night Ensemble, Doctorow Center, Hunter | Sat | From $9.31 | ~13 min |
| Palenville Ghost Tours, Central House | Sat, 8 pm and 10 pm | $25 adults; $15 ages 12–16 | ~25 min |
| 30th Annual New York Harvest Fest, Griffin House, Palenville | Sat, noon–midnight | Full day $60 advance, $75 gate; after 6 pm $40 advance, $60 gate | ~25 min |
| Catskills Halloween Festival & Vendor Market, Blackthorne Resort, East Durham | Fri–Sun | Free (2026 tickets free) | ~38 min |
| “Dancin’ with the Dead”, Bridge Street Theatre, Catskill | Sat, 7–11 pm | Not listed | ~39 min |
| Catskill Mountain Railroad Pumpkin Express, Kingston | Sat–Sun, 10, 12, 2 and 4 | $25 adults; $23 seniors, military, veterans; $19 ages 2–12; under 2 free | ~41 min |
| Catskill Farmers Market, Water Street (season finale) | Sun, 10–1 | Free entry | ~42 min |
| Headless Horseman Hayrides & Haunted Attractions, Ulster Park | Sat–Sun, from dusk | $73.90 + tax online, $78.90 + tax on-site; Scream Pass $41 | ~54 min |
| Rossum’s Universal Robots, Fisher Center, Annandale-on-Hudson | Sat 2 and 7:30; Sun 4 | $26.50–$46.50 | ~54 min |
One to two hours from the cabin
| Event | When | Admission | From Clove Creek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hocus Pocus Halloween Parade & Festivities, Main Street, Beacon | Sat from 11; parade at 3 | Free | ~1 h 16 min |
| Night of the Living Dead Dance Party, Compass Arts, Beacon | Sat, 8 pm–midnight | $40–$95 advance; $50 at the door | ~1 h 22 min |
| Brotherhood Winery Halloween Ball, Washingtonville | Sat, 7–11 pm | $110, advance only; 21+, costumes required | ~1 h 23 min |
| Deities & Demons Masquerade Ball, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Wappingers Falls | Sat, grounds from noon; ball 8:45 pm–1 am | Not listed; members 30% off | ~1 h 26 min |
| Fishkill Farms Fall Harvest Festival, Hopewell Junction | Sat–Sun; corn maze 10–5 | Corn maze $5; pick-your-own by reservation | ~1 h 26 min |
| Peace, Love & Pumpkins, Bethel Woods | Sat–Sun, 6:30–10 pm | $25–$30 adults; $15–$20 ages 3–17 | ~1 h 34 min |
| Gothic Market Weekend, Lyndhurst, Tarrytown | Fri–Sun, market 10–5 | $35 adults; $33 seniors, AAA, military, students; $29 ages 6–16; 5 and under free | ~1 h 52 min |
| The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson | Sat–Sun, timed entry | From $24; advance only, nothing sold at the gate | ~1 h 53 min |
About three hours from Manhattan
| Event | Where | When | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th Annual Fall Fest | Downtown Broadway, Saratoga Springs | Sat, 12–3 | Free |
| Night of the Jack-o-Lanterns | Artisanal Brew Works, Saratoga Springs | Sat, 2–8 | Free for dining guests; trail only $5 |
| Trick or Treat at the Farm | Fenimore Farm, Cooperstown | Sat, 1–3 | Free |
| “Things That Go Bump in the Night” | Fenimore Farm, Cooperstown | Sat, tours 5:30–8 | $20; members $17.50 |
| Naumkeag Pumpkin Show | Stockbridge, MA | Sat–Sun, 5–9 | $32 adults ($27 members); ages 3–15 $15 ($10); advance timed tickets only |
| “Melville, Haunted” | Arrowhead, Pittsfield, MA | Sat, 6:30–9 | $60; BCHS members $55 |
About five hours from Manhattan
| Event | Where | When | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall for Schroon Festival & Car Show | Schroon Lake | Sat (moved from Oct 17) | Not listed |
| Haunted History at Crown Point | Crown Point State Historic Site | Sat, 6–7 | Not listed |
| TROLLS: Save the Humans (final weekend) | The Wild Center, Tupper Lake | Sat–Sun, 10–5 | With general admission |
| Fall Fun at the Corning Museum of Glass | Corning | Sat–Sun, 9–5 | $25 adults; 17 and under free |
| Insectapalooza | Stocking Hall, Cornell, Ithaca | Sat, 9–3 | Not listed |
The big free one: the Catskills Halloween Festival
Thirty-eight minutes. Blackthorne Resort in East Durham hosts the Catskills Halloween Festival & Vendor Market, October 23–25. The festival calls itself the largest free Halloween festival in the Northeast, and 2026 tickets are free. Expect hundreds of booths of gothic crafts, oddities and steampunk wares, live performances, trick-or-treating and a haunted house on site.
Saturday night, 25 minutes out. Palenville runs two very different programs on the same road. The candlelit ghost tours at the Central House, a 19th-century inn, start at 8 and 10: $25 for adults, $15 for ages 12–16. From noon to midnight next door, the 30th Annual New York Harvest Fest fills the Griffin House: a cannabis-culture festival with the Sam Grisman Project and Skeleton Crewe in the after-6 lineup. Full-day tickets are $60 in advance and $75 at the gate; after-6 entry is $40 in advance, $60 at the gate.
Sunday morning. The Catskill Farmers Market holds its last market of 2026 on Water Street, 10 to 1. Its season runs through the last Sunday of October, and this is it.
After dark: pumpkins and ghosts
The Blaze. The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson runs every night in October: more than 7,000 hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns across 23 displays, with a new Little Literary Lane this year. Timed tickets start at $24 for the late weekday slots, and every ticket is sold in advance. Nothing is sold at the gate.
Bethel Woods. Closer to the cabin, Peace, Love & Pumpkins lights the Woodstock festival grounds both nights, 6:30 to 10, with haunted wagon rides on Friday and Saturday and the 21-and-over Boos & Booze night on Saturday. Adults are $25 to $30, ages 3 to 17 are $15 to $20.
The full haunt. Headless Horseman in Ulster Park runs all 13 attractions both nights on its 65-acre farm: the hayride, six haunted houses, a corn maze and a circus sideshow. One ticket covers everything: $73.90 plus tax online, $78.90 on-site. The organizer doesn’t recommend it for children under 13, and children 8 and under are not admitted to the evening attractions.
Cooperstown. Fenimore Farm pairs free trick-or-treating (1 to 3) with “Things That Go Bump in the Night”, lantern-led tours of the darkened village every half hour from 5:30 to 8, $20 for nonmembers.
The weekend before Halloween is the one weekend the whole region is performing at once. Book the timed-entry events first, then fill around them.
Daytime: trains, markets and farm festivals
The Pumpkin Express. The Catskill Mountain Railroad leaves Kingston’s Westbrook Lane Station at 10, noon, 2 and 4 both days, 41 minutes from the cabin: about 90 minutes and eight miles round trip, with a stop where each rider picks a pumpkin to take home. $25 for adults, $23 for seniors, military and veterans, $19 for ages 2–12, free under 2.
Fishkill Farms. The Fall Harvest Festival in Hopewell Junction runs both days. The corn maze is $5 a person, and 30 percent of every ticket goes to local charities. Live music runs noon to 4, the Bunker Boys on Saturday and Jungle Love on Sunday, and the cider bar pours 11 to 6. Pick-your-own needs a reservation.
Up north. Schroon Lake moved its Fall for Schroon Festival & Car Show to Saturday the 24th after weather pushed it off the 17th, with the car show and a harvest farmers market. In Ithaca, Insectapalooza fills Cornell’s Stocking Hall from 9 to 3 with hundreds of live insects, the Arthropod Zoo and kids’ crafts. At the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, TROLLS: Save the Humans closes October 31, so this is the last weekend to see the six giant trolls; they’re included with general admission.
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Wappingers Falls. The Deities & Demons Masquerade Ball at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors opens its grounds at noon. A full moon ceremony with Alex Grey and Allyson Grey runs 7 to 8:30, then the ball runs 8:45 to 1, with ATYYA, Zen Selekta and DoVeE, live painting, fire performers and a bonfire. CoSM is alcohol-free; the event page lists no ticket price, and members get 30 percent off.
Washingtonville. Brotherhood Winery, America’s oldest winery, holds its Halloween Ball in its historic cellars from 7 to 11. Tickets are $110 and include a dinner buffet and an open wine bar; it’s 21 and over, costumes are required, and tickets are sold in advance only.
Beacon. Compass Arts throws its fourth annual Night of the Living Dead Dance Party, 8 to midnight, with three DJs and costumes encouraged. Tickets run $40 to $95 in advance, $50 at the door, and the night funds its programs. Earlier, the free Hocus Pocus Halloween Parade steps off from Bank Square at 3, with trunk-or-treat, a scavenger hunt and a family costume contest at 4:45.
Catskill. Bridge Street Theatre’s “Dancin’ with the Dead” runs 7 to 11, with DJ Michael V, a $500 prize for the best costume and a cash bar. The organizer lists no ticket price.
Worth the longer drive
The Berkshires. The Naumkeag Pumpkin Show in Stockbridge lights thousands of jack-o’-lanterns across the historic gardens, 5 to 9. Timed tickets are $32 for adults ($27 members) and $15 for ages 3–15 ($10 members), sold in advance only. In Pittsfield, “Melville, Haunted” is a play that moves through Arrowhead, Melville’s study included, with a wine-and-cheese reception at 6:30. Tickets are $60, or $55 for members of the Berkshire County Historical Society, which the night benefits.
The stage. At Bard’s Fisher Center, 54 minutes away, Rossum’s Universal Robots, the 1921 Čapek play that gave English the word “robot”, plays Saturday at 2 and 7:30 and Sunday at 4, $26.50 to $46.50. Thirteen minutes from the cabin, the Twelfth Night Ensemble brings period-instrument Mozart and Haydn to the Doctorow Center in Hunter on Saturday, from $9.31, the night before the program plays Lincoln Center.
Tarrytown. Lyndhurst’s Gothic Market Weekend puts 50-plus vendors of oddities, antiques and gothic jewelry in the Pavilion, with a roam-on-your-own tour of the mansion. Market hours are 10 to 5, last mansion entry at 4.
Where to stay
Clove Creek Cabin sits between Hunter and Phoenicia: 13 minutes from the Doctorow Center, 25 from Palenville and 38 from the Halloween festival in East Durham. It has two bedrooms for up to four guests, an indoor fireplace, and a hot tub and sauna on the deck. Check dates for Clove Creek on Airbnb.
Blue Heron in Tannersville is a two-bedroom for up to four guests, about a five-minute walk from Tannersville’s restaurants and shops, with a fire pit, and pets are allowed. Check dates for Blue Heron on Airbnb.
Keep planning: more fall weekends from us.
- Kelder’s Farm: a top-3 pumpkin patch near the cabins
- Where the Catskills color held on last weekend
- Bringing friends? Book two cabins for a group weekend
- Next up: The Polar Express in Kingston, NY
FAQ
Do I need Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze tickets in advance?
Yes. The Blaze sells timed-entry tickets in advance only, and nothing is sold at the gate. Tickets start at $24 for late weekday slots.
Is the Catskills Halloween Festival really free?
Yes. The festival’s own site says 2026 tickets are free for the October 23–25 run at Blackthorne Resort in East Durham.
Is Headless Horseman too intense for kids?
The organizer doesn’t recommend it for children under 13, doesn’t admit children 8 and under to the evening attractions, and requires anyone 15 and under to come with an adult.
Is the Catskill Farmers Market done for the year after October 25?
Yes. Its season runs through the last Sunday in October, and October 25 is the last Sunday of October 2026.
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