We have reached the stretch of the year I love most: the festival weekends are arriving one after another, the corn mazes are open, and the first costume parades are on the calendar. The big early October anchors I wrote about last week are nearly here, and now the late October lineup is filling in too. This week I verified several new stops worth putting on the fridge, including Tinley Park's Boo Bash, Odyssey Fun Farm's season-long Halloween lineup, and the Westville Pumpkin Festival, along with the trick-or-treating hours these towns have typically used. As always, give each host a quick check before you go, since details can shift.
This weekend: Oktoberfest season in full swing
Tinley Park's Oktoberfest runs September 18 through 20 at Harmony Square, with traditional German food, live music and family fun, and the Frankfort Country Market keeps its Sunday mornings going at Breidert Green through October 25. If you have not caught the season's rhythm yet, a market Saturday or an Oktoberfest tent is the gentlest way in.
Odyssey Fun Farm: the full Halloween season under one roof
Over in Tinley Park, Odyssey Fun Farm at 18900 Oak Park Avenue runs its full fall season October 4 through 30. You get a pumpkin patch, a 15-acre corn maze, a petting zoo and hayrides in the daylight hours, and on Friday through Sunday evenings the farm adds its Zombie Safari paintball hayride and flashlight maize for the braver crowd. It is a great way to stretch one outing across the whole month, whether you have little ones or a group that wants the evening version.
Westville Pumpkin Festival: a small-town Porter County classic
In Porter County, the Westville Pumpkin Festival lands on Saturday, October 3, a warm, family-friendly event with the pumpkins and fall fun the season is made of. It is a nice low-key counterpoint to the bigger festival weekends, and the kind of event where you run into your neighbors and remember why a town feels like a town.
Tinley Park's Boo Bash
Mark your calendar for Sunday, October 25, when Tinley Park holds its Boo Bash at Harmony Square from noon to 4 p.m. Expect family-friendly trick-or-treating through the business booths, a DJ, and food and beverage vendors, all in the downtown square. It is exactly the sort of neighborly event that makes a village feel like home.
Plan ahead: Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday
This year Halloween lands on Saturday, October 31, which means an entire weekend of festivities rather than a school-night rush. The communities in our area have typically used these hours: Dyer 4 to 7 p.m., Munster, Schererville, Crown Point and Highland 5 to 7 p.m., and Valparaiso 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Each town posts its official hours as the date nears, so confirm locally, yet it is reassuring to see most of them fall within a friendly early-evening window.
Make a plan for the season ahead
You do not have to choose one thing. A Saturday in the corn maze, an evening at the Boo Bash, a small-town pumpkin festival: together they are the reason fall in the South Suburbs and Northwest Indiana feels like a season you live in, not just one you pass through. If you are weighing a move to any of these communities, come visit on a festival weekend and feel how people meet their neighbors here. I would love to help you find the right spot for your next chapter. You Can With Joanne!™