Harvest & Music Festivals Embrace Autumn This Weekend In Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — This weekend, Connecticut moves into the sweet spot for outdoor event weather, shedding the final fragments of Indian Summer and welcoming chill fall proper. To celebrate the return of apple cider doughnuts and pumpkin spice everything, there are a number of autumn-themed festivals to take in across the state.

The Fall Harvest Festival Weekend at The Farm in Woodbury begins Saturday and rages through Columbus Day on Monday. Tickets are available online, and come with access to the corn maze, hay ride, pumpkin patch, and the courtyard tent area. Live country music will be performed on the hay wagon from 1-4 p.m. each day: Nashville Drive on Saturday, Morgan Skelly and The Old Crows on Sunday, and Northern Bred Country Band on Monday.

The 6th Annual Washington Harvest Festival is only being held on Sunday, but it's big, and free. From noon to 5 p.m. there'll be food, live music, train rides, fire truck tours, a hay maze, pumpkin carving, "countless vendors," a mobile pub for adults and more scarecrows than you can shake a corncob pipe at. This event is organized by the Washington Business Association and Washington Parks & Recreation, and held at the River Walk Pavilion near 11 School Street in Washington.

There will be fewer trains and firetrucks, but much more alcohol, at the 16th Annual Harvest Bounty Brewfest in Litchfield on Saturday. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Stache will be performing, while craft brewers, vintners and distilleries from all around the state will be pouring. Food will be served up by I Know A Guy Deli & Food Truck, Rich's Wings & Things and Brits Brand. It all goes down rain or shine, and there'll even be fire pits and lawn games… tough to go wrong with this one. Admission is $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and proceeds benefit the nonprofit Litchfield Community Center.

Promising to be a tad higher brow than the brewfest is The Autumn Arts Festival on the Madison Green, sprawled out Saturday (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) and Sunday (noon-5 p.m.) at Boston Post Road/Route 1 and Copse Road. Artisans exhibiting on the Green feature those working in pottery, wood, glass, fiber, and jewelry designs in sterling silver, semi-precious stones and metals. The work will also include original designs and fine crafts from artists throughout Connecticut and the tri-state region. Entrance to the Autumn Arts Festival is free.

It'll be all about the music at the enormous Black Bear Americana Music Festival at the Goshen Fair Grounds, Friday through Sunday. The lineup of blues, roots, folk, bluegrass and rock artists has been growing steadily, and that's fine, because there are multiple stages and even a performance gazebo. Look for vendors hawking crafts and food, or rustle up some grub in your camper or tent (electric hookups are available.) Tickets are available online here, and start at $60 a person for one day at the fest.

More low-key is the agricultural Harwinton Fair, which will be held Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday at 150 Locust Road. Admission is $10, children 12 and younger free.

The admission is free for everyone — especially dogs — at the Howl-O-Ween Dog Festival to be held Saturday and Sunday at Salmon Brook Park in Granby. More than 70 crafters and vendors are expected to attend, along with a small fleet of food trucks. Dress up! Dress your dog up! YOLO! Woof!

Finally, those addicted to cardboard crack will find their fix at the Northeast Sports Card Expo in Stamford on Saturday and Sunday. Three hundred vendor tables will be jammed into 50,000 square feet of expo space. Sports and non-sports cards will be bought, sold, traded and ogled, so be sure to bring along your 1952 Micky Mantle and Black Lotus. There'll be memorabilia, and the celebrity guests to autograph it all. Organizers are calling it the biggest card show in Connecticut, and we can't argue. Doors open 9 a.m. both days, and close at 6 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Parking is free, and tickets are available online.