The Harvest Fest at Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park is adorable and full of all things FALL! However, I wasn’t even going to include it as a post because, although admission to the festival is free (yay!), almost every activity requires a ticket (1 ticket = $1). If you have kids who would see all of the activities and would need to do everything there is to do, then this event will not be as inexpensive as you might have hoped. However, if your kids are okay with not trying everything and letting you pick the things they’ll be participating in, then here are some tips to make it as inexpensive as possible…
- If you have really little ones, many of the attractions are FREE for kids 4 and under with a paid adult (some are free for ages 2 and under).
- The most inexpensive activities are the crafts, one of the bounce houses, and the carnival games (1 ticket each). Most of the other things to do are only 2 tickets each, which isn’t too much, but that adds up for an entire family.
- If you pay for any of the bounce houses (including the inflatable slide, farm, etc.) you can reenter as many times as you want for free after that!
- If you have a Dickerson Park Zoo membership, show your membership card to the corn maze attendants and everyone on the membership gets in for free. The corn maze is one of the most expensive things (besides the pony rides) so this saved us quite a bit of money and was a lot of fun.
- The carnival games are 1 ticket each and each child gets a prize at the end, so it’s worth it if your kids like trinkets.
- All of the animals are still out and ready for petting (and don’t require any tickets).
Over all, this event was really cute and filled my “fall tank” for a late September weekend. There is a huge board with ticket prices before you purchase your tickets, so if you can quickly add up exactly what you’ll need, you can save yourself wasted tickets at the end.
What You Need to Know:
- Parking and admission are free
- $1 = 1 ticket, and activities range from 1 -5 tickets each
- The festival runs throughout the afternoon and evenings ONLY on the weekends in September and October (see the website below for details)
- The nighttime haunted trail is only for kids 8 years and older
- It’s possible to push a stroller around the entire farm, even in the corn maze
- For more information, visit: https://parkboard.org/harvestfest