The Best Fall Festivals in Southwest Missouri

Seymour Apple Festival

Fest at a glance:
Town
Seymour
When
September 9–11
Must-try snack
Smoked pork sandwiches
Must-see entertainment
Mark Chapman Band
Must-do activity
Kids turtle race

The Annual Seymour Apple Festival has harvested the perfect enviornment for the entire community the past 48 years. With a beautiful fall atmosphere, everyone is given a warm welcome for a packed weekend long celebration. Be sure to grab a lineup sheet so you don’t miss any of the events.

Enjoy the environment of the historic downtown with sidewalk sales and shops where you can find a variety of home decor from furniture and rugs to homemade signs and candles. You can shop till you drop with more than 100 vendors providing plenty of options from the Seymour Merchants Association. Once you’ve worked up a big enough appetite, take a break and get a bite to eat from food vendors offering all the favorites like corn dogs and tacos.

The schedule of events for the weekend is packed with the Annual Fun Run 5K, kids turtle race and parade. As made obvious by the name, the Seymour Apple Festival puts an extra emphasis on the harvest of apples in the fall with the apple-peeling contest, apple baked goods contest and the crowning of the apple princess. You've never had so much fun with apples.

Enjoy the variety of music each night from Chelsey James, Isaac Kenneth, Ozark Travelers and the Mark Chapman Band. With this lineup a true Missourian won’t be able to resist toe-tapping along, and if your toes are feeling especially tappy, you can even join the squaredancing crowd.

Maple Leaf Festival

Fest at a glace:
Town
Carthage
When
October 1–30
Must-try snack
Brats on the Square
Must-see entertainment
Marching Band Festival
Must-do activity
Three Minutes of Fame Lip Sync Competition

Carthage can’t contain its joy for the arrival of autumn into just one day and instead stretch out their festivities throughout the entire month of October. Events span 10 days across the month and the festival kicks off with a live auction on the first of the month, then a lobster boil and night out at the courthouse the following day.

The following weekend is two days full of pageants for everyone from babies and toddlers to high school students. You can even show off your pets in the pet show or Dachshund Dash to find the fastest wiener dog.

The real festivities don’t kick off until October 13–17 with a carnival throughout the week and special events each day. Among the special events is the Automotive Swap Meet followed by Cruise Night at the 66 Drive-In Movie Theater, where you can register your car or attend as an audience member for a night of live entertainment and prizes.

Carthage puts an emphasis on community for the Maple Leaf Festival parade, antique tractor show and marching band festival that takes place throughout this week of celebration. You can then end your festivities with some spooky fall fun.

The 6th Annual Charity Costume Ball, called “A Haunted History," is a night of live music, dinner, dancing performances from YMCA spectral dancers. You can add more spookiness to the evening with a haunted history tour or ghost tour ride.

Hollister Grape Festival

Fest at a glance:
Town
Hollister  
When
October 9
Must-try snack
Hurts Donuts
Must-see entertainment
Dogs Gone Grape Pup Pageant
Must-do activity
Grape Stomp

Start your festival day off right with some morning exercise and partake in the Color Me 5k run starting at 9 a.m. After that head over to Downing Street for the Hollister Grape Festival, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This 23-year-old festival includes about 120 vendors that range from food trucks and craft vendors to non-profits and  local businesses. Hurts Donuts even makes a special donut for the grape festival and treats for pups.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Kids can enjoy the kids area with activities such as bounce houses, petting zoo and pumpkin carving or painting. You can even bring your “paw-ticipants” to embark in the Dogs Gone Grape Pup Pageant, and then vote for your favorite model. Enjoy live entertainment on the main stage as well as beer and wine garden. Festival goers can even participate in a grape stomping event just like they did in “I Love Lucy.”

While this competition is strictly for stomping the grapes, not throwing them, there are both youth and adult divisions that guests can enter. This isn’t just any simple grape stomp though. Groups of four are put on stage and then put on a minute-long performance all while mashing the grapes and being ranked by a set of judges. These judges are not above accepting bribes for this intense competition so make sure to stop by to see the judges in their purple togas and drop off your best treat. Winners receive excellent prizes, including the traveling ugly monkey trophy, which brings lots of bragging rights.

Apple Butter Makin’ Days

Fest at a glance:
Town
Mt. Vernon
When
October 8–10
Must-try snack
Apple dumplings
Must-see entertainment
Apple butter making in the square
Must-do activity
Pie-eating contest

Made the old-fashioned way in big copper kettles, apple butter is the star and namesake of this food-filled festival in Mt. Vernon. Each fall, during the second full weekend in October, more than 400 local food and craft vendors set up camp on the historic Mt. Vernon courthouse square, with the apple butter makin’ at the center of it all. Known and loved across Missouri, this fall festival is not one to skip.

Join fellow apple butter epicures on the Lawrence County Courthouse lawn just after daybreak and watch the sauciers work their magic until mid-afternoon (trust us, you’ll want to stay all day!) while you peruse craft booths and sample homemade treats. As you await the crowning of the Apple Butter Queen, take part in cult-favorite competitions like the bubblegum-blowing contest and the apple-pie-eating contest, or get a head start on No-Shave November for the mustache and beard-growing contest. The fun doesn’t stop there—and the furry faces don’t either.

Have your phone camera handy and head over to Spirit of ‘76 park for the annual wiener dog races (does a cuter thing exist?) or catch the pet parade––a kid-approved, festival-committee favorite. But if there’s one tradition you simply can’t miss out on at Apple Butter Makin’ Days, it’s partaking in the seemingly endless array of beloved carnival food.

From turkey legs and tornado potatoes to funnel cakes and snow cones, food is everywhere at this festival, and you’ll be glad you came hungry! Beyond the boiling kettles, apples come in pretty much every form—pie, cider, dumplings, you name it. Make sure you try a little bit of everything, and don’t even think about leaving without a jar or two of homemade apple butter.

Hootin’ an’ Hollarin’

Fest at a glance:
Town
Gainesville
When
September 16–18
Must-try snack
Root beer floats
Must-see entertainment
Bed races
Must-do activity
Nightly square dancing with live music

It’s time to brush up on your do-si-do and promenade! On its 60th anniversary, Hootin’ an Hollarin’ is bringing noise and fun back to Gainesville. True to its name, the festival features live music, square dancing, parades and more. At Hootin’ an Hollarin’, smiles are contagious and laughter is abundant as little kids in prairie dresses, bonnets, overalls and cowboy hats dance around in time to a live bluegrass medley.

With a keen understanding of the old-timey comfort that brings people back every year, the festival organizers dedicate themselves to curating an atmosphere that welcomes first-time visitors. The festival even plays host to  myriad family reunions each fall. But the 60-year preservation of well-loved town traditions is not the only thing that sets this festival apart from others––if there’s anything the Gainesville crew prides itself on, it’s that the hootin’ and hollarin’ doesn’t stop until late in the evening.

At 9 p.m. each night of the festival, the streets are alive with the sound of fiddles as square dancing commences. The merrymaking goes on until midnight, and the next day’s festivities, even in competition with the nightly square dancing shindig, certainly will not hold back.

Everyone looks forward to the annual Queen Contest and the big Saturday parade, but the pork rinds, chicken legs, and homemade root  beer floats deserve at least an honorable mention. Stop by all of the food  and craft booths spread throughout the festival grounds, and you’re guaranteed to find something handmade, timeless and one-of-a-kind.

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