Fall in Nassau County looks, on paper, like a three-month stretch of pumpkin patches and hayrides spread evenly across the calendar. It isn't. The main outdoor run is concentrated in about five weeks, from the Long Island Fair through Halloween, and a disproportionate share of the marquee programming lands at a single address in Old Bethpage.
That's not a coincidence of scheduling. It's a pattern worth understanding if you want to plan your Saturdays instead of discovering, in mid-November, that you missed everything.
The Season Has Started, and Some Events Have Passed
By the time this posts, the Bellmore Family Street Festival has already closed out its run along Merrick Avenue, where the street shuts to foot traffic each September so families can move freely between crafts, sports expos and home improvement booths. That festival wrapped September 17 through 20. It's a reminder that "fall events" in Nassau County don't wait for October to start, and several of them don't wait around once they're done, either.
The Long Island Fair at Old Bethpage Village Restoration ran September 25 through 27, an old-fashioned country fair set among the venue's historic buildings, with the kind of hands-on crafts and farm-heritage programming that's earned it recognition as one of the region's best traditional fairs. Its short window has passed, and it doesn't repeat until next year.
Old Bethpage Village Restoration Is Doing Triple Duty
Here's the detail that changes how you should read the rest of the calendar. Old Bethpage Village Restoration isn't hosting one signature fall event. It's hosting three, in three different registers, inside about five weeks.
Following the Long Island Fair, the venue is set to host its first Oktoberfest at the Barn on October 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., bringing German-American harvest traditions, food and music into the same historic setting that hosted the country fair the weekend before. Then, at the very end of October, the village becomes the site of a daytime Halloween event running October 31 through November 1, with trick-or-treating routed through the historic buildings, a children's costume parade and contest, and music and dancing. Entry runs a little over $17 for adults and just over $14 for children ages 5 to 12 when booked online, with kids 4 and under admitted free.
Three events, one venue, five weeks. That's a different pattern than most of what else is on the county calendar this fall, which tends to be single-instance: a festival happens once, on one date, and if you miss it, you wait a year. Old Bethpage's programming gives you three separate chances to use the same historic property for three genuinely different kinds of afternoon.
What's Scattered Across the Rest of the County
Outside of Old Bethpage, the fall calendar is thinner and more spread out geographically, which is worth knowing if you're trying to build a weekend plan rather than just react to whatever pops up on social media.
Hicks Nurseries in Westbury is running its Fall Festival with free admission and free parking throughout October, built around indoor Halloween displays that make it a flexible outing regardless of weather. Because there's no fixed date, it functions more as a standing option you can slot in whenever a weekend opens up, rather than a single day to circle.
Massapequa Park holds its own Fall Festival on October 4, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., centered on the Park Boulevard, Front Street and Village Square parking lot, with three live bands, craft vendors and food trucks filling out a single day. It carries a rain date of October 11.
The Calendar, Laid Out
| Dates | Event | Where | What It Is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 17–20 | Bellmore Family Street Festival | Merrick Avenue, Bellmore | Street fair, crafts, sports and home improvement vendors |
| Sept 25–27 | Long Island Fair | Old Bethpage Village Restoration | Historic country fair, crafts, farm heritage |
| Oct 3 | Oktoberfest at the Barn | Old Bethpage Village Restoration | German-American harvest festival |
| Oct 4 (rain date Oct 11) | Massapequa Park Fall Festival | Park Blvd/Front St/Village Square, Massapequa Park | Live bands, craft vendors, food trucks |
| Through October | Hicks Nurseries Fall Festival | Westbury | Free indoor Halloween displays |
| Oct 31–Nov 1 | Halloween at Old Bethpage | Old Bethpage Village Restoration | Daytime trick-or-treat, costume parade |
| Nov 1–8 | Long Island Restaurant Week | Participating restaurants, Nassau and Suffolk | Fixed-price dinner and lunch menus |
Laid out this way, the shape is obvious. The outdoor season isn't a slow autumn drift. It's a sprint from late September through the Halloween event, with Restaurant Week beginning November 1.
The Pivot: When Outdoor Season Hands Off to Restaurant Week
That handoff has a name and a date. Long Island Restaurant Week runs November 1 through 8, and it marks the moment the county's fall calendar shifts from outdoor festivals to indoor tables. Participating restaurants across Nassau and Suffolk offer three-course dinners at set price tiers, along with a fixed-price two-course lunch option, giving the week a different rhythm than everything that came before it. There's no rain date to check, no costume to plan, no craft vendor lineup to browse. It's the calendar's built-in exhale after five weeks of outdoor programming.
If you think of the season in two halves, this is where they meet. Everything before November 1 asks you to check a forecast. Everything after doesn't.
Building a Six-Weekend Plan Instead of Reacting to One
Treating this as a single sprawling "fall season" invites the mistake of assuming there's always another weekend coming. There isn't always another weekend coming: the Long Island Fair has already passed, and Oktoberfest at the Barn is set for October 3. Hicks Nurseries is the more flexible option, with its Fall Festival running throughout October.
Knowing which category an event falls into changes how much urgency it deserves. The Long Island Fair has already passed, while Oktoberfest at the Barn is a short, fixed event worth prioritizing. Restaurant Week, arriving right as the outdoor programming winds down, is the one fixed point you can put on the calendar in advance without worrying about weather at all.
Five weeks isn't a long runway. Whichever piece of it you use, it helps to know the shape of the whole thing before the first weekend is already behind you.
If you're weighing a move within Nassau County and want a read on how a specific block or building fits into the calendar above, from proximity to Old Bethpage Village Restoration to how far a listing sits from any of these venues, Alex Dzhurayev is glad to talk it through.
