Festival dates are the most-copied and least-checked information on the internet. Several outlets are currently circulating 2025 dates for events happening this September.
Every date below is the 2026 date as the organizer publishes it. Where an organizer hasn't posted yet, we say that instead of guessing.
The other thing to know before you plan a weekend: the free festivals are getting less free. Usually not through admission — through parking.
September Festivals
Frankfort Fall Festival
Sat Sept 5 – Mon Sept 7 · free · ~250,000 attendees
Frankfort Fall Festival is the biggest event on this list by a distance, packed into a small downtown over Labor Day weekend. Downtown parking is hopeless. Use the satellite lots and accept the shuttle.
Schaumburg Septemberfest
Sept 5–7 · free · no on-site parking at all
Schaumburg Septemberfest is the same weekend, opposite end of the metro. Free shuttles run from three schools, and nearby churches charge for their lots.
Berwyn Fall Fest
Sept 18–19
Berwyn Fall Fest's name changed this year. The Oktoberfest branding is gone and it's a general autumn festival now, so searching "Berwyn Oktoberfest" lands you on stale pages.
Palatine Oktoberfest
Sept 18–20 · free entry
Palatine Oktoberfest runs food and beer on $1 tickets, and the tickets are non-refundable. Buy small batches.
Long Grove Apple Fest
Fri Sept 25 – Sun Sept 27 · about $7 a day, under-12s free
Long Grove Apple Fest used to be free, and was $5 as recently as 2016. Several outlets are still publishing its 2025 dates.
Cantigny Fall Fest, Wheaton
2026 dates not posted · $21 parking
The $21 parking fee at Cantigny Fall Fest is the entire story of this event's pricing, and no listing site mentions it. Their own event page is still showing last September's dates, and on admission it says only that costs vary by event. Assume the last weekend of September and check again in early September.
October Festivals
Oktoberfest at Naper Settlement, Naperville
Oct 2–3 · $25 adults, $15 youth
Oktoberfest at Naper Settlement is one tent, capacity-limited. Not a turn-up-late event.
Night of 1,000 Jack-o'-Lanterns, Chicago Botanic Garden
Wed Oct 7 – Sun Oct 25, selected nights · $24 adults, $17 kids 3–12 · parking $15 advance, $25 day-of
Night of 1,000 Jack-o'-Lanterns is timed entry, and it sells out most nights. If it's on your list, it's a September purchase, not an October one.
Glass Pumpkin Patch, Morton Arboretum, Lisle
Oct 9–11 · included with admission
Glass Pumpkin Patch is seven thousand hand-blown glass pumpkins, and they go fast. Get there early rather than browsing after lunch.
St. Charles Scarecrow Weekend
Oct 9–11 · free, including trolleys and shuttles
Scarecrow Weekend was renamed this year — it's "Weekend" now, not "Fest."
Autumn Drive, Woodstock and Marengo
Oct 16–18 · free to drive
Autumn Drive is a self-guided route through farm stands and craft stops. The 2026 stop list isn't out yet, and several stops have historically preferred cash.
Sycamore Pumpkin Festival
Oct 21–25 · free
Sycamore Pumpkin Festival is the longest-running event here, and admission is still free.
Takeaway: the free street festivals can't sell out, but three of the four big ones have a parking problem the listings don't mention. Solve parking before you leave the house.
Haunted Houses
Prices below are 2026 where the operator has posted them.
One thing to ignore on sight: the price trio $34.99 / $49.99 / $89.99, which appears word-for-word across unrelated attractions on listicle sites. Template filler. Nobody checked.
13th Floor, Schiller Park
Sept 12 – Nov 8 · current tier $19.99
The address correction matters: it's Schiller Park, not Melrose Park, whatever half the internet says.
Pricing is dynamic and tiered, and this is the one to act on. The $13.99 and $15.99 tiers had already sold out in July. Waiting costs money here in a way it doesn't elsewhere.
HellsGate, Lockport
Thu Sept 24 – Sun Nov 1 · GA $40–45 online, $45–50 door · VIP $60–65 online, $65–70 door
HellsGate sells from August 28, so there is nothing to buy yet. Parking is offsite and mandatory — you park at 301 W. 2nd Street and take a five-minute shuttle, first-come, and their own advice is to arrive early on Friday and Saturday because the shuttle line gets long.
On age, they are softer than most of the internet claims: under-16s need a parent or guardian, and under-12 is "not recommended," not banned. Their wording is that you know your child better than they do.
Dungeon of Doom, Zion
30th season · GA $34.99 online, $45 gate · Fast Pass $49.99 · VIP $59.99 · Platinum $139.99
Buying at the gate costs $10 more than buying online, and every tier above general admission is online-only, so turning up and deciding at the window is the expensive way to do this.
All sales are final and late arrivals are refused, which is unusual enough to plan around. Their season dates are published only as an image, so we can't quote them.
Basement of the Dead, Aurora
Sat Sept 19 – Sat Nov 7, 7–10pm · online sales not yet open
Basement of the Dead's ticket page works again, but sales aren't open and no 2026 prices are posted. The house is promising a "2026 revamp" with new rooms. No family option.
Realm of Terror, Round Lake Beach
2026 dates not posted · nothing on sale yet
Realm of Terror is the best family option of any real scare haunt, and it usually runs two softer versions alongside the main house: the lights-up daytime Family Frights, and No Actor Night, which is all the effects and none of the actors.
We can't tell you when either one lands. Their 2026 calendar says "coming soon" and everything under it is last year's — the October dates and the $19.99 starting price are both labeled 2025 on their own page, and a third set of dates further down belongs to the season before that. Anything you read there before the calendar posts is history.
Massacre, Montgomery
Opening weekend Fri Sept 25 – Sat Sept 26 · no prices posted
At Massacre, a 3,000-square-foot Asylum replaces the 3D house this year. The $19.99 any-night rate we quoted in July was labeled a summer sale, and it has come off the site — a price with an expiration date, expired.
They publish an opening weekend and nothing else. There is no closing date anywhere on their site, and the page called Hours & Dates is currently advertising last December.
Midnight Terror, Oak Lawn
2026 dates not posted · nothing bookable yet
Midnight Terror's site says "2026 info coming soon," and then, on the same page, gives an opening date. Ignore it. The homepage's "Friday, September 27th through Saturday, November 9th" is the 2024 season, and the calendar page's "September 26th through November 8th" is the 2025 one, which at least admits it under a heading reading "2025 Calendar."
Two dead schedules and a promise, on one site, at once. This is the clearest example on this page of why a date without a year attached is worth nothing.
Disturbia, Downers Grove
Sat Sept 12 – Mon Nov 9 · 7–10pm
Now on the official site instead of just the aggregators: Disturbia runs September 12 through November 9 at 1213 Butterfield Rd.
One relocation to know about: Evil Intentions has left Elgin. It moved to Maple Park as Forsaken Hollow, and its own site hasn't been updated for 2026. The Elgin return at a new State Street address cleared the city's Planning & Zoning Commission in July, but the operator has announced nothing — where this haunt operates in 2026 is still unsettled. Don't drive to an Elgin address for it.
13th Floor punishes waiting, Dungeon of Doom punishes lateness, and the stragglers — Midnight Terror, Realm of Terror's full calendar — are still promising dates. We re-checked everything on this list in mid-August; the stragglers get another pass in September.
If You Have Small Children
The scare haunts above are not for young kids, and several say so outright. These are:
- Boo! at the Zoo, Brookfield — Oct 3–25, free with zoo admission. Parking costs extra.
- Haunted Trails, Burbank and Joliet — G-rated, year-round, free admission and parking. The reliable wet-weather answer.
- Bengtson's Haunted Barn, Homer Glen — included with admission; under-12s need an adult.
- Naper Settlement All Hallows Eve — 2026 dates not yet confirmed.
What to Book Now and What Can Wait
Book now: anything timed or tiered. The Botanic Garden sells out most nights, 13th Floor's cheap tiers are already gone, and Naper Settlement's Oktoberfest is one capacity-limited tent.
Can wait: the free street festivals. You can't sell out a downtown.
And check the year before you trust a date. The most common failure with seasonal pages isn't inaccuracy — it's a page written last September that still ranks. If a listing doesn't say 2026 somewhere on it, assume it's last year's.
The other thing to check is the sky: Chicago weather by month has the thirty-year normals, and October is wetter than people remember, with the year's first trace of snow arriving at the end of it.
Organizers post on their own schedules; we'll fold in 2026 details as they land. If a date here is wrong, tell us.