Oakhurst Fall Festival

Visitors to the 2026 Oakhurst Fall Festival leave their cars behind. The new grounds have no on-site parking. Free shuttles make stops along Road 426, and the Community Center lot holds only ADA parking. The shuttles serve the Oakhurst Community Center, its buildings and the park around them, where the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce holds its 33rd annual festival on October 9, 10 and 11, 2026.

Inside the gate are carnival rides, a bandstand, a row of food trucks, and vendor booths selling crafts and festival-only deals. Near the bandstand and food truck row, the Oakhurst Sierra Rotary Club, the noon club, works the beer and wine booth, as it does every year. The chamber says the money the club raises goes to schools and organizations throughout the community. Admission covers all three days for $6, and children under 5 enter free.

Reptiles, camels and a pancake breakfast

Friday opens at 3 p.m. with live music, food, vendors and the carnival. A one-day wristband for unlimited rides costs $35 and is sold separately from festival entry. On Saturday, Reptile Ron brings what the Madera Tribune called an educational reptile experience for the whole family. On both weekend days, a community stage in the Main Hall presents local children and youth in performing arts, dance and martial arts.

The Oak Fest Lounge is new for 2026. On Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., inside the Community Center Pavilion building, it hosts the chamber’s first Sierra Wine Experience. Guests sit for a tasting of five of the region’s wines and ciders, with charcuterie from Idle Hour Winery and Kitchen and desserts from Yosemite Pies. The poster lists Karine Wines, Elderberry House and Quady Winery among the featured participants, and the local makers are on hand to visit and answer questions. On Sunday the lounge becomes a sports bar set up for the day’s big games.

Sunday starts with a pancake breakfast from the Senior Center culinary team: pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit. The chamber’s own team pours micheladas, mimosas, wine and beer. Later in the day, rescue camels come down from Patient Feather Ranch and Rescue, a Raymond ranch that also keeps llamas, alpacas, miniature donkeys and horses. The chamber’s announcement said the visitors were one-hump camels and so would not spit: “They are much too polite for that.”

“We’re excited to bring the Fall Festival to its new home at the Oakhurst Community Center,” said Rachael Snedecor, the chamber’s board president and Festival Committee chair.

Wine, chocolate and the park on Civic Circle

Before the move, the festival was held at Oakhurst Community Park, 49074 Civic Circle Drive, near Highways 41 and 49. A 2018 Sierra News Online account says the event began as a one-day soiree of wine and chocolate. Its early name appears two ways in that paper: the Wine and Chocolate Festival in a 2013 article, and the Oakhurst Chocolate and Wine Festival in a 2016 one.

The 21st annual festival, on October 12 and 13, 2013, still gave both a prominent place. Darin Soukup, then the chamber’s executive director, promised “ample amounts of wine from regional wineries to sample as well as offering from numerous chocolatiers.” The tables also held artisanal cheeses, nuts and beers from regional microbreweries. Saturday added a classic car show and a silent auction. The Children’s Museum of the Sierra ran the children’s activities, and there were a petting zoo and a dunk tank. Admission was $2, and each tasting ticket cost $1. Local restaurants were invited to cook. “The idea is for people to see what our businesses have to offer and we have some truly amazing restaurants with talented chefs,” Soukup said. “People seem to like that.”

The 24th annual festival in 2016 used the park’s shady trees, picnic tables and play area. Music came from the Sierra Tel Stage. On Saturday, radio station 95.7 The Fox broadcast live there, followed by the classic cover band Rock Therapy. On Sunday the Dave Henderson Band played ahead of the Jeremy “ELVIS” Pearce Concert. Children had bounce houses, balloon animals and story time with Clifford the Big Red Dog. Adults had an artists’ demonstration tent and car shows on both days. Joelle Leder, the organizer and a chamber director, said visitors could sample wines from regional wineries alongside “local, award-winning hand-crafted beers.”

Jedi, fire dancers and a third day

By 2018 the 26th festival had moved to Friday and Saturday, October 12 and 13, and gained a midway. It had a Ferris wheel, a big slide, an inflatable obstacle course, a jalopy junction and a ride called the Mind Winder. On Friday, 82 Deluxe, a country band out of Hanford, played from 3 to 6 p.m. At 6:30, Jedi and villains from Star Wars came onto the grounds. The organizers’ notice read: “Bring your younglings to train in the ways of the Force — light sabers will be loaned for training, or you can purchase your soon-to-be-Padawan their own light saber.” Ed Tide and his Open Mic Friends played acoustic sets in the food court. Saturday’s bill included Elvis, Captain America, the Executive Rockers Show, the Danny Millsap Band and the Mana Fire Dancers. That year the paper called the festival the chamber’s largest fundraiser. Donna Dozier, a volunteer, said: “We have so much entertainment lined up for all ages, as well as local foods, wines and beer and a variety of vendors and community organizations.”

In 2019 the 27th festival grew to three days, October 11 through 13. Donna Smith, chamber president and festival co-chair, presented it as “a carnival-themed experience.” According to Sierra News Online, it drew visitors from Fresno, southern California and San Diego, and some from as far as Australia, Germany and India. A tasting pavilion was open Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. It poured beer from Oakhurst’s South Gate Brewing Company and wine from wineries along the Madera Wine Trail, and Sierra Cider offered hard cider for the first time. Tasters kept their souvenir glasses. The Mana Fire Dancers performed at 7 that evening. Daily admission was $3, and a three-day pass was offered for the first time at $5.

Chairmen, organizers and a return

The festival has always been run by volunteers from the business community. On January 30, 2001, Representative George Radanovich entered a tribute to Marilyn Rigg in the Congressional Record. Rigg came to Oakhurst in 1970, spent 21 years at Security Pacific Bank and opened a State Farm agency in 1992. Radanovich listed chairman of the Oakhurst Fall Festival among her offices, along with chairman of “Oakhurst Goes to the Oscars.” Julie Fullmer moved to Oakhurst in 2007, sat on the chamber board and organized the festival for two years before she retired to Custer, South Dakota, in 2024.

Today the chamber states the festival’s purpose in its mission. It is meant to raise money for chamber programs and to give residents “a traditional community reunion to reconnect with friends and neighbors.” By 2022 it drew thousands of people over its three days and was the chamber’s principal fundraiser of the year. Planning for each edition starts in March.

That year Wade Wheeler, then chamber president, looked back on the 2021 festival, held after the chamber’s events had been cancelled for more than a year. “Our 2021 Oakhurst Fall Festival, the most successful in its 27 year history, led the way,” he said. “It seems that people are ready to get out again.”