Tecumseh Appleumpkin Festival 2026: Dates, Parking and Hours

The 32nd Appleumpkin Festival runs October 10 and 11.

Saturday is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It fills downtown Tecumseh, it is free to walk into, and it happens at the same time as Kapnick Orchards’ 47th Apple Festival a few miles out of town, with a free shuttle running between the two.

If you only have one day, take Saturday. More on why below.

The two days are not the same

Saturday is the long day and the busy one: nine hours, the full street, the antique and flea market vendors, the food trucks, the midway. Sunday is seven hours and noticeably calmer, which is the right call if you are bringing someone who does not love crowds.

This year the weather splits them too. As of Thursday morning the forecast had Saturday near 77 and dry, and Sunday in the low 60s with better than even odds of rain. Forecasts move, so check again before you leave, but if you are driving in from Ann Arbor or the Detroit suburbs and picking one day, Saturday is the one.

Where to park, and the shuttle nobody mentions

Parking is free. There are spots in and around downtown, and they go early on Saturday.

The better move is the Tecumseh High School lot, with a free shuttle running from there into downtown. The same shuttle service also runs out to Kapnick Orchards, which means you can do both halves of the weekend without moving your car once. That is the detail most first-timers miss, and it is the difference between a nice day and forty minutes of circling.

Kapnick Orchards is the other half of this

The downtown festival and Kapnick Orchards have run their events together for years, and 2026 is the 47th Apple Festival on the orchard side. Same two days, same hours.

Out there you get u-pick apples and pumpkins, cider and donuts, wagon rides, live music, and more than 80 craft booths. The orchard is at 4245 N Rogers Hwy in Britton, about ten minutes from downtown, and the shuttle is the easy way to do it.

What is free and what is not

Free: getting in, walking the street, the music, and the kids’ make-it-take-it crafts, the corn box and the kids’ putt-putt.

Not free: the midway rides and carnival games, and the helicopter rides that come back most years. Ride wristband pricing had not been announced as of October 6, so if the midway is the reason you are coming, check the festival’s own page before you budget for it.

Two things that catch people out

There is no farmers market on Saturday, October 10. The Tecumseh Farmers Market runs Saturdays from the third weekend of May through October 24, and the festival Saturday is the one exception in the whole season. If a Saturday market morning was your plan, come back a different week – October 17 and 24 are both running.

The fall color train is sold out. The Southern Michigan Railroad runs its Fall Color Tours out of Tecumseh Station on October weekends, three departures a day at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Every 2026 seat is gone, and the railroad has said it is not adding dates or times. Tickets were $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and kids, which is worth knowing for next year, but do not drive out this weekend expecting to get on.

When you need twenty minutes away from the crowd

The festival is loud by design. Three places within a short walk that are not:

Harvest Chocolate makes single-origin bars on site, and the smell when you walk in does most of the selling. Get the 70% and a sample of whatever is in the tempering machine.

The British Pantry Tea Garden Cafe has a back garden that stays quiet even on a festival Saturday. Tea, scones, the Welsh rarebit.

Rosie’s does all-day breakfast, which matters when the street food line is thirty deep. The line here is also the line after 10:30, so go early or go late.

Getting here

Downtown Tecumseh is about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor, an hour and change from most of the western Detroit suburbs, and 20 minutes from Adrian. Chicago Boulevard is the main street and the festival runs off it.

The full year of what happens in town is on the Tecumseh events calendar.