For our first fall festival/pumpkin patch of the season we decided to visit the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival.  Dripping Springs is a great town to visit because there are tons of fun things to check out like breweries, coffee shops, kid activities, and so much more. It is also not a super far drive from Austin! I decided to take my 3-year old on a weekday morning for our first visit.  The weekends have been so busy lately with activities I did not want to miss our chance to see this festival before the end of the season.  However, we enjoyed it so much we are planning a family visit on a weekend before October ends!  The nice thing about going to pumpkin patches on weekday mornings is the crowds are usually very low and it gives my son and I a good chance to run around and see everything without being distracted with tons of people. I have never been a huge fan of crowds which is another reason I love these outdoor festivals with a lot of space! One negative about going during the week instead of the weekend is some of the activities are only open on the weekend.  For example the food trucks, marketplace and petting zoo were all closed during our visit.  This was not a big problem for us because my 3 year old just wanted to explore, but it is a reason we plan to go back because we want to see all the festival has to offer.

Parking was free and very easy when we arrived.  There is a large lot right in front of the entrance.  Ticket prices are $10 per person on the weekends and $5 per person during the week.  Kids 0-3 and adults over 65 are free.  Some of the activities are an extra fee and you can find all of those details on their site: https://drippingspringspumpkinfestival.com/ . 

We started our visit walking around and looking at all of the pumpkins.  They have a large variety available for purchase and they are all spread out right when you enter.  My 3 year old loves to walk around and talk about all the colors of the pumpkins and how some are HUGE and others small so we started off just wandering around to see them all.  Once we walked through the patch we discovered there were so many other activities behind it.  We first completed the small hay maze.  This maze is perfect for younger children because it is not too long and the walls are low so for kids who may not want to feel like they are closed in this is a good maze for them.  This is the first year my 3 year old seems to enjoy these type of mazes so we spent some time roaming around and then we made our way over to the large chalk wall.  This also entertained my son for a while.  There was a ton of chalk and a few large boards to draw on.  It appears many children enjoyed this activity because it was covered in drawings. Right next to the chalk wall was a Lego play area with the oversized Legos.  We saw a few kids building very tall towers and then knocking them over.  On this side of the festival they had some other activities as well like corn hole, an art station by Art Garage (for an extra fee), and some very unique carved pumpkins.

 

After exploring a little more we found the spot where my 3 year old wanted to spend the rest of his time and that was the Crazy Corn Pit!  This is the first time I have seen something like this.  It was a very large sand box setup, but instead of sand it was filled with dried corn kernels.  The little ones were absolutely loving this invention.  They were jumping, digging and rolling all around.  It almost feels like walking through snow when stomping through all of the corn.  My son really enjoyed this and it was by far his favorite activity at the festival.  It was nice for the grownups as well because there were some shaded spots with chairs where parents could sit and relax while watching their little ones play.

After we were done with the corn pit my son was pretty tired so we decided to head home, but we will be back on a weekend because my 9 year old really wants to see this corn pit after we talked about it so much and I want to enjoy some of the food trucks.  Overall, we really enjoyed our time at the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival.  It is definitely not one of the biggest festivals around, but the price is reasonable and there are plenty of activities for the little ones.  We also love the opportunity to listen to music and to try new food trucks.  If you get a chance before October ends I recommend a visit to the lovely town of Dripping Springs and their Pumpkin Festival!

A few items to note if you are considering a visit to the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival:

-Parking is free and there is a nice big parking lot right in front of the patch.  

-If you prefer smaller crowds (and you don’t mind missing out on some of the weekend only activities) I recommend going on a weekday morning, but if you want to participate in all the activities (food trucks, market place, petting zoo, etc) and don’t mind a larger crowd the weekend is a good choice.  You can find a full list of what is open on the weekdays versus the weekends here: https://drippingspringspumpkinfestival.com/

-There are multiple port o potties available and they are very close by.

-I would recommend bringing water and some snacks if you want to hang out for a few hours.  On the weekends they do have multiple food trucks available to purchase food as well.

-Last, but not least you must check out the Corn Pit!  I know I am a grownup and I should not get so excited about a pit filled with dry corn, but it was really cool for both myself and my little guy!