Wayside Farm Fun hosts its annual fall festival

By Patricia Lee Hall, Fairfax Family Fun

It’s that time of year again! A day taking a hayride, picking gourds at a pumpkin patch, trying to find your way through a corn maze, visiting animals, and enjoying all the other activities that make for a fun autumn day. Wayside Farm Fun in nearby Berryville, Virginia, offers this — plus lots more! — during its annual fall festival. This 20-acre family farm just outside of Loudoun County offers all-ages fun that go beyond the expected fall activities. Here you also will find tot play areas, games, pumpkin-shooting cannons, pig races, music, and high pumpkin drops for a smashing time.  Fairfax Family Fun is partnering with Wayside Farm Fun again to send some readers there for free! Read on to learn more about the farm and how you can win!

About the festival

Each year, Wayside Farm hosts a fall festival on weekends. The 2019 season runs Saturdays and Sundays through November 3; the festival also takes place on Monday, October 14 (Columbus Day). At this farm, you can see goats (maybe even high above on their goat walk!) and pigs, llamas, and more. Kids can also can ride mini tractors, bounce on a big jumping pillow, and enjoy slides, see-saws, a corn crib, playhouse, and more.

Guests of all ages also can race rubber duckies, test their skills in a sports-themed ball zone, take a hayride, shoot the pumpkin cannons, shop at the pumpkin patch, visit the farm market, or find their way through the 10-acre corn maze (this year with a Spongebob Squarepants theme).  Time your visit so you can see the pig races (at 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30 on festival days) and see the pumpkin smashing afterward!

Fun activities

Learn more about all the fun you can have on the farm in our reviews (with lots of photos!) from 2016 and  from 2015.  As you’ll see, this farm has a good variety of activities, many of them for smaller children. We recommend this primarily for kids up to age 12 or 13, but know of many older kids and adults who never “outgrow” it. A nice plus about this event is that while it offers much to do, its smaller size and location further out in the countryside means it doesn’t get as crowded as some of the larger festivals can.

Special events

Special upcoming events include a Spooky Night Maze October 25-26. On these nights, the Loudoun Valley Drama Club turns the maze into a spooky haunt. Visitors can choose to either navigate the corn maze in the dark at night without extra spooks, or pick the spooky path and plan to be scared! The event is a fundraiser for the drama club.

And on the final weekend (November 2-3) is the pumpkin-smashing festival when you can bring your own jack-o-lantern or other pumpkin to have the farm smash them. (It’s a good way to recycle these… the pumpkin pieces go to the pigs, who make a feast of it!)

Pricing and giveaway

Admission to Wayside Farm Fun is just $12 per person (free to kids 2 and under) every day and covers all activities. Each regular-price ticket also includes a $2 food token, making this one of the better-value fall festivals around. You also can get a 25% discount just by mentioning Fairfax Family Fun at the register! What’s more, we’re sweetening this great price with a special giveaway… one family will receive five free tickets to attend this season! To enter, see the instructions below.

Win tickets to Wayside Farm Fun!

We will select one winner randomly for a prize pack of five free admission tickets. To enter, just leave a comment below! There is no entry fee or other requirement.

Enter by 2 pm on Thursday, October 1, 2019. We will use a third-party app to randomly select one winner immediately after that time and announce the prize via the email address associated with the account used to leave a comment. The winner must reply by 9 pm on Thursday, October 10, 2019, to claim the prize; failure to do so risks forfeiture. The winner can pick up the prize at the farm ticket office for one-time use during the 2019 festival season; tickets are valid for only the daytime visits (not the evening corn maze). Contestants agree to abide by our giveaway terms and conditions. Giveaway open to entrants ages 18 and up. The retail value of each prize is approximately $60.

Photos:  All photos (c) P. Hall