by FYIVT.com

Last weekend of September, and Vermont has decided to spend all of fall at once. Two long-running festivals open within an hour of each other Saturday morning at opposite ends of the state, Cabot puts close to forty cheese, ferment, and beverage makers on its village common, and the Paramount in Rutland books Talking Heads on Friday and Journey on Saturday like it’s settling a bet. Ten counties are doing something worth the drive.

Weekend Spotlight: Vermont Jeep Weekend

Three days of Jeeps in Rutland County, and the schedule reads like a good short story.

Friday, 6–8 p.m. — Jeeps in the Street, downtown Brandon. Jeeps lined up in front of Mae’s Place and Amateur’s Sports Bar, food and downtown wandering encouraged. At 8, the whole lineup fires up and convoys to Pittsford Village Farm — the kind of exit most events should have.

Saturday, 12:30–4 p.m. — Show N Shine, Pittsford Village Farm. $250 prize money in each of four categories — Best in Show, Best Build, Classic 4×4, and the honestly named “Stock-ish” — with the attendees voting for the winners. Around the Jeeps: live music from Ryan Fuller, a Moose’s Pub beer garden, local vendors, free kids’ activities, and a raffle stacked with real hardware — Mickey Thompson tires, MetalCloak shocks and bump stops, a $250 Rock Krawler certificate, and a pile of Rough Country gear from a light bar to a fire pit.

Sunday — Trail riding. A brand-new trail system with routes for all levels, from first-time off-roaders to the winch-and-lockers crowd. Bring the Jeep, bring the family, finish the weekend with mud on something.

Register for Vermont Jeep Weekend

Friday, September 25

Stop Making Sense screens at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, and this is not a rep-house showing you catch on a whim — Talking Heads co-star Jerry Harrison is hosting in person, with introductory remarks and a post-screening Q&A; with the audience. Lobby doors open at 6:30, seating at 7. Tickets run $25, $35, $45, and $65 plus tax and fees, and the good ones will go first. Paramount Theatre

The Log & Timber Home Design-Build EXPO takes over the Grand Summit Resort at Mount Snow in West Dover from 1 to 7 p.m. Friday, then again 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. If you have ever stood in a field and thought about what you’d put on it, this is the weekend to talk to people who actually build the thing instead of scrolling photos of it. Two days is more browsing time than most Vermont trade shows give you. Grand Summit Resort at Mount Snow

Art at the Kent 2026: Throughlines is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Kents’ Corner State Historic Site in Calais — twenty contemporary Vermont artists in a historic site, running Fridays through Mondays until October 11. Friday stacks two extras on top of the exhibition: an Art Cafe from 10:30 to noon with fresh baked goods, tea, and live music, then a 2 p.m. artist talk by Stefania Urist, who works in invasive phragmites. The exhibition keeps the same 10-to-5 hours Saturday and Sunday if Friday doesn’t work. Historic Kents’ Corner

Saturday, September 26

37th Annual Burke Fall Festival runs rain or shine on the East Burke Village Green, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the parade at 10 and Chickweed playing the gazebo from noon to 2:30. Thirty-seven years means this one is not asking anyone’s permission to exist. Bring cash for the BBQ — it’s cash only, and cell service in the village gets slow on a busy day, so most vendors take cards but don’t count on it. Carpool: the primary lot is the East Burke Storage shed on Route 114, about a three-minute walk, with overflow at Darling Park. Route 114 closes from the fire station to Darling Park for the parade, 9:30 to 10:45. Burke Area Chamber of Commerce

Bristol Harvest Festival takes the Bristol Town Green 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for its 27th year, with sixty-plus vendors and crafters, live music from Noah Hahn, Whiskey & Wine, and RambleTree, free horse-and-wagon rides from 11 to 2, pony rides, sack races at 12:45, and the Art on Main silent auction. Addison County does a proper small-town harvest day and Bristol’s downtown is walkable enough that the festival and the shops become one errand. Burke is the other big festival this morning, but it’s two hours northeast — pick one. Addison County Chamber of Commerce

Forest Festival runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, and it is the rare event that shows you the whole forest product cycle in one afternoon — horse-logging, board cutting on a portable sawmill, and woodcraft demonstrations, plus local artisans and outreach partners on site. Take the horse-drawn wagon ride, try your hand at woodworking, or walk the forest with a guide. Six hours means you can do all three. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park

The Cheese and Culture Festival is free and runs noon to 5 p.m. on the Village Common in Cabot, alongside the town’s Fall Foliage Festival day. Demonstrations go 12:30 to 3 — cheesemaking, pickling, and a hands-on sauerkraut session — and cheese and beverage pairings run 3 to 5 for $20, which you sign up for at the Welcome Tent. Mango Jam plays 4 to 6. Follow signs to parking on Elm Street; a shuttle runs a continuous loop into town. Cabot Arts

Five for Fighting with String Quartet hits Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe at 7 p.m., tickets $48.34 to $63.85. A string quartet arrangement is a different animal than the radio version, and Spruce Peak is small enough that you’ll hear the difference. This is the sit-down, actually-listen show of the weekend. Spruce Peak Arts

VOYAGE – Celebrating the Music of Journey takes the Paramount Theatre in Rutland at 7 p.m., tickets $35, $45, and $55 plus tax and fees. Vocalist Pedro Espada fronts it, backed by Robby Hoffman, Greg Smith, Lance Millard, and Dana Spellman. Lobby doors at 6, seating at 6:30, and you already know whether this is your kind of Saturday night. Paramount Theatre

VT’s North Country Chamber of Commerce Chilifest runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 150 Main St. in Newport. Chili competitions are the most honest form of local politics — everybody votes, everybody has a grudge, nobody changes their mind. Newport’s Main Street is short enough to make a day of both this and the quilt show two blocks down. VT’s North Country Chamber of Commerce

Autumn Quilt Fest fills 222 Main St. in Newport, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Quilts get written off as grandmother’s hobby right up until you stand in front of a wall of them and try to work out how the geometry holds. Two days of hours means Orleans County has your whole weekend covered. Discover Newport VT

FALL FEST for Safe and Happy Childhoods starts at 10 a.m. on the State House Lawn at 115 State Street in Montpelier, and the entire event is free to attend. Holding it on the State House lawn is a choice, and not a subtle one. Free means no reason to talk yourself out of walking over. Montpelier Alive

Vermont History Museum: Historic Fiber Arts Workshop starts at 10 a.m. at 109 State Street in Montpelier, $100 or $75 for VHS members. This is hands-on instruction, not a display case, and the price reflects a real day of teaching rather than a walk-through. Register before Saturday if you want in. Montpelier Alive

Fairy House Festival runs Saturday and Sunday at The Nature Museum, 186 Townshend Rd. in Grafton, with festival tickets sold in advance. You build a fairy house out of what the woods gave you, and the kids will out-engineer you inside twenty minutes. Windham County’s low-stakes weekend win. The Nature Museum

Autumn Birding in the Park goes 9 to 11 a.m. and Leave the Leaves: Forests and Fields of Cold Hollow follows from 2 to 3 p.m., both at Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in Enosburg, admission to the park by donation. The afternoon walk is led by Franklin County Forester Charlie Hancock on forest ecology, wildlife habitat, and the surprisingly vital role of fall leaf litter — useful information for anyone who owns a rake and a guilty conscience. Seventy-plus sculptures by David Stromeyer are out there either way. Cold Hollow Sculpture Park

Workshop: Exploring Your Inner Landscapes runs 2 to 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, $45 or $35 for members. Juanita Lanzo leads it, and you come out with mixed-media contour drawings in charcoal and watercolor — no experience needed, ages 16 and up, but space is limited and registration is required. Two hours is the right length for a workshop — long enough to make something, short enough that you still get the rest of your Saturday. Brattleboro’s downtown is right there when you come out. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

Deaf Night Out and Deaf Glow Release Party runs 4 to 8 p.m. at Lawson’s Finest Taproom in Waitsfield. A beer release doubling as a Deaf Night Out is a better idea than most things a taproom does with a Saturday, and four hours is enough to actually settle in. Waitsfield in late September does not need any help being worth the drive. Lawson’s Finest Liquids

Sunday, September 27

One Day “Try it!” Beginner Wheel Throwing with Katie Montovan runs 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, $75. Three hours and you find out whether centering clay is something your hands can do, which is the only way anyone has ever found out. Bennington County’s best use of a Sunday afternoon. Vermont Arts Exchange

The Music The Forest Holds starts at 2 p.m. at Vermont Forest Cemetery in Roxbury, with Allison Man and Colin McCaffrey playing an acoustic set. Afterward there’s a tour led by founder and head cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti. RSVPs are required at cemetery.eco, so handle that before Sunday. Vermont Forest Cemetery

Sunday Sessions: Gnomenclature goes 3 to 5 p.m. at Lawson’s Finest Taproom in Waitsfield. Two hours of music on a Sunday afternoon is the correct dose — you’re home before dark and you still did something. If you were at the taproom Saturday, nobody’s keeping score. Lawson’s Finest Liquids

Hispanic Heritage Celebration at Juana’s Garden starts at 4 p.m. at 188 River St. in Montpelier. A working garden is a better venue for a heritage celebration than a function room, and Montpelier gets it right by keeping this one where the food actually grows. Late afternoon, so it doesn’t eat your whole Sunday. Montpelier Alive

A Night with Twilight: Birthday Celebration & Star Stories runs 5 to 8 p.m. at the Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village in Brownington, a family-friendly evening where Alexander Lucius Twilight is brought to life by a first-person interpreter. Three hours in Brownington after dark, with star stories, is a genuinely unusual thing to be able to do in Vermont on a Sunday. Orleans County earns its keep this weekend. Old Stone House Museum

Old North Church Lamplight Services begins at 7 p.m. at the Old North Church in Danville, freewill offering, supporting the church and the speaker. Lamplight services are held the last Sunday of each month from May through September, which makes this the last one of the year — Rev. Robert Little of St. Johnsbury, a choir of volunteer singers, and an old-fashioned hymn sing after worship. Dress for the weather and bring a flashlight. Old North Church

Ten counties, two festivals with sixty-four years of practice between them, one last lamplight service before the dark comes early — the calendar is not going to wait for you to finish your coffee.