Around the Valley
Thursday, October 1 in Nazareth and Easton: Garlic Fest Preview Night, Forks Restaurant Week, and the municipal month opens
This is the Thursday, October 1 roundup for Nazareth, Easton, and the townships in between, checked this morning against live district, municipal, and venue calendars. The month opens with the season's biggest food weekend: Garlic Fest Preview Night fills South 3rd Street Friday, the full festival takes Centre Square Saturday and Sunday, and the Easton Farmers Market sits out Saturday so its vendors can staff it. Forks Township launches its first Restaurant Week October 11 to 17, Nazareth's football schedule shifts to a Saturday game on the 17th, and the municipal month opens tonight with meetings in Bushkill and Forks.
Garlic Fest: Preview Night Friday, then the full weekend
The Easton Garlic Fest opens tomorrow night with its second annual Preview Night, Friday, October 2 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on South 3rd Street between Centre Square and Ferry Street. It is free and all ages, rain or shine, with a live concert from Buttercream, a CAKE cover band, plus The SoundSmiths, and a limited number of food and beverage vendors for a lighter, easier kickoff before the big weekend. Details are on the festival's Preview Night page.
The main event runs Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. both days on Centre Square, the intersection of 3rd and Northampton Streets. Admission stays free and the festival runs rain or shine, with more than 120 vendors, chef cooking competitions on the Stinkin' Culinary Stage, and live music on two stages, organized by the Easton Main Street Initiative. New for 2026: a Saturday Afterparty from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. keeps the square going after the festival day closes.
One logistics note for market regulars: the Easton Farmers Market takes Saturday, October 3 off for the festival and returns to Scott Park on Saturday, October 10, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. October's market calendar fills in fast after that: Apple Jam on the 17th and Pumpkins & Pooches on the 31st.
Saturday in the Nazareth area: market, Touch-a-Truck, and the Martin raffle
The Nazareth Farmers Market keeps its every-Saturday run on the circle at Main and Center Streets, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., operated by the Nazareth Economic Development Commission through the final Saturday of October, with live music from the Martin Guitar Charitable Foundation on market mornings. For families with younger kids, the Memorial Library of Nazareth and Vicinity holds its annual Touch-a-Truck Festival Saturday, October 3 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Bushkill Township Recreation Fields, 1114 Bushkill Center Road, rain or shine, with trucks large and small to climb on, a quiet hour from 10:00 to 11:00 for children who need a low-stimulation setting, and proceeds supporting the library. Tickets are sold at the event.
The Martin Guitar raffle keeps its market-morning cadence at 2 South Main Street on Saturdays in October, with drawing days confirmed for October 3, 10, and 31 and the grand-prize drawing pinned to Halloween morning. And at C.F. Martin & Co. on Sycamore Street, the free museum, the 1833 Shop, and the Pickin' Parlor stay open weekdays, and the guided one-hour factory tour runs Monday through Friday with departures between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Online pre-registration is required and tickets are not sold in person, so book ahead on the tour scheduler.
Forks Township Restaurant Week debuts October 11 to 17
The first-ever Forks Township Restaurant Week runs Sunday, October 11 through Saturday, October 17, organized by the Forks Business Association with the Easton Area Chamber of Commerce, with prix-fixe menus at about a dozen dining spots across the township. It is a new fall tradition worth knowing about now, especially if you are house-hunting in Forks or Palmer and want to sample the local dining scene in one week. SURV, the scratch-made New American spot with wood-fired pizza on Sullivan Trail, is one of the anchors of that scene.
Football: Nazareth on the road Friday, and a Saturday game on the 17th
The Nazareth Blue Eagles are back on the road Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m. at Stroudsburg in an EPC Class 6A matchup. Tickets stay digital through the district's online box office on Hometown Ticketing, so buy ahead and skip the line. The Easton Red Rovers play an unusual Thursday night game tonight, October 1 at Pocono Mountain East, then come home to Cottingham to host Northampton on Friday, October 9.
Nazareth is home the same Friday night, October 9, against Bethlehem Liberty at Leh Stadium, which makes the 9th the two-town home date to circle. One schedule quirk for mid-month: Nazareth plays at Bethlehem Catholic on Saturday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m., a rare Saturday kickoff that lands the same day as the Nazareth Fall Festival, the Halloween parade, and Apple Jam in Easton. The regular season closes with the rivalry finale at Easton on Friday, October 30.
School district notes
The Easton Area School District keeps a full October. Standing committee meetings run Tuesday, October 6 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.; Wednesday, October 7 is an early dismissal for Easton Area Middle School students only, with teacher in-service in the afternoon; Monday, October 12 is off for the full district; the regular board meeting lands Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00 p.m. at the Easton Area Education Center, 1801 Bushkill Drive, with the agenda in the district's BoardDocs portal; and elementary parent conferences with early dismissals run Monday through Wednesday, October 26 to 28.
On the Nazareth side, the Nazareth Area School District also keeps Monday, October 12 off for students and staff. The school board runs its Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, October 13 at 6:00 p.m. and the general regular meeting on Tuesday, October 27 at 7:00 p.m., with agendas on the Keystone Agenda platform the district moved to over the summer.
The municipal month opens tonight
Thursday, October 1 is a two-town supervisor night, and the rest of the month lines up quickly after it. Rooms and times do move in the fall, so give the office a call before driving over, and check each municipality's own site for agendas posted in the days ahead.
- Bushkill Township Supervisors meet tonight, Thursday, October 1 at 6:00 p.m. in the Municipal Meeting Room, 1114 Bushkill Center Road, agendas on bushkilltownship.com.
- Forks Township Supervisors meet tonight, Thursday, October 1 and Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m., the first-and-third-Thursday round. Forks wrapped two September budget workshops on the 21st and 28th, so the October sessions open the 2027 budget discussion; agendas post in the Forks Agenda Center.
- Nazareth Borough Council holds its October business meeting Monday, October 5 at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers, Borough Hall, 159 West Center Street. The council has been working through grants, sponsorships, and ambulance-funding requests in recent sessions per Home News PA, and agendas stay on nazarethboroughpa.com.
- Upper Nazareth Township Supervisors meet Wednesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the Township Building, 100 Newport Avenue, on uppernazarethtownship.org.
- Lower Nazareth Township Supervisors meet Monday, October 12 at 7:00 p.m. at 623 Municipal Drive, Suite 200. Note the date: it lands on the same Monday the schools have off. The township's yearly schedule PDF is on lowernazareth.com.
- Palmer Township Supervisors meet Monday, October 5 and Monday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. at 3 Weller Place, lower level, with agendas on the township's NovusAgenda system via palmertwp.com. Palmer also runs an electronics waste collection in October at the Hartley Road recycling site per the township's August newsletter.
- Stockertown Borough posts council agendas on stockertown.org; it does not publish a fixed monthly calendar, so confirm dates with the borough office.
- Easton City Council meets Wednesday, October 14 and Wednesday, October 28 at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 123 South 3rd Street, streamed on the city site with agendas in the Agenda Center. Northampton County Council posts its own agendas separately.
Things to do: the State Theatre, Crayola, and Martin Guitar
The State Theatre opens October strong: violinist Itzhak Perlman plays tonight, Thursday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.; So Good, the Neil Diamond Experience follows Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Meredith Willson's The Music Man is on tour Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.; and Lewis Black is live Friday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m. Later in the month, Bobby Collins plays October 16 and The Rocket Man Show lands October 17. Any one of them makes a full downtown evening with dinner in the circle beforehand.
The Crayola Experience runs Screamin' Green Hauntoween through November 1, included with general admission at 30 Centre Square: weekend trick-or-treating stations, themed crafts, scavenger hunts, and photo ops. Two October add-ons are already posted: Crayola After Dark, the adults-only Halloween edition, on Friday, October 16 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., and Draw with a Comic Book Inker, a hands-on art session, on Saturday, October 17 from 10:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., both on the Easton events calendar, which also lists a Creepy Critter Visit with Arachno-Showbia for the fall season plus the ongoing Toddler Tuesdays and Sensory Sundays.
Area news worth folding into your week
The Route 33 bridge replacement over Bushkill Creek between the Tatamy and Stockertown interchanges keeps moving: the northbound span reopened August 30, and the southbound span is under replacement now, bringing single-lane restrictions and delays on northbound Route 33 for the next several weeks per WFMZ. PennDOT also accelerated its Route 33 safety-improvement package to a fall 2026 bid, years ahead of the original timeline, and an $8 million Route 33 resurfacing from Route 22 to I-78 sits in the 2026 Lehigh Valley transportation plan per The Morning Call. Saturday, October 3 the county runs a Household Hazardous Waste Collection at Northampton Community College, with hours and accepted items on the city news alert page.
For food and business news: a Dunkin' drive-thru in the 400 block of Palmer Township headed to the supervisors in September, per LehighValleyLive's Easton coverage, and the Morning Call reports closings for Kabinett Wine Bar and Tucker Garage + Grocery in Easton, a reminder that the downtown dining scene keeps turning over. On the opening side, La Piazza Italia Ristorante is coming to the Forks Towne Center on Sullivan Trail, taking over the spot of a longtime family pizzeria, and it joins Restaurant Week as a fall opening to watch in Forks.
Good places to eat around the weekend
In Nazareth, Bella Bean Coffee Shop on South Broad is the dependable pre-market stop, the Nazareth Diner covers any meal, and Paradise Dogs handles the casual end near the circle. The Circle Cafe on Main sits right at 2 North Main Street on the market circle itself, Birthright Brewing Company pours at 57 South Main, and Pizza Joe's on South Main does the pizza-and-pasta side.
Downtown Easton for the Garlic Fest weekend: Josie's New York Deli on the square is the fast, no-nonsense option, Pearly Baker's Alehouse pours the classic circle pint, The Bayou Easton brings Cajun off the square, Rios Brazilian Steakhouse does the rodizio, and ThreeBirds Coffee House anchors the coffee end of Northampton Street. When the square is shoulder-to-shoulder, the Easton Public Market is the easy indoor backup, two blocks in, with everything from noodles to pastry under one roof. And in Forks, SURV is worth the short drive for its scratch kitchen and wood-fired pizza, especially during Restaurant Week.
On the horizon
Circle these dates: Garlic Fest Preview Night Friday, October 2 and the full festival October 3 to 4; Touch-a-Truck and the Household Hazardous Waste Collection on Saturday, October 3; a trunk-or-treat hosted by Action Karate at Nazareth Borough Park on Sunday, October 11 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; Forks Township Restaurant Week October 11 to 17; Crayola After Dark October 16; Apple Jam, the Nazareth Fall Festival, the Halloween parade, and Nazareth's Saturday football game all landing October 17; the Nazareth at Easton rivalry finale October 30; and the Martin Guitar grand-prize drawing with Pumpkins & Pooches at Scott Park on Halloween, October 31. Beyond the month, PA Bacon Fest celebrates its 15th anniversary November 7 and 8, and the reworked Easton Winter Village runs November 27 through December 20. For anything dated, the Easton city events page and Downtown Nazareth's listings stay more current than any single post can, so give them a glance before you head out the door.