Around the Valley
The final weekend of September in Nazareth and Easton: homecoming, PorchFest, and the hot-pepper Saturday
This is the Thursday, September 24 roundup for Nazareth, Easton, and the townships in between, checked against live municipal, district, and venue sources this morning. The weekend ahead has three anchors: Nazareth's Homecoming night against Emmaus on Friday, the Easton Farmers Market's 17th Hot Pepper Showdown on Saturday, and Easton's College Hill PorchFest on Sunday. Garlic Fest is a week out, and the school board and municipal calendars for the final days of September are already posted.
Friday night: Homecoming at Leh, Central Catholic at Cottingham
Nazareth caps its Homecoming week at Nazareth Area High School on Friday, September 25. Spirit Week ran Monday through Thursday, and the varsity Blue Eagles host Emmaus at 7:00 p.m. at Andrew S. Leh Stadium, televised on SEN and PCN per the district's activities calendar. Varsity girls tennis travels to Moravian Academy at 3:30 p.m. the same afternoon. Easton makes it a two-town football night: the Red Rovers host Allentown Central Catholic at 7:00 p.m. at Cottingham Stadium. And downtown, Easton Fourth Friday takes the circle from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., the revived name for the old Easton Out Loud street festival.
If you would rather stay in out of the evening chill, the State Theatre stacks its biggest four-show run of the month: Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band plays tonight, Brian Regan tomorrow, Martina McBride Saturday, and Three Dog Night closes it Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Single tickets are still listed for all four as of this morning.
Saturday: the hot-pepper market, a double yard-line morning, and the first pumpkin patch opening
The Easton Farmers Market marks the season with its 17th annual Hot Pepper Showdown on Saturday, September 26 at Scott Park, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The tradition starts contestants on jalapeños and climbs through the ten deadly peppers, with market trivia, prizes, and live music around the contest. Up the valley, the Nazareth Farmers Market holds its own Saturday run on the circle at Main and Center Streets, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., where the Martin Guitar raffle keeps taking tickets at 2 South Main Street on market mornings.
Saturday morning also belongs to the younger set on the gridiron: Nazareth Area middle school football plays at East Hills at 9:00 a.m., and the Nazareth Clippers youth program hosts Bethlehem Catholic at Lower Nazareth at 10:00 a.m. At the Crayola Experience, the Creepy Critter Visit with Arachno-Showbia runs 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as a weekend add-on during Screamin' Green Hauntoween, and Martina McBride plays the State Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
And the fall farm season starts in earnest: Seiple Farms in Bath opens its 2026 autumn season Saturday, September 26 through November 1, weekends 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with hayrides to a 35-acre pumpkin patch, a 20-acre corn maze, and farm animals, plus flashlight maze nights on select October Fridays. Closer to Nazareth, Juniperdale Farms on Browntown Road is the closest pick-your-own apple stop, and Raub's Farm Market on Tatamy Road in Easton sells pumpkins, mums, and corn stalks alongside its 14-acre maze. Hours shift by week and weather, so glance at each farm's site before you drive.
Sunday: PorchFest takes over College Hill
The eighth College Hill PorchFest fills Easton's hilltop neighborhood on Sunday, September 27, with performers on porches, yards, and parks from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Past editions have stacked roughly 60 performances of jazz, classical, folk, country, and rock across 30-plus porches, all family-friendly and mostly acoustic, and the event closes with a Second Line Parade that steps off from College Hill Presbyterian Church. It is free, it is rain-or-shine with Sunday, October 4 as the rain date, and it is supported by The Village on College Hill, Lafayette College, and WDIY. The practical play: park early on Northampton Street and walk up, or grab coffee downtown first.
The same afternoon, Latin Fest Easton wraps the weekend in the city's parks, and Three Dog Night plays the State Theatre at 7:00 p.m. for a full-circle-colors evening after the porches go quiet.
The week ahead, September 28 through October 3
Monday, September 28 is a teacher in-service day in the Easton Area School District, no school for students. Tuesday, September 29 the Easton Area School Board holds its regular meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Easton Area Education Center, 1801 Bushkill Drive. Wednesday the 30th is the quieter bookend: no board date on the Nazareth side this week, since the district runs Committee of the Whole on second Tuesdays (October 13) and its general voting meetings on fourth Tuesdays (October 27), with agendas now posted on the Keystone Agenda platform after the move off BoardDocs.
Thursday, October 1 opens the municipal month: Bushkill Township Supervisors meet at 6:00 p.m. at the municipal building on Bushkill Center Road, and Forks Township Supervisors follow at 7:00 p.m., the first of their first-and-third-Thursday dates. Nazareth Borough Council held its September workshop at 6:00 p.m. this evening at Borough Hall, 159 West Center Street, with the October business meeting set for Monday, October 5. Early October then stacks Upper Nazareth Township Supervisors on October 7 and 21, Lower Nazareth on October 14 and 28, and Palmer Township on its first, third, and fourth Monday pattern, October 5, 19, and 26 pending the posted schedule. Stockertown Borough does not publish a fixed calendar, so call the borough office to confirm its council dates.
In the city, Easton City Council returns October 14 and 28 at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall, streamed on the city site with agendas in the Agenda Center; the September 23 meeting wrapped this week. The West Ward Market, the city's neighborhood market, moved to Thursday evenings and opens tonight, September 24, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at its new home, the Community Garden at 10th and Pine Streets, and downtown's Fall Book Sale runs through Monday the 28th.
One week until Garlic Fest, and the October board dates worth knowing
The Easton Garlic Fest fills Centre Square on Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., free and rain or shine. One logistics note for market regulars: the Easton Farmers Market takes October 3 off so vendors can staff the farm-to-fest area, and its next regular Saturday at Scott Park is October 10. The Nazareth Farmers Market stays on its weekly Saturday run in the circle through October.
Two October dates are worth circling now. Nazareth vendors and crafters: applications for the Fall Festival on Main Street close Friday, September 25. Families: the Knauss Homestead Harvest Festival, the fourth annual edition, runs Saturday, October 24 from noon to 4:00 p.m. with 30-plus craft and vendor booths, food, kids' activities, horse-drawn carriage rides, and tours of the 1777 farmhouse and barn, all proceeds supporting the homestead's restoration.
Fall is the season: colors, orchards, and the slate-belt drive
Foliage peaks in the Lehigh Valley around mid-October, and the official foliage routes stop right here: Route 611 through the Slate Belt runs from the Nazareth area north toward Bangor past the ridgelines, and the four-mile John M. Mauser Nature Education Trail in Lower Mount Bethel makes a short woodsy leg with the same views. For u-pick planning, the apple roundup and the corn maze and pumpkin patch guide cover the full valley, with Grim's Orchard in Breinigsville adding its own fall festival on the far side of the county.
Martin Guitar and Crayola: the standing plans
At C.F. Martin & Co. on Sycamore Street in Nazareth, the free museum, the 1833 Shop, and the Pickin' Parlor stay open weekdays, and the guided one-hour factory tour runs Monday through Friday in small groups by advance online reservation. The Martin Guitar raffle keeps its Saturday cadence, and the market's 2026 calendar pins the grand-prize drawing to Halloween morning, October 31 at 2 South Main Street. In Easton, Screamin' Green Hauntoween at the Crayola Experience runs through November 1, with the mad-scientist storyline, weekend trick-or-treating stations, themed crafts, and family photo ops, and masks are the one thing the costume policy skips.
Local notes worth knowing
Two items moved this week. Nazareth's downtown economic development commission reopened its matching facade-improvement grant program, funded through Northampton County's GrowNORCO initiative, to help the new storefronts on Main and Center keep pace with the recent wave of openings. And The Morning Call reported that Lehigh Valley manufacturer Core Pipe Products expanded again with a supplier acquisition, the kind of consolidation that keeps the region's industrial base humming through the fall.
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, Paradise Dogs handles the casual end near the circle, Birthright Brewing Company pours on South Main, and Pizza Joe's does the pizza-and-pasta side of town. The Circle Cafe sits right on the market circle itself.
Downtown Easton for the festival 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, and Rios Brazilian Steakhouse does the rodizio. ThreeBirds Coffee House on Bushkill Street anchors the coffee end of Northampton Street, and the Easton Public Market keeps the easy indoor option, from noodles to pastry to the farmstand, a short walk from PorchFest parking.
On the horizon October 3 and 4 for Garlic Fest in the square; October 5 for Nazareth Council and the Palmer first-Monday round; October 13 and 27 for the Nazareth school board; October 17 for the parade-plus-festival afternoon; October 24 for the Knauss Homestead Harvest Festival; October 30 for the Nazareth at Easton rivalry; and October 31 for the Martin raffle drawing and the market's Pumpkins & Pooches at Scott Park.
The Memorial Library of Nazareth and Vicinity posts its October program calendars this weekend, a good glance for story times and book groups as the evenings cool. For anything dated, the Easton city events page and Downtown Nazareth's events listing stay more current than any single post can, so give them a final glance before you head out the door.