Around the Valley
The week of September 29 in Nazareth and Easton: board night tonight, Garlic Fest Friday, and the municipal month opens
This is the Tuesday, September 29 roundup for Nazareth, Easton, and the townships in between, checked this morning against live district, municipal, and venue calendars. The week runs from board chambers to the big square: the Easton Area School Board meets tonight, Garlic Fest opens with a Friday-evening session and fills Centre Square all weekend, Nazareth's Blue Eagles head back on the road Friday, and Thursday, October 1 starts the municipal month. The first pages of October are already worth blocking out.
Tonight: the Easton Area School Board meets
The Easton Area School Board holds its regular September meeting tonight, Tuesday, September 29 at 7:00 p.m. at the Easton Area Education Center, 1801 Bushkill Drive. The agenda posts in the district's BoardDocs portal, and the meeting livestreams on the district's board-meetings channel, where sessions are archived afterward. The same evening, Paxinosa Elementary hosts Reading Under the Lights from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., a family literacy night that pairs nicely with the board meeting downtown.
October's district rhythm is already set. The standing committee meetings run Tuesday, October 6 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., and the regular board meeting lands Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00 p.m. at the same Education Center. On the school calendar: 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; and elementary parent conferences with early dismissals run Monday through Wednesday, October 26 to 28. The district calendar carries every date.
On the Nazareth side, the district calendar also keeps Monday, October 12 as an off day for students and staff. The Nazareth Area 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.
Garlic Fest opens Friday night
The Easton Garlic Fest now runs three sessions: a Friday-evening opener on October 2 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., then Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day, all on Centre Square, free and rain or shine. The Friday night kickoff is the lighter crowd and the easiest way to beat the weekend surge. Organizers, the Easton Main Street Initiative, screen more than 120 vendors for garlic-themed food, farm goods, and crafts, with cooking contests and live music across the square.
Two planning facts matter for market people. The Easton Farmers Market takes Saturday, October 3 off so its vendors can staff the festival, and its next regular market at Scott Park is Saturday, October 10, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Past that, October fills in fast: Apple Jam on October 17 covers apples in every form, from cider donuts and caramel apples to farm-pressed cider and hard cider with an apple tasting; and Pumpkins & Pooches closes the month on October 31 with costume contests, a mini canine-agility course, trick-or-treating, and pumpkin crafts for kids.
Saturday in the Nazareth area: market morning, 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 all the way through the final Saturday of October. 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, 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.
The same Saturday morning stacks two more Nazareth-area options, both listed on the local Eventbrite pages: The Bloomin' Cottage on Center Street runs its Haunted Birdhouses workshop at 10:00 a.m., and Belltower Cultural Center hosts Kids Can!! Super Spiky at 10:30 a.m. And 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.
Friday night football: Nazareth at Stroudsburg, and a Thursday game for Easton
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 on 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. That makes the 9th the two-town home date to circle: both teams in their own stadiums at 7:00 p.m., with the Garage-style rivalry finale still to come at Easton on October 30.
The municipal month opens Thursday
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 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 Thursday, October 1 and Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m., the first-and-third-Thursday round. Forks just 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.
- 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.
Area news worth folding into your week
The Route 33 bridge project over Bushkill Creek between the Tatamy and Stockertown interchanges keeps moving: the northbound span reopened August 30, and replacement of the southbound bridge began in September, 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. In the city, UGI continues gas-line replacement work on Easton streets with posted lane closures, and Saturday, October 3 the county runs a Household Hazardous Waste Collection at Northampton Community College; hours and accepted items are on the city news alert page.
For food news, La Piazza Italia Ristorante is coming to the Forks Towne Center on Sullivan Trail, taking over the spot of a longtime family pizzeria. Count it as a fall opening to watch in Forks.
State Theatre, Martin Guitar, and Crayola this week
The State Theatre opens October strong: violinist Itzhak Perlman on Thursday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.; So Good, the Neil Diamond Experience on Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Meredith Willson's The Music Man on tour Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.; and Lewis Black live Friday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m. Any one of them makes a full downtown evening with dinner in the circle beforehand.
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 with departures between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., limited to eight people with tickets required in advance. The tour scheduler is the place to book.
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.
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. One fresh note: BeanBath Cafe at 2425 Plaza Court in Bath holds a 4.4-star neighborhood rating for coffee and sandwiches, a good stop on the way back from Seiple Farms' pumpkin patch.
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.
On the horizon
Circle these dates: Garlic Fest Friday evening through Sunday, October 2 to 4; Touch-a-Truck and the market's first October Saturdays October 3 and 10; the two-town home football night October 9; Crayola After Dark October 16; the Nazareth Fall Festival and Halloween parade with Apple Jam all landing October 17; the Knauss Homestead Harvest Festival near Bath on October 24; 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. The library posts its October program calendars this week. 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.