The Town of Occoquan’s Fall Arts & Crafts Show takes over the historic district this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
Mayor Earnie Porta, in a Sept. 18 e-newsletter to Potomac Local News, said the show will bring hundreds of vendors and thousands of visitors into town. He called it one of the area’s signature events.
The town lists the show on its official events page as the last full weekend in September and describes it as two days of 200-plus artisans, makers and creators in more than 20 categories, with live demonstrations in the streets of Historic Occoquan.
What is new this year, Porta wrote, is an Art Park with creative demonstrations and immersive art experiences, on top of the usual vendor row and local shops. Families can still use Imagination Alley, which the town and the mayor both describe as a stop for arts, crafts and performances. Kids’ mini-workshops in that alley are a standing piece of the town’s festival page.
The official beer garden this weekend is the Mill Street Draft Garden at 200 Mill Street, Porta wrote, with beer-themed refreshments and live music.
The show is a street festival. Town festival rules close the Old and Historic District to regular traffic and parking while booths line the roads.
The event area is generally Commerce Street, Mill Street, Washington Street from Center Lane to Mill Street, Union Street from Center Lane to Mill Street, and Ellicott Street from Center Lane to Mill Street. Impacted streets officially close at 2 a.m. Saturday. Cars left on those streets or in town lots after that can be towed. Porta said the town’s festival public-safety maps and road-closure notes are updated as needed.
Volunteers are still being asked to fill three-hour shifts, the mayor wrote: vendor assistance, shuttle stops, the information booth, the alley team, and vendor load-in, set-up or breakdown. Lunch and a volunteer shirt come with the shift.
The town has held a craft show in the historic-district streets for more than 50 years. Net revenue from the Events Fund — the account formerly called the Craft Show Fund — goes toward capital work, historic buildings, and parks. Town budget materials treat the fall show as one of two signature outdoor festivals, with RiverFest in June as the other.
Potomac Local has covered the fall show as a holiday-shopping kickoff and an economic driver for brick-and-mortar shops in the river town. Porta’s 2026 note stays on the practical points: vendors, the new Art Park, Imagination Alley, the Mill Street beer garden, volunteers, and street closures.
More from the town: Town of Occoquan website
