Free Fall Family Festival In Essex County: Nature, Activities, Music

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — UPDATE: The Fall Family Festival is being rescheduled to Sunday, Oct. 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. due to inclement weather in the forecast. Our original article follows below.

An annual Fall Family Festival will return to the Essex County Environmental Center for 2023.

The free festival is open to the public. It will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23 at the environmental center, which is located at 621B Eagle Rock Avenue in Roseland.

Here’s what to expect, according to a news release from the county:

“Visitors to the Fall Family Festival can go on canoe trips on the Passaic River or nature walks in Essex County’s West Essex Park, weather permitting. There will be a petting zoo, gardening tips, a live beehive display, woodturning demonstrations, face painting, a pumpkin patch, an inflatable corn maze, Rizzo’s Reptiles Live Animal Show, What’s Out There Traveling Planetarium, display tables from a variety of eco-vendors and live music. Partnering with the Environmental Center are New Jersey Audubon, Essex County Master Gardeners, Essex County Beekeepers, 4-H Club, Essex County Rutgers Cooperative Extension, New Jersey Woodturners Association and the Essex County Environmental Commission.”

Admission throughout the day is free, but vendor items will be for sale. For more information, call 973-228-8776.

“The Fall Family Festival is a great opportunity to visit our state-of-the-art Environmental Center and meet our environmental partners,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

“I invite you to celebrate the arrival of autumn at the Essex County Environmental Center’s Annual Fall Family Celebration,” he added. “Take a walk in our pumpkin patch, learn about a variety of grassroots groups that work to protect the environment and paddle down the Passaic River at a leisurely pace.”

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