Fairy House Festival 2026

Fairy House Festival 2026 will take place September 26–27 at The Nature Museum in Grafton, Vermont, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM each day. The annual family festival transforms the museum grounds and neighboring woodland into a fairy village filled with miniature houses made from natural materials, alongside storytelling, live music, fairy-house building, crafts, a Nature Quest, bubbles, magic, food and local vendors.

The event is The Nature Museum’s primary annual fundraiser and is created with the help of more than 90 volunteers. Visitors planning other heritage and fantasy events in the state can also explore Renaissance and medieval festivals in Vermont.

🧚 Fairy House Trail

The centerpiece of the festival is a woodland trail filled with miniature structures constructed from natural materials such as bark, stone, moss, branches, leaves and other forest materials.

Volunteers create dozens of installations throughout the woods, forming a temporary fairy village that connects imaginative play with the natural environment. Some structures remain after the festival and are eventually allowed to decompose naturally back into the landscape.

The main Fairy House Trail is approximately half a mile long and crosses both meadow and woodland terrain. Visitors should expect natural surfaces, slopes, stones and potentially muddy conditions if rain has fallen before the event.

The emphasis on fairies, imaginative characters and woodland fantasy also makes the weekend a natural addition to the Fantasy Fairs listed on Medieval Agenda.

⚔️ Nature Quest and the Fairy Royal Court

A new activity for this edition is the Nature Quest, a scavenger hunt that encourages visitors to explore the grounds and complete a series of challenges.

Participants who successfully complete the quest can become a Knight of the Fairy Royal Court, with ceremonial knighting sessions held twice each day.

Saturday, September 26

1:00 PM: Knighting Ceremony
3:00 PM: Knighting Ceremony

Sunday, September 27

1:00 PM: Knighting Ceremony
3:00 PM: Knighting Ceremony

🎭 The Longshanks: Stilt Walkers & Storytellers

The Longshanks bring stilt walking and storytelling to the festival throughout both days.

Their scheduled storytelling performances take place at the Tulip Tree Garden Stage.

Saturday, September 26

11:00 AM: The Longshanks storytelling
2:00 PM: The Longshanks storytelling

Sunday, September 27

11:00 AM: The Longshanks storytelling
2:00 PM: The Longshanks storytelling

🎵 Live music and hurdy-gurdy

Music is part of the festival atmosphere, including performances by Dan Frank, a traveling musician and hurdy-gurdy player.

The hurdy-gurdy is a centuries-old string instrument that produces sound through a hand-cranked wheel rubbing against strings. Its distinctive drone makes it particularly suited to folk, historical and fantasy settings.

Musicians and other entertainers perform around the grounds during the weekend in addition to the scheduled storytelling sessions.

✨ Fairy crafts and activities

Much of the festival is designed around hands-on participation rather than passive entertainment.

Activities include:

• Fairy House Building in the Magic Forest Playscape
• Make-Your-Own Wand at the Craft Tent
• Nature Quest scavenger hunt
• Knighting ceremonies
• Storytelling
• Stilt walking
• Live music
• Hurdy-gurdy performances
• Bubbles
• Magic tricks
• Community art
• Self-guided crafts
• Local merchants
• Food vendors
• Ice cream

Self-guided crafts, community art projects, the Fairy House Building Station and other core activities are included with admission. Donations are welcomed to support The Nature Museum’s educational programs.

🧚 Build your own fairy house

Visitors can create their own miniature dwellings at the Fairy House Building Station in the Magic Forest Playscape.

The activity encourages the use of natural materials and creativity while introducing children to the shapes, textures and materials found in the local environment.

The museum also recruits official fairy-house builders before the festival. These volunteers construct the installations that form the main woodland trail and receive complimentary admission in return for their participation.

👑 Costumes

Costumes are welcome for both children and adults. Fairy wings, woodland creatures, fantasy characters and other imaginative outfits are commonly seen throughout the weekend.

The festival setting is intentionally informal, so costumes are optional rather than required.

🍦 Food and local vendors

Food is available from local vendors, food trucks and The Nature Museum’s concession stand.

Visitors may also bring their own picnic, making it possible to spend the full day on the museum grounds.

Guests are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle, which can be refilled at the concession area.

Cash is useful for food purchases and other on-site transactions.

🛍 Local merchants

Local merchants participate alongside the food vendors and activity areas, adding a small marketplace to the festival.

Offerings vary by vendor but are connected with the event’s focus on handmade goods, nature, creativity and fantasy.

The late-September dates place the event among the Renaissance faires and medieval festivals taking place in September 2026.

🕒 2026 Schedule

Saturday, September 26

10:00 AM: Festival opens
Throughout the day: Fairy House Trail, Fairy House Building, wand making, bubbles, magic tricks, live music, local merchants, food vendors and ice cream
11:00 AM: The Longshanks storytelling at Tulip Tree Garden Stage
1:00 PM: Nature Quest Knighting Ceremony
2:00 PM: The Longshanks storytelling at Tulip Tree Garden Stage
3:00 PM: Nature Quest Knighting Ceremony
4:00 PM: Festival closes

Sunday, September 27

10:00 AM: Festival opens
Throughout the day: Fairy House Trail, Fairy House Building, wand making, bubbles, magic tricks, live music, local merchants, food vendors and ice cream
11:00 AM: The Longshanks storytelling at Tulip Tree Garden Stage
1:00 PM: Nature Quest Knighting Ceremony
2:00 PM: The Longshanks storytelling at Tulip Tree Garden Stage
3:00 PM: Nature Quest Knighting Ceremony
4:00 PM: Festival closes

🎟 Admission

Adults:
Online: $18
At the gate: $20

Children ages 3–15:
$5

Children under 3:
Free

Official fairy-house builders and registered festival volunteers:
Free admission

Parking:
Free

Tickets are sold separately for Saturday and Sunday.

🎟 Buy Fairy House Festival tickets online

The festival is The Nature Museum’s principal fundraising event of the year, and ticket revenue supports its educational and environmental programs.

🅿️ Parking

Free parking is available at several locations around Grafton.

Parking areas include:

• Lot across from The Nature Museum
• Grafton Elementary School
• Windham Foundation property
• Designated roadside locations throughout Grafton
• Overflow parking at Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center

The overflow lot is approximately a 15-minute walk from the festival.

A passenger drop-off area is available directly across from the museum, and signs and attendants help direct traffic during the weekend.

🌲 The Nature Museum

The Nature Museum is a nonprofit natural-history organization founded by Grafton residents Sue Hadden and Don Clark. It opened to the public in 1989, originally operating from Grafton Town Hall before moving to its present building in the 1990s.

Its collections and educational activities focus on the natural history of northern New England, including regional flora, fauna and geology.

The museum property covers approximately four acres and includes:

• Chapman Meadow
• Magic Forest Playscape
• Native pollinator garden
• Frog pond
• Outdoor spaces for environmental education

Beyond the property is Grafton Village Park, a roughly 50-acre woodland area with trails.

The Fairy House Festival combines these natural spaces with imaginative installations to encourage visitors, particularly children, to engage more closely with the woodland environment.

♿ Accessibility

The complete Fairy House Trail travels through natural woodland and is not suitable for most wheelchairs or strollers.

The first part is relatively even and follows a grassy slope, but the forest section becomes rougher after crossing a stone wall and includes uneven surfaces and stone steps.

A shorter and more accessible alternative runs around the meadow pond and includes several fairy-house installations. Rugged strollers and some mobility devices may be able to use this route.

Many other festival activities are situated on flat grass or gentle slopes, including:

• Crafts
• Food vendors
• Activity areas
• Face painting and similar family activities

The museum also has:

• Accessible restroom facilities
• An accessibility ramp beside the museum building

🐕 Pets

Pets are not permitted during the Fairy House Festival because of the concentration of visitors and young children.

Service animals are permitted.

🌦 Weather and refunds

The Fairy House Festival is an outdoor event and operates in natural woodland conditions.

Tickets are non-refundable, including when weather conditions are less favorable. Visitors should therefore check the forecast and bring appropriate footwear and clothing.

Rain before the festival can make sections of the woodland trail muddy.

📍 Grafton, Vermont

Grafton is a small community in Windham County in southeastern Vermont, with a population of approximately 650 residents.

The town was founded on April 8, 1754, and was originally called Thomlinson, after John Thomlinson, the English business agent of one of its founders. The community adopted the name Grafton in 1791.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Grafton’s location placed it on routes linking communities across New England, including stagecoach connections toward New York and Canada. Agriculture, small industries, mills and quarrying also contributed to the local economy.

Much of the historic village center has survived, giving modern visitors a clear view of the settlement pattern and architecture associated with earlier periods of Vermont history.

🚗 How to get to Grafton

By road

Driving is the easiest way to reach both Grafton and the festival.

The village is accessed primarily through Vermont Route 121 and local roads connecting with nearby Chester, Bellows Falls, Rockingham and Interstate 91.

Visitors arriving from Brattleboro and southern Vermont can travel north via Interstate 91 before continuing west on local state highways toward Grafton.

From Bellows Falls, the journey to Grafton is approximately 12 miles by road.

From Rutland and central Vermont, visitors can approach through Chester and continue toward Grafton on Route 35 and Route 121.

The festival address is:

The Nature Museum
186 Townshend Road
Grafton, VT 05146

By train

Grafton does not have a passenger railway station.

The closest practical rail connection is Bellows Falls Amtrak Station, approximately 12 miles from the village.

Bellows Falls is served by Amtrak’s Vermonter, which links communities in Vermont with Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Visitors arriving at Bellows Falls need to arrange a taxi or other road transportation for the final journey to Grafton.

By bus

There is no direct scheduled intercity bus service to the festival grounds.

Bus travelers can reach nearby regional transportation points such as Bellows Falls or Brattleboro and continue to Grafton by taxi or prearranged transportation.

Because public transportation within rural Grafton is limited, visitors without a car should arrange the final transfer in advance.

📏 Approximate road distances from major Vermont cities

Rutland: 45 mi
Montpelier: 85 mi
Barre: 90 mi
South Burlington: 105 mi
Burlington: 110 mi
Winooski: 110 mi

📏 Approximate road distances from major U.S. cities

Boston: 125 mi
New York City: 210 mi
Philadelphia: 300 mi
Washington, D.C.: 435 mi
Chicago: 930 mi
Los Angeles: 2,900 mi

Distances are approximate driving distances and may vary according to the selected route.