"It's about the size it can be, we've grown about all we can with the Fall Festival," Karns Fair Board president Charlie Austin told Shopper News after last year's event. "The middle school has limited space and limited parking. So we're going to keep this event, while still growing and changing, as a smaller community event."
The festival can't grow any bigger, so for 2026 the board changed the date and the program. The Karns Fall Festival is set for Saturday, October 31, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Karns Middle School. The listing advertises a kid-friendly haunted house, face painting, pumpkin painting and a family-friendly craft show with local vendors and treats. Karns's biggest fall gathering now falls on Halloween itself, and it wraps up hours before dark. That makes the festival the first part of Halloween Saturday, with the rest of the day planned around it.
From chili in September to a haunted house on the 31st
For two years running, the festival was a late-September event built around food. The Fair's 2024 FAQ put it on Saturday, September 28, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission was free, children's games cost extra, and a $5 ticket let you taste and vote in the chili and soup cook-off. Summer Knight Cruisers planned a cruise-in. The 2025 edition was held on September 27, and Shopper News reported nine chili entries. Larsen Jay won first place with a white chicken chili and donated his $200 prize to Karns Middle School.
The 2026 listing doesn't mention a chili cook-off at all. It leads with Halloween activities.
| Year | Date | What the event was built around |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Saturday, Oct. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Craft vendors, paid children's games, chili cook-off with tasting and voting |
| 2024 | Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Free admission, paid children's games, $5 chili and soup tasting, cruise-in |
| 2025 | Saturday, Sept. 27 | 71 vendors, face painters, chili cook-off, early car show that got rained out |
| 2026 | Saturday, Oct. 31, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Craft show, kid-friendly haunted house, face painting, pumpkin painting |
The table shows that late October isn't new ground. The Knoxville Focus listed the 2023 festival for Saturday, October 28. This year the festival lands on the holiday itself, and it opens an hour earlier than the 10 a.m. start of 2023 and 2024.
The board has said openly that it likes to experiment. In 2024, secretary Lexie Austin proposed turning the cook-off into a soup contest, and hardly anyone entered. "I felt terrible last year, but really, if you don't try new things nothing ever changes or grows," she told Shopper News in 2025. Holding the festival on Halloween is the board's latest new idea.
The crowd you should plan for
The size of last year's event is the best guide to what this Saturday will look like at Karns Middle School. Shopper News counted 71 vendors in 2025, only 25 fewer than the summer Karns Fair. Organizers had to open the cafeteria to fit them all, and nearly 2,000 visitors came through. That crowd came on an ordinary late-September Saturday that opened with a heavy rainstorm.
The school is at 2925 Gray Hendrix Road. In 2024 the Fair's FAQ warned that parking at the middle school is limited and suggested parking at Karns Elementary and walking across the footbridge. That's the Fair's most recent published parking advice. The 2026 page doesn't post a parking plan, so check the Karns Fair Facebook page before you leave the house.
On a Halloween morning, the vendor tables and the haunted house will be competing for the same hallways that held 71 booths last year. Families with costumed kids are likely to arrive early. The 9 a.m. start is your best chance at a calmer walk-through.
One more Karns vote closes the same day
Halloween is also the last day of voting for the Karns Branch Library's Plotting Pumpkins Decorating Contest, which has been running since October 16. The rules are specific.
- Four categories: Preschool, ages 5 to 10, ages 11 to 17, and Adult.
- One pumpkin per contestant. A group can team up on a single entry.
- The theme is a hero or villain from a book, movie, show or video game.
- No carving or puncturing, and decorations have to be appropriate for all ages.
Late entries are accepted, but the library notes that they have less time to collect votes. Public voting runs through Saturday, October 31. Winners will be announced and contacted by Monday, November 2, and every pumpkin has to be picked up by Friday, November 6. If a pumpkin your household decorated is sitting on a library shelf, the drive to vote and the drive to pick it up are two separate trips in two separate weeks. Put November 6 on the fridge calendar now.
How the rest of Saturday fits around a 2 p.m. finish
The festival wraps up by early afternoon, which leaves the rest of the day open. Here is one way to plan it, in order.
- 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Karns Middle School. The Fall Festival, with the craft show, haunted house, face painting and pumpkin painting.
- 11 a.m. to noon, Hardin Valley Free Will Baptist Church, 10415 Hardin Valley Road. The church's fall festival runs for one hour, in the middle of the Karns event. If you want both, plan on leaving one to make it to the other.
- Saturday afternoon, a farm on its final weekend. Oakes Farm at 8240 Corryton Road in Corryton is open Saturdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Weekend admission is $19.95 online plus a $1 fee, or $23.95 at the gate. It covers the maze, flower fields, animal exhibit, play activities and a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Pumpkins cost extra. Deep Well Farm at 9657 US Hwy 11 E in Lenoir City is open Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and charges $16 for the pumpkin patch and playgrounds, or $23 with the corn maze. It's cash only.
- After 7 p.m., Greenback. Maple Lane Farms at 1126 Maple Lane runs its haunted attractions October 29 through 31 starting at 7 p.m. There's no general admission or parking charge. The haunted maze costs $20. Saturday hours run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Both Oakes Farm and Deep Well Farm close for the season on Sunday, November 1. Oakes is open noon to 7 p.m. that Sunday and Deep Well 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. If Saturday fills up with the festival and trick-or-treating, Sunday is your last chance at a corn maze until next fall.
What comes after Halloween
The Fair Board's next big event is the Christmas Parade. Its official page lists a 7:30 a.m. participant check-in and a 9 a.m. step-off. The route runs from Ingles Market to the intersection of Oak Ridge Highway and Byington-Solway. The 2026 date hasn't been posted, and the page says more information is coming. Last year's parade stepped off on Saturday, December 6, from the Ingles parking lot.
The festival also supports the school that hosts it. After the 2025 festival, the Karns Fair Board gave Karns Middle School a $350 check and the school's foundation another $500. The Fair is a 501(c)(3), takes donations through its website, and holds its planning meeting on the second Tuesday of each month. Anyone with an idea for next year's festival can bring it to that meeting.
The people at The REAL ESTATE Office live and work in Karns too, and we'll be watching the haunted-house line at Karns Middle School like everyone else. If you're curious what your Karns home might be worth before the holiday season, ask us for a free home valuation, and we'll keep you posted on the parade date once the Fair Board announces it.
