24 Must-Sip Oktoberfests & Beer Fests in Philly for Fall 2023

Two cities, two states, one river, one giant party. The 4th annual Delaware River Festival spans the state line with free waterfront celebrations at both Penn’s Landing in Philly and Camden’s Wiggins Park (connected by the RiverLink Ferry). Saluting Pennsylvania Coast Day and Camden River Day, the event features peddle boats, a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts and entry to the Independence Seaport Museum, with food and drink available at Spruce Street Harbor Park. And join in (or just watch) the concurrent 28-mile Loop the Delaware bike ride along the Delaware River Heritage Trail.

German-American social and sports club Vereinigung Erzgebirge celebrates the 86th year of the Bucks Mont Oktoberfest at their sprawling facility in Warminster, Bucks County. What to expect: plenty of food and beer, German music all day and rock music all night, a soccer tournament, a keg-tapping ceremony, and kids activities like an inflatable fun house, soccer darts, hair braiding, GaGa pit, face painting, hayrides, and a full playground. Tickets are required, and kids 16 and under attend free.

More than two dozen breweries join up for the massive Newtown Brewfest at the historic Stocking Works facility in lower Bucks County. Full-session and early-tap beer-sample tickets are available, along with good eats from local restaurants, two live bands and plenty of craft beer from Broken Goblet, Warwick Farm, Broad Street Brewing, Great Barn Brewery and more.

Celebrate summer’s end at the annual Can Jam Tournament and Free Music Festival, the country’s premier brewery-based Frisbee-toss tournament and music event, at Pottstown’s Sly Fox Brewing. Show off your Can Jam skills (it’s like cornhole but with Frisbees) — by participating in the tournament or just throwin’ for fun — and jam (the musical kind) with five touring bands rocking two stages. In between Frisbee tosses, toss back some great beer specials and pub food from the kitchen. Register your Can Jam team in advance to compete for the first place prize of the team’s combined weight in beer!

The party is on South Street as German beer hall Brauhaus Schmitz hosts the 15th annual South Street Oktoberfest out on the asphalt at 7th and South. The free all-day, all-age block party offers tented seating for a thousand guests, oompah music and dancers, schnapps, liter lift competitions, family activities, German food and a dozen German beers on tap. VIP ticket holders can enjoy free beer tokens, a six-hour buffet, indoor beer hall seating and private restrooms.

Attention adult animal lovers and beer fans! The Philadelphia Zoo opens its doors once again for OktoBEARfest, an amazing arrangement of animals and ales on the beautiful zoo grounds. On the docket: unlimited samples of more than 100 seasonal fall and Oktoberfest beers and ciders, food trucks, DJs and live music, stein-holding and pretzel-eating competitions, and — of course — the furry, slithery and majestic animals of America’s first zoo. New for this year: a pop-up Bavarian beer tent in the Peacock Pavilion. Note: This is a 21-plus event, and all proceeds benefit the zoo.

For the second year, Fishtown’s popular block party (formerly a spring favorite) kicks off the first weekend of autumn as the slightly-renamed Fishtown Fall Feastivale. Its 25,000 annual attendees take over Frankford Avenue and surrounding streets for an end-of-summer food-and-drink fest. The event features local eats, from burgers and brisket to Bavarian pretzels, and plenty of cocktails and beers from favorite Fishtown drinkeries (like the ever-popular Frankford Hall) — plus over 50 art, craft and retail vendors. Don’t miss family-friendly carnival games and a dunk tank, plus DJs filling the blocks with classic rock and groovy funk.

Fall beer festival season takes over the entire borough at the second annual Oktoberfest in Downtown West Chester. A dozen bars, breweries and restaurants throughout downtown — including Sterling Pig Public House and Iron Hill Brewery — offer $6 seasonal beers and ciders and fall appetizers. No tickets necessary; just show up at any participating location and ask for the Oktoberfest specials. And to get you in the festival spirit, the streets of downtown West Chester are filled with live music as you stroll from restaurant to restaurant.

The borough of Downingtown in Chester County invites neighbors and visitors alike to Downingtown Fall Fest, an annual street festival along the closed-to-traffic Green Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The event features great food, handmade craft vendors and plenty of brews from Victory Brewing Company, the popular regional brewery founded in the borough in 1996. Pro tip: Bring cash for beer garden and vendor purchases as the festival is cash-only.

The lively all-day Midtown Village Fall Festival returns to the neighborhood along 13th Street (and several surrounding blocks) for this can’t-miss party in Center City. The annual celebration — which attracts more than 50,000 attendees each year — features pop-up sidewalk sales from Midtown Village retail shops, restaurants, boutiques and galleries, plus multiple stages of live music, kids’ activities, and plenty of food and beverage sampling. And don’t miss the concurrent Brü & Tradesmans Fall Fest on Chestnut Street with more live music, DJs, outdoor bars and great German pub grub.

Saturday, September 30, 2023 | 1-4 p.m. & 6-9 p.m.

Game on! The weekend after the Phillies regular season ends, the Philadelphia All-Star Craft Beer, Wine, and Cocktail Festival takes over Citizens Bank Park for the region’s biggest beer sampling party and music festival. Voted a top ten “Best Beer Festivals” in the world by USA Today, the Philly version of the traveling fest features over 250 craft beer, wine and cocktail options, plus yard games and multiple stations of live music. Day and night sessions are available, and VIP upgrades include early admission, Phillies alumni meet-and-greets, and photos in the Phils’ dugout.

Formerly known as Ardmore Oktoberfest, the Fall For Ardmore festival returns for its second season, this year celebrating the Main Line community’s sesquicentennial (that means 150th birthday). Businesses throughout downtown hold pop ups and sidewalk sales, but the action centers on Schauffele Plaza, which will be alive — and free — with live music, German fare and beer favorites from numerous local breweries. VIP beer garden tickets with reserved seating are available.

It’s fall farm season at Dilworth Park (in front of City Hall) as the three- day Harvest Weekend sets up residence with local bands, pumpkin painting and carving, circus performers and apple cider-making, plus autumn eats from bratwursts to Bavarian pretzels. The of-age crowd can enjoy beer selections like Troegs Oktoberfest and Michelob Ultra, specialty cocktails made with Maker’s Mark Bourbon and Haku Vodka, and a Saturday afternoon stein-hoisting. Be sure to check out the on-site Made in Philadelphia Fall Market, featuring over 70 art, photography, jewelry, glassware, woodwork and culinary vendors.

The wooded rolling hills of Playwicki Farm are the backdrop for the park’s annual Octoberfest & Halloween Fun Day celebration featuring music from local DJs, food trucks, craft vendors, family activities, a performance from the Mummers and brews in the outdoor beer and wine garden.

The spirit of the fall season takes over downtown Ambler in Montco for Ambler Oktoberfest, a street festival where restaurants and businesses along Butler Avenue and surrounding blocks celebrate the season with retail pop ups and sidewalk sales, live music on two stages, over 75 craft vendors and food trucks, restaurant samplings, kids’ rides, and an outdoor beer garden in the heart of the borough.

Celebrating 11 years of tradition and over 8,000 yearly attendees, the free-to-attend, pay-as-you-go Roxtoberfest street festival takes over Ridge Avenue in Roxborough with a selection of food trucks, German folk music all day on a main stage, games and competitions (with prizes!), fun for the kiddos, costumed pets, more than 70 craft vendors and civic organizations, and plenty of beers and brews.

Downtown Paoli is the site for the family-friendly Oktoberfest Main Line, a charitable humanitarian aid fundraiser with live music and oompah bands, fall games, pumpkin decorating, martial arts demonstrations, a bouncy-house obstacle course, and a dog costume contest featuring prizes for best trick, best lookalike, best pooch smooch and waggiest tail! Of course there will be plenty of German food, nagelspielen, stein-hoisting contests and craft beers from La Cabra Brewing and Conshohocken Brewing.

Serving up October fun in Kennett Square for over a quarter-century, Kennett Brewfest is a beer lovers’ paradise, pouring more than 175 beers from 80-plus craft breweries including regional favorites Blondes and Brewnettes, Round Guys, Cartesian Brewing and Kennett Square’s Braeloch Brewing and Kennett Brewing Company. There’s plenty of fun and activities, too, with live music, unique food from local restaurants, games and lots of retail and crafts vendors.

Get into the spooky season spirit on Friday the 13th at Philly’s coolest elevated urban park. Located at Cira Green — Philly’s “Park in the Sky” perched 12 floors and 95 feet in the air atop the Cira Centre South Garage — Sunset Social hosts the Friday The 13th October Beerfest.
Several vendors serve up a half-dozen seasonal beers options and autumn bites while DJs and live acoustic bands pump out the tunes. It’s the perfect place to chill with some autumn brews and spectacular views of the Center City skyline.

The 16,000-square-foot indoor Drill Hall hosts the fifth annual Brauhaus Schmitz 23rd Street Armory Oktoberfest, a boisterous two-day, three-session event billed as Philly’s most authentic German fall fest. The Rittenhouse Square West venue — home to the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry — is transformed into a traditional Munich festival tent with German food and beer (served in one-liter masskrugs at tables and benches imported from Germany) alongside a raised stage with oompah music and dancing. Tickets are required, and VIP packages offer perks like reserved seating and early entry.

The billys, nannys and does of the Philly Goat Project (PGP) take over the Conservatory at Laurel Hill West Cemetery for the “spirited” Goat’oberFest fundraiser, which includes signature cocktails and s’mores around the firepit, a first look at the 2024 PGP calendar, special cemetery mini-tours, photos with over a dozen goats, and an exclusive event T-shirt. Enter the raffle to win art created by the goats and place bids in a silent auction featuring items like signed prints from goat photographer Jessica Kourkounis. This event is open to adults and mature teens 14-plus (accompanied by an adult).

A fundraiser for the historic homestead and an overall good time, the sixth annual CiderFest at Woodford Mansion returns for two days in Fairmount Park as part of Philly Cider Week. Enjoy samples of local ciders, wine and specialty cocktails, plus live music, games, arts and craft vendors, beekeeping and cider-pressing demonstrations, and tours of the original Philadelphia colonial Georgian mansion — a National Historic Landmark that dates back to 1756. To complete the fall feel, grab a blanket and enjoy a picnic lunch and charcuterie board (available for purchase) while surrounded by stunning foliage.

Now in its second year, the Oktoberfest at Pearl S. Buck International at Bucks County’s Pearl S. Buck House — the historic Perkasie estate of The Good Earth author — offers modern-day entertainment including live oompah music, arts and crafts vendors, pumpkin painting, kids games, food, beer and free tours of the Pulitzer Prize winner’s National Landmark homestead. All proceeds benefit the cross-cultural humanitarian mission of the foundation.

Note: Based on weather forecasts, OctoberFeast has been rescheduled for October 21 & 22, 2023.

The 7th annual OctoberFeast celebrates a full weekend of fall fun at the 42-acre food-and-shopping haven Peddler’s Village in Bucks County. The free two-day German-inspired fête features ax throwing, pony rides, a petting zoo, lawn games, pumpkin painting, food trucks and a food tent and plenty of boutique shopping. Swing into the season with three live German brass bands, a German dance-team performance and lots of craft brews. Grab your own custom stein from the beer garden and stroll amongst larger-than-life scarecrows, part of the 44th Annual Scarecrows in the Village display.