Water Street Festival, Hunt carnival lead a packed Saturday of fall festivals

From a downtown block party in the morning to a haunted hallway in Hunt after dark, Saturday, Oct. 24, may be the busiest day of the fall in Kerr County.

The second Water Street Festival takes over downtown Kerrville from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Hunt School Fall Carnival starts at 5 p.m. In between and around them are a mountain bike festival, two farmers markets, three more fall festivals and a dip contest.

Water Street Festival: take the day off

Delayne Sigerman, the Kerrville councilmember who organizes the festival, has one request for anyone heading downtown: take the day off.

“This is a day to have fun,” she said on The Lead Live. “Leave your place of responsibility, let’s say, and just take a break. Come have some music, and just sit.”

Last year’s first festival came a few months after the July 2025 flood, and Sigerman has said it was when downtown “kind of got our mojo back.” This year’s comes three months after a second flood.

What to expect:

• Music all day. At the Arch: Jeremy Parsons, 9 to 11 a.m.; Boone Holding, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and the Limestoners, 1 to 3 p.m. A second stage presented by KACC features Shane Stumpf, Matthew James Butler and Abby Hankins. Spicy Loops plays the Star from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Carlos & Dan & the Silver Bullets play the Arcadia Live deck from noon to 3 p.m.
• Dance. Hill Shapes, the dance and production company run by Lead Live co-host Libbie Horton, performs a restaged piece about the flood of 1978 at 11 a.m. at the pavilion. Horton will also run an improv booth: give her a word, and she’ll dance it on the spot.
• For kids. A kids’ zone with a haunted cabin to decorate, then Trick-or-Treat on Water Street, with downtown merchants handing out candy. There’s also a steer-roping dummy with prizes, bubbles, face painters and crafts. Tivy High School JROTC students are volunteering.
• Food and drink. Patio and block parties at Il Posto, Off Main Brewing, Favorite Saloon, Francisco’s, Vecino’s, Turtle Creek Olives and Wine, Pax, Rita’s and Divine’s Sports Bar. Tailchasers will serve small bites.
• Art. Paint Kerrville artists compete in a quick-paint contest from 9 a.m. to noon, many of them painting the festival itself. Their work will be shown at a public reception at 4 p.m. at KACC.
• Shopping. Pop-up vendors line the street, and the Heart of the Hills Farmers Market sets up in the 741 Water St. lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Water Street and Earl Garrett Street will be closed. Parking is free in the downtown parking garage and on nearby side streets. The renovated downtown public restrooms will be open. The festival is rain or shine.

“I’m not going to ask anybody to buy anything,” Sigerman said, “but if you feel so compelled, the merchants would love it.”

The full schedule is at waterstreetfestival.org.

Hunt School Fall Carnival: the haunted hallway returns

Up the river, the haunted hallway is back. According to the students who know it best, it’s scarier than ever.

The Hunt School Fall Carnival, the Hunt PTA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, starts at 5 p.m. with a trunk-or-treat that lines up at Hunt Baptist Church, across from the Hunt Store. Kids then walk up to the school for games, a cake walk, a petting zoo, concessions, a silent auction and the haunted hallway.

There’s also a “jail.” For a ticket, you can nominate someone to spend a couple of minutes locked in a livestock trailer while everyone bangs on the sides.

PTA member Carra Gray said the carnival pays for teachers’ classroom wish lists and the many field trips Hunt students take.

“If your kid goes to Hunt School, you know that they go on, like, 50,000 field trips a year,” Gray said. “It’s excessive, but it’s really nice, and PTA usually pays for all of those.”

Eighth graders run the concession stand and games to earn their spot on the class trip at the end of the year.

The carnival comes in a milestone year. Hunt School turned 100 in July, and Superintendent Sarah Nichols said the school became the center of the community after the floods.

“Every class is like a family,” fifth grader Dixie Sweet said. “We treat each other like brothers and sisters.”

Follow Hunt School on Facebook for updates.

Also Saturday

• Kerrville Mountain Bike Festival, Saturday and Sunday at Kerrville-Schreiner Park. Information: kerrvillemountainbikefestival.com
• Kroc Center: The Pumpkin Run starts at 8 a.m., followed by the Fall Festival at 9 a.m. Information: kerrvillekroc.org
• Hill Country Heritage Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 301 Junction Highway.
• Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival, 1 p.m. at the Marktplatz, if you’re up for a short drive. Information: fbgfoodandwine.com
• Fall Festival at The Ridge Marketplace, 5 p.m. Information: shopsattheridge.com
• Dip Olympics, 6 p.m. at Central Provisions in Center Point.