Of the fall events stacked onto the weekend of October 3 and 4 in Lowell, exactly one lets you bring a pet dog. Barktoberfest at Freedom Park is built around dogs. The Buckley Homestead Fall Fest lists no pets on its own event page. Harvest Tyme Family Farm allows service dogs and no other animals. That single rule sorts the weekend more firmly than the schedule does, and the parking, ticketing and weather policies finish the job.
The gate rules side by side
| Buckley Homestead Fall Fest | Barktoberfest | Harvest Tyme Fall Festival | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | Listed for Oct. 3 and 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 19 through Oct. 25 |
| Where | Visitor center lot on Hendricks Street, reached only from Route 2 | Freedom Park Bark Park, 17105 Cline Ave. | 17904 Grant St. |
| Dogs | No pets permitted | Yes, vaccinated and leashed | Service dogs only |
| If the weather turns | Outdoor program, adjustments possible, no refunds | Outdoor event | No weather refunds, but a general admission ticket works on any other day of the season |
The Buckley dates come from a 2026 event listing, and the Lake County Parks page for the festival did not display them at the time of writing. The park's line is 219-769-7275, and a call settles it before anyone loads a car.
The Hendricks Street problem at Buckley
Buckley Homestead's mailing address is 3606 Belshaw Road. Lake County Parks warns that typing it into a phone sends festival traffic to the wrong place. During the festival, Belshaw Road between Clark Street and Chase Street is closed. The lot that works is the visitor center on Hendricks Street, and the park says it is accessible only from Route 2. The route is about 4.5 miles west of Interstate 65, exiting onto Route 2 toward Lowell, then south on Hendricks for a quarter mile. The farmstead is a short walk along the trail from there. The coordinates the park publishes for the visitor center are 41.283566,-87.377509.
The reason to sort out the driving first is the festival's age. It debuted in 1979 and is the longest continuous special event Lake County Parks hosts, according to the park system's visitor services superintendent. She has said it draws people from across the region and from nearby Illinois. A festival with that reach fills a single-access lot.
Inside, the program is built on trades and food. Reenactors work along the trail to the pioneer cabin, and Lake County Master Gardeners staff the garden and the root cellar. Cornbread comes out of the wood-burning stove, and Deep River stone-ground cornmeal is sold to take home. Dr. and Mrs. Quackenbush return with their sleight of hand, the Coles County Regulators run the cowboy camp and the Pony Express, and there is gold panning plus Sheep Toss, Frying Pan Toss and Rolling Pin Toss. The food list runs to baked potatoes, apple dumplings, kettle corn and pierogis. A hayride shuttle to the pioneer farm and the one-room schoolhouse was listed at $2 per person for this year, with tickets sold in the west field. Riders can get off at the pioneer farm and catch a later shuttle back to the barnyard.
The historic buildings on the route are the Main House, the Pioneer Log House, the one-room schoolhouse, the Hired Hands Quarters and the 1916 Buckley Barn.
Barktoberfest has the shortest window
Barktoberfest is a one-day event, and the Lowell Woman's Club runs it. The Bark for Life walk starts at 9 a.m., with onsite registration at 8:30, and the festivities at the Freedom Park Bark Park run to 2:30 p.m. The day includes demonstrations, a dog costume contest and vendors. Proceeds are divided among Relay for Life, the Bark Park and the Woman's Club scholarship fund, and the event also collects for a Toys for Tots giveaway. Dogs must be current on vaccines and on a leash, and owners pick up after them.
Walk fees differ across the listings for this event, so the price is worth confirming with the organizers. The 2026 listing also reuses text from the previous year's event, another reason to double-check the details.
The setting is Freedom Park, 114 acres on the north side of Lowell. Lowell and the West Creek and Cedar Creek townships created it together, and Brian Cummings, a PDGA Hall of Famer, designed its disc golf course. The Bark Park takes up five acres in the southeast corner. Regular use of the Bark Park requires a membership with proof of current vaccinations.
Harvest Tyme forgives a bad forecast
Harvest Tyme runs the longest of the three, and its ticket policy is the most flexible. The farm does not offer weather refunds. It does let a general admission ticket be used on any other day of its operating season, so a soaked Saturday costs a ticket holder nothing but the day. Buckley's fall event has two days. Barktoberfest has one.
The farm's hours show a small discrepancy. Visit Indiana lists the Fall Festival as 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, while the farm's own site gives 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The farm's site is the one to trust on the day. The Pumpkin Glow Trail runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. It is a half-mile walk of lights and carved pumpkins. The farm's ticket page describes the daytime festival and the Glow as separate experiences to visit on different days. Anyone planning both should check that before assuming a single ticket covers a day and a night.
The daytime festival has a four-acre corn maze and a smaller connected maze for school-age children, plus a pumpkin patch, hayrides, a petting zoo, pig races and carnival-style rides. Gem mining, petting zoo feed, corn cannons and pumpkins cost extra. Guests may bring their own food and drink, without alcohol. The ground is unpaved and can be bumpy, so strollers and wagons are allowed but can be hard to push. After October 25 the farm moves on to its Christmas Tyme Lights walk-through.
Putting the weekend in order
The October 3–4 schedule was as follows.
- Saturday morning, Barktoberfest. Registration for the Bark for Life walk was listed for 8:30, with festivities scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Pet dogs were welcome here, and this was the only day of that weekend they could attend.
- Sunday, Buckley. The Fall Fest was listed for both days, so Sunday was available for anyone whose Saturday was spent at Freedom Park. The pet dog stayed home. The trip went through Route 2 and the Hendricks Street lot.
- Any weekend after that, Harvest Tyme. Its Saturdays and Sundays continue through October 25, leaving three more weekends after October 3–4, and a wet day carries over to another.
- A Friday evening for the Glow. The trail opens at 6:30 p.m. on Fridays, and it is the one part of the farm that runs on a weekday-adjacent night.
Better Homes and Gardens - Connections wishes everyone in Lowell well. Let us guide you home.
