Autumn Daze 2022 in Ennis, Texas

Taking place October 28 – 30, 2022 in Downtown Ennis, Ennis Autumn Daze will bring carnival rides, live entertainment, food trucks, arts and crafts and a hay maze to Downtown Ennis.

Ennis Downtown Development Director Becky McCarty says the annual event will again have all the most popular attractions, from a professional pumpkin carving contest to a 100-ton corn pit for kids to play in, a hay maze to navigate and most of all, a midway of carnival rides.

In the last five years, Ennis Autumn Daze has grown from a short 5-hour children’s event into to a three-day festival that attracts people from as far away as Louisiana and Oklahoma.

“It is the biggest fall festival in Texas,” she says. “This year, the festival is celebrating 20 years. And this year, the City of Ennis is also celebrating its sesquicentennial. So the theme of the hay maze and the pumpkin patch this year is trains, since we were founded on the trains by the railroad. And so we’re going to have lots of really cool fun photo ops and lots of cool stuff there too. We’ve got a great children’s craft area where they can come and paint pumpkins and play on a pottery wheel — paint different crafts that the kids can come and paint and take home.”

The Attractions

Talley Amusements will fill the streets of Downtown Ennis for three nights from October 28-30, 2022 with a fair-like midway of rides, games and carnival attractions, including its ever-popular Ferris wheel.

Becky says that a 2,000 pound pumpkin is already lined up for the event along with several more pumpkins in the 800 pound range. The pumpkins will be turned into sculpted artwork by the hands of professional pumpkin carvers.

The pumpkin patch will feature more than 16,000 pumpkins, some of which will be arranged into a pumpkin structure, alongside a maze of hay bales, both of which McCarty says will make for an excellent backdrop for plenty of photos.

Food trucks will also be a crowd-pleaser, bringing the best of locally-produced handheld grub to the event.

Live Music

Performing on stage Friday, October 28, 2022 will be Josh Jaccard and also the P.B.R. Band.

On Saturday, October 30, 2022, the Gary P. Nunn will begin the night and then Pat Green will take to the stage.

On Sunday, October 30, 2022, the tribute band, the Spazmatics will perform, along with Bidi Bidi Banda, a tribute band to Selena.

Admission

Carnival rides and attractions cost a fee and are separate from the festival admission.

Admission to the festival, including the pumpkin patch and hay maze, is free on Friday, October 29, 2022.

On Saturday, October 29, 2022, which is the main day of the three-day event, the festival admission fee is $5 before 4:00 p.m. for everyone 13 years old and older. After 4:00 p.m., the admission fee is $10 for everyone 13 years old and older. Admission for children 12 years old and younger is free all day.

On Sunday, October 30, 2022, the festival admission fee is $5 for everyone older than 13 years old. Admission for children 12 years old and younger is free.

“All proceeds from this event go to more programming in downtown,” Becky says.