Ask a longtime Moorpark resident what fall looks like here and you will hear the same three answers: Underwood, the parade, and maybe a show at the theater. Fair enough. What has changed, and what is worth paying attention to this October, is that those three answers are no longer separate. They now share an address.
High Street is where Moorpark's fall is happening in 2026, and the calendar is starting to read like a plan rather than a coincidence. A new nonprofit is running Country Days. The city has stacked four October events on or near the same six-block stretch. A wine bar and an outdoor food venue are working their way toward opening between the pub and the theater. If you have lived here a while, the interesting question is not what to do this fall. It is what the street is becoming.
The October map, in one glance
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 26 – Oct 31 | Underwood Fall Harvest Festival | 3370 Sunset Valley Rd |
| Sept 26 | Concert in the Park | City park venue |
| Oct 3 | Moorpark Country Days parade & street fair | High Street |
| Oct 10 | Movies in the Park | City park venue |
| Oct 16 | Skate Night | City venue |
| Oct 31 | Haunted High Street | High Street |
| Nov 14–15 | Apricot Slam Pickleball Tournament | City venue |
The city's confirmed 2026 lineup runs from Concert in the Park on September 26 through Country Days on October 3, Movies in the Park on October 10, Skate Night on October 16, Haunted High Street on October 31, and the Apricot Slam Pickleball Tournament on November 14 and 15. Four of those seven sit on or adjacent to High Street. That is the story.
Country Days is under new management, and it shows
For years Country Days was a Chamber of Commerce production. The Moorpark Chamber hosted the event through 2023, then began transitioning it to another organization starting in 2024 to focus its board on the business community. The Rotary Club of Moorpark Morning ran a scaled-back version after that.
What is different in 2026 is who is holding the reins. The Rudy Perez Jr. Memorial Foundation is now leading the event, after the Chamber stepped back in 2023 and Rotary organized a smaller version the following year; the foundation was created in honor of a longtime resident and is dedicated to supporting local youth and preserving the town's history. The Perez family has called Moorpark home for more than a century.
Two practical changes matter to residents. First, the money. The City Council approved $3,500 from the general fund for traffic control, waived fees for use of city property, covered overtime for Public Works and police, and offered the Moorpark Community Center and a vacant city-owned lot at 467 High Street free of charge. That is the city treating Country Days as infrastructure, not a favor.
Second, the route. In 2025 the parade shifted north of the railroad tracks to eliminate the crossing, and now runs along Walnut and Moorpark avenues and down the full length of High Street. If you always watched from the south side near the tracks, you are on the wrong block now. The whole event ends on High Street on purpose.
Country Days lands on Saturday, October 3, 2026. Plan for morning parade, afternoon street fair, and a crowd that has grown every year the new organizers have handled it.
Underwood rewards the people who skip the weekend
Underwood Family Farms is the fall event most Moorpark residents actually visit, and it is also the one most residents visit at the wrong time.
Here is the math. Regular Moorpark Farm Center admission runs $8 on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays, with seniors, military, veterans, and first responders receiving a $2 discount daily. During the Fall Harvest Festival, the pricing structure changes. The 2026 festival weekend admission runs $30 at the door with a $25 pre-sale window that closes September 23, and same-day tickets rise to $34 if any spots remain.
That is a real gap. A family of four visiting on a Saturday in October is spending roughly $120 to walk in the gate. The same family visiting on a Wednesday is closer to $32. Weekend tickets are online only and sold by timed entry slot, while weekday admission is sold at the gate. Weekday admission still includes the corn maze, pumpkin house, harvest basket labyrinth, pumpkin patch, and tractor-drawn wagon ride, while weekends add live bands, themed programming, the animal show, and pig races.
If you have kids in the district and any flexibility on a Friday afternoon, that is the visit worth making. The pumpkin patch is the same pumpkin patch. The line is not the same line.
The 29th Annual Fall Harvest Festival runs Saturday, September 26 through Friday, October 31, 2026.
What is actually opening on High Street
The physical stretch of High Street between Moorpark Avenue and Spring Road has been slowly changing, and 2026 is the year several long-planned pieces are converging. This is the part of the calendar that does not show up on the city events page.
Ridley's Place Wine Bar has been moving toward opening at 165 East High Street. The concept, previewed in the Moorpark Acorn, is an old-world wine experience inspired by Salon Nouveau at Disneyland, with art nouveau influences, deep blue and gold tones, stained-glass lighting, plush velvet seating, and a menu of small plates including charcuterie, pizza, and salads. Proposed hours are 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., with indoor amplified music allowed until 10 p.m.
A few doors down, The District on High is still pending. The Planning Commission granted additional time on December 16 for the proposed outdoor bar and food venue at 313 High Street, which was approved in October 2022 and calls for an outdoor bar, three food service stations, and on-site alcohol consumption behind existing businesses Luna Llena Restaurant and Boba's Cuz. No building permit yet, but the extension keeps it alive.
Not everything is arriving. M on High, which anchored the modern end of the street for five years at 255 East High, has closed. The owners cited a lease-related agreement and made Friday, June 5, 2026 their last day of service. That is a real loss and worth naming plainly. It also explains some of the urgency around what comes next.
A weekend built around the theater, not around it
The High Street Arts Center is the closest thing Moorpark has to a downtown anchor, and it is easy to forget how much it has quietly grown. The theater sits next to Lucky Fools Pub at 75 High Street, and the pub's owners and the arts center's leadership have described a genuine partnership between the two since the pub was turned around. That corner is the model for what the rest of the street is trying to become.
Fall programming leans into the theater's strength: tribute acts and community shows priced for a Saturday-night-out at home instead of a drive to Thousand Oaks. Check the current schedule at the venue directly.
A working evening formula, if you have not tried it in a while:
- Early dinner on the patio at Freda's Fine Food, which sits on High Street surrounded by pepper trees and serves regional cuisine with American and European influences alongside classic cocktails and a wine list
- Show at the Arts Center at 7:30
- Nightcap at Lucky Fools
That is a three-stop evening inside a two-minute walk. It did not exist as a routine ten years ago.
What this actually means for people who live here
Fall in Moorpark used to be a set of independent activities you drove between. This year the drive is optional. Country Days ends on the same block that hosts Haunted High Street four weeks later, one block from where the theater is programming through the season, one block from where a new wine bar is finishing out, one block from where the pub and the pepper trees have been waiting for company.
For homeowners who bought in early and watched High Street stay quiet for years, this is the season it finally reads like a district. For anyone raising kids here, the calendar is dense enough that you can pick two weekends and see friends you were meant to catch up with all summer. And for anyone thinking about the long-term texture of the town, the mix of a family foundation running the parade, a city willing to fund the logistics, and small operators betting on the street at the same time is the kind of alignment that tends to hold.
If you are weighing a move in or out of Moorpark this fall and want a candid read on how the High Street shift is showing up in specific pockets of the market, Altera Real Estate Services is happy to talk it through. Schedule a confidential buying or selling consultation and we will meet you where you are.
