What began as a small-town idea more than four decades ago has grown into one of Fairfield’s most beloved traditions. Pippinfest, the borough’s annual fall festival, returns Saturday, September 27, and Sunday, September 28, 2025, filling the streets with food, music, and community spirit.
The celebration traces its roots to 1980, when David Thomas, then owner of the Fairfield Inn, proposed a community-wide event to mark the apple harvest. With the help of local clubs, school groups, and civic organizations, the first all-day street festival was launched. Two years later, the event was given a historical connection when townspeople planted a Pippin apple tree behind the inn in honor of Fairfield’s English heritage. The variety, cultivated in colonial times by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, continues to bear fruit each fall.
Since then, Pippinfest—literally “apple festival”—has flourished into a two-day tradition that brings residents and visitors together. Festival-goers can expect a wide variety of vendors and crafters, a quilt show, children’s activities, and live performances by local school and musical groups.
The event remains deeply tied to its founding purpose: strengthening Fairfield’s sense of community while celebrating the harvest season.
Over 30 years later, the tradition remains strong, drawing crowds who return year after year for the welcoming atmosphere as much as the entertainment. For many families, it has become an annual marker of autumn’s arrival in south-central Pennsylvania.
Pippinfest 2025 takes place on both Saturday and Sunday in the heart of Fairfield.
Learn more and see a complete list of events at pippinfest.com