If you have lived here long enough to know that Town Square gets busy every September, you already know the Fall Arts Festival. The galleries are wonderful, and the QuickDraw draws crowds to Town Square. What else is happening this fall alongside the festival?
This year, the calendar also includes events at Teton Village: a free art and food event launching for the first time and an Oktoberfest returning for its second year with a two-day schedule.
The Established Fall Arts Festival
The Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival returns for its 42nd year from September 9 through 20, spread across more than 50 events at galleries, museums, and outdoor venues throughout town. The festival's anchor has not changed in decades: Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce programming built around Town Square, aimed at collectors, and timed to a national spotlight. That spotlight got brighter in January. The 10th annual SMU Arts Vibrancy Index, released January 8, 2026 and evaluating more than 900 communities nationwide, ranked Jackson first overall, ahead of major metropolitan areas. Jackson has made that list before, so the ranking itself is not news. What it does confirm is that Town Square's identity as an art destination is settled and self-reinforcing. The Fall Arts Festival has been part of the town's fall calendar for decades.
This year, new events are also appearing elsewhere in the valley.
More Events Across the September Calendar
Look at the September dates side by side and a pattern shows up that a single event listing would hide:
- September 7-13: Teton Village Restaurant Week, with the Handle Bar at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole participating with a featured special
- September 9-20: Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, the established downtown run
- September 12: the inaugural Teton Village Art & Culinary Fair, a free outdoor event at Village Commons from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. featuring regional artists, local makers, and live music
- September 17: Western Visions Show and Sale at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, marking that fundraiser's 39th year
- September 19: the Jackson Hole QuickDraw on Town Square from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by the Jackson Hole Art Auction, now in its 19th year, starting at 1 p.m.
- September 20: the Sunday Art Brunch, a lower-key gallery hop closing out the festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- September 26-27: Teton Village Oktoberfest, back for its second year and now expanded to two full days
The list also shows how the valley's September events vary in length and format.
Teton Village Oktoberfest Returns for Two Days
Teton Village Oktoberfest launched last year as a single afternoon. This year it runs Saturday, September 26 from noon to 6 p.m. and Sunday, September 27 from 2 to 6 p.m., with Bavarian traditions, regional craft beer, live entertainment, and family programming set against the Teton Range.
Other Fall Arts Festival events use different formats. The Jackson Hole Art Auction is a ticketed event held on Saturday afternoon, now in its 19th year. Western Visions runs on an intent-to-purchase system: roughly 170 works go on display, each with a set price, and the winning buyer for each piece is chosen by drawing from everyone who submitted interest.
Teton Village's new programming offers additional formats: the Art & Culinary Fair is free, Restaurant Week is another offering, and Oktoberfest is family-friendly and runs for two days this year.
More Ways to Explore the Festival and Valley
The Fall Arts Festival includes several ways to take part. Palates and Palettes, the free gallery walk pairing local restaurants with fine art on the evening of September 11, has been a signature of the festival for more than a decade. Arts on the Green, the outdoor fair at Center for the Arts Lawn on September 13, runs a six dollar entry with kids twelve and under free. The Sunday Art Brunch on September 20 offers another chance to explore the galleries.
For another September outing, consider Teton Village. September 12 gives you a free afternoon of regional art and food at Village Commons that did not exist twelve months ago. Two weeks later, Oktoberfest runs for two days. Both are free or low-cost, and both are new or newly expanded additions to the valley's September calendar.
Teton Village's fall calendar offers a glimpse of its activities outside ski season. For anyone who has ever looked at property near Teton Village and Granite Ridge and wondered whether the area functions as more than a winter destination, this fall's calendar is a reasonably direct answer.
If you are exploring what different parts of the valley offer day to day, whether that is downtown Jackson or the base of the mountain, our neighborhood guide to Teton County is a good place to keep exploring. And when the conversation moves from where you spend a September weekend to where you might actually want to live, The Legacy Group is glad to talk it through. Work With Us whenever that day comes.
