Metro Vancouver’s Fort Langley Cranberry Festival is a free event with a market and family-friendly activities on the Thanksgiving Weekend in Fort Langley.
The 28th annual edition of the festival happened on Saturday, October 7th, 2023. The event typically features a pancake breakfast, live entertainment, 100 or so market vendors and over a dozen food trucks. Some of the festivities happen at the Fort Langley National Historic Site but most happen in the town.
Other events that usually happen on the Thanksgiving long weekend include the Nightmare Before Christmas Market, a VAM Symphony Orchestra concert, the HowlOver Canada film at FlyOver Canada, and Harvest Days at VanDusen Garden. Also in Vancouver, there are Mystery Nights games with Vancouver Mysteries, Lost Souls of Gastown walking tours, and haunted house attractions like Fright Nights at the PNE.
Also on the same weekend as the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival, in the Fraser Valley there are family-friendly activities like Peteys Pumpkin Patch, Fall Farm Activities at Maan Farms, and the Harrison Pumpkin Festival. For serious fright seekers, there are haunted house-style attractions like Reapers in Chilliwack and Maan Farms Haunted Mazes in Abbotsford.
To learn more about the event in Fort Langley, continue reading.
This article contains the following information:
Festival Location | Festival Activities | About the Festival | Free Shuttle Service | Tips & Advice | About Fort Langley & Cranberries | Other Information
Click any of the above links for details about a specific topic, or continue reading to learn all about the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival. (Note: Details are subject to change.)
Cranberry Festival in Historic Fort Langley
The family-friendly Fort Langley Cranberry Festival was going to celebrate its 25th year in 2020. The event was cancelled, however, because of COVID-19. It returned in 2021 and 2022.
Last year, the festival took place on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving Long Weekend, so on October 7th. It’s open rain or shine from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm. Festivities typically occur along the street near the Fort Langley Community Hall which is located at 9160 Glover Road. Activities also happen at the Fort Langley National Historic Site where admission for the day is free.
In years with good weather, the event attracts tens of thousands of people. It’s a great event!
HALLOWEEN IN LANGLEY
If you like haunted houses, while out in the Langley region on the Thanksgiving weekend, consider checking out Brinkworth Dungeon. It’s an exceptional haunted house located at 22260 48th Avenue (so just 12 kilometres or so south of Fort Langley). The displays at this place are almost all handcrafted by a professional artist!
Other great Halloween attractions in the Fraser Valley include Fantasy Farms in Chilliwack and Maan Farms in Abbotsford. They both have pumpkin patches and family-friendly activities for children as well as haunted corn mazes for serious fright seekers.
Later in the month, starting in mid-October, there are also Grave Tales walking tours in Fort Langley which are highly recommended!
Cranberry Festival Location
The Cranberry Festival takes place in Fort Langley which is a beautiful historic town located in the Fraser Valley about a 45-minute drive from downtown Vancouver.
Much of the event takes place in the heart of the town at the Fort Langley Community Hall (at 9167 Glover Road) and along the main street in front of the building for a couple of blocks in either direction. Activities also happen at the Fort at 23433 Mavis Avenue.
Cranberry Festival Activities
Two years ago, the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival featured around 100 food vendors and 16 food trucks. The event last year was similar, although exact details were to be confirmed.
There is always a variety of family-friendly activities available. The event in 2023 also had live music and beer. The Fort Langley Cranberry Festival usually features a pancake breakfast in the morning as well. There are often cooking demonstrations and all kinds of cranberry-themed things to do and look at.
There are special activities and people in period costume at the Fort Langley National Historic Site itself, similar to a normal busy weekend in the summer, but with a bit of a cranberry theme. Admission to the fort during the Cranberry Festival is also free.
The historic site is an interesting place to visit any day of the year, so many festival attendees also spend some time at the fort. In addition to regular blacksmith and barrel-making demonstrations, one special fort activity for the festival most years is a cranberry stomp.
Fort Langley’s regular weekly Farmers Market also takes place at the same time as the festival in its regular location at 9025 Glover Road. The venue is just a block or so from the rest of the village’s main festival activities. The market is always a popular one, and especially so during the Cranberry Festival.
About the Festival
The Fort Langley Cranberry Festival has been running since 1996. It has grown into an event of significant size.
The main focus of the festival is the market which features over 60 vendors selling everything from fresh cranberries to cranberry baked goods, wines and art. There is a large yet fairly typical artisan and farmers market, but with a cranberry theme and tons of people.
Below is some other general information about the event that’s good to know.
- Dogs are welcome at the festival in most areas, except not indoors at the Community Hall or in the fort. Glover Road gets packed with thousands of people, however, so not all canine participants will enjoy the experience.
- Be prepared for crowds yourself. It can get insanely busy in the market as well as with traffic on the surrounding roads.
- If you want to stock up on cranberries, be sure to buy them earlier in the day before they sell out. Just remember, though that, unless you somehow manage to park your car close by, you’ll have to walk around with your purchases for the rest of your visit.
- Live music and other activities take place in and around the Community Hall.
Free Shuttle Service
With up to as many as 50,000+ people attending the small town’s event, parking can be a challenge. Most years the festival offers a free shuttle service. In years when the service is offered, shuttle buses run regularly from both Trinity Western University and Walnut Grove Secondary School.
Parking at the school is usually free, but at the university you have to pay. In some years (but not all) the fee is waived at Trinity Western during the festival.
A bus service is usually offered, but it didn’t appear to be running in 2023. If that’s the case again in 2024, there is parking available at the Fort Langley National Historic Site.
Tips & Advice
Below are some suggestions and extra information to help you make the most of your visit to the festival in future years.
TIP #1: If the shuttle service is in fact available, don’t wait until the very end to get in the lineup for your return trip back to your car. Lots of people use the service in years when it’s offered!
TIP #2: Unless you arrive really early, don’t expect to find parking anywhere remotely close to the centre of town. As the day progresses cars start to park along the roads as far as a couple of kilometres away.
TIP #3: If you have bicycles and a bike rack, take them with you to Fort Langley. You can then park a ways away and cycle to the event, which will mean less of a walk and less time in the traffic mayhem!
TIP #4: A great way to explore Fort Langley and learn about the history of the village is with a guided walking tour with Fort Langley Tours.
About Fort Langley and Cranberries
The Fort Langley Cranberry Festival is one of the largest events of the year for the community of Fort Langley. Other major events include Fort Langley May Days with its parade in May and the Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival in the summer, among others.
Fort Langley itself is a beautiful historic town with a National Heritage site fort, a couple of museums, antique shops and colonial-style buildings. Both the fort and the town are well worth visiting.
Fort Langley is located at the edge of what’s known as the Fraser Valley part of the Lower Mainland. It’s a predominantly agricultural area with all kinds of farm land. Cranberries are the largest crop for the region, which explains why the October festival is all about cranberries. Between the Fraser Valley and Richmond, the Lower Mainland is one of the largest producers of cranberries anywhere in the world!
GRAVE TALES AT HALLOWEEN
Another fun thing to do in autumn in the region is to go on one of the Grave Tales walking tours. Hosted by the Fort Langley National Historic Site, they take place late at night during the Halloween season. The tours are excellent and highly recommended! To book your spot and learn more about the activity, visit the Parks Canada website.
Other Information
To learn more about the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival, check out the Cranberry Festival website.
For more details about the town and region, click Fort Langley or the Fraser Valley. For information about the National Historic Site, click Fort Langley Fort.
Other articles that might be of interest include the following:
- Vancouver October Calendar
- Festivals & Events Calendar
- Thanksgiving in the Lower Mainland
- Vancouver Halloween Events
- Vancouver on a Budget
- Best Places in Autumn
