Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival moves to Uhland

UHLAND — After three years of operation at the Pound House Historical Farmstead, the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival is moving to a new location 25 miles south of Austin to become the Uhland Fall Fest.

Christopher Durst, a fifth-generation Texan and father of three, has produced events and festivals for more than 30 years, including creating the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival that drew more than 70,000 attendees.

The treasured festival that attracted families to weekends of fun in Dripping Springs is now moving to a shaded, oak-filled farmstead originally settled in 1866 in Uhland. In 2024, Durst partnered with the city of Uhland to launch a 97-acre entertainment development — 15 acres of which are dedicated to festivals — aimed at hosting family-focused events year-round, with Uhland Fall Fest as the inaugural event.

The development, known as Old Town Uhland, is a visionary project encompassing plans for a fully functioning western town, craft brewery, barbecue restaurant, traditional dancehall, lodging, wedding venue, horseback riding, nature preserves, wildlife sanctuaries and a history museum showcasing the lives of Uhland's first settlers.

While the team behind the festival felt supported by the community of Dripping Springs, it didn't seem to be reciprocated by the city — thus, leading Durst to start looking for a new location back in 2023.

“We're now with a city administration that appreciates us and understands what we contribute to the community. They are working very closely with us to accommodate us and I don’t really feel we ever had that with the city of Dripping Springs. Every year, it was kind of a struggle to get approval and we were willing to do it because we love the community, but at a certain point, we just didn't feel like the city was an ally,” Durst explained.

“Then, all of a sudden, when we couldn't find any property and we're meeting with all these other cities, we realized how much all of these other cities really wanted something like this in their community and were willing to work with us,” he continued. “Obviously, that spoke to us [to] finally feeling appreciated. It made us realize that, ‘Yeah, we really need to move this festival to a city where we do feel appreciated’ … I don't have anything bad to say about the city of Dripping Springs, they're doing their job, but I just don't think they valued us. Clearly,  based on the other incentives that we were offered by all the other cities around Dripping, it was clear that we really did need to move out of Dripping. We just couldn’t be happier with Uhland.”

Though the festival is moving to a new location and city, families will still be able to enjoy what they loved most: the pumpkin patch, photo-ops, a pop-up market, more than 50 fall-inspired games and activities for all ages, live music and a diverse array of local food and beverage vendors.

“You'll see all of the familiar kinds of earmarks, if you will, there. It will very much have that same boutique feel, but being able to scale the festival is just a game changer. For example, we have 15 acres of on-site parking now. We can park nearly 2,000 cars. We were never able to do that in Dripping Springs and to be able to accommodate on-site parking, that is something that we're really excited about,” Durst said. “We're able to just bring in more games, activities and attractions at the same cost … We want to create a very fun and memorable experience where families can come out and really create traditions. Now, we feel like we just have such an opportunity to do that by just offering more.”

Since making the announcement on social media on June 20, Durst said that community members who attended the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival have reached out with plans to attend the next venture. This year, he is expecting 100,000 people to attend over the course of the five weekends.

“I think everyone has been extremely positive because I think they know where our hearts were. We did a lot for our community and we kept prices low. Clearly this was not a money-making venture for us, it truly was for the community. We've had several, several messages where people reached out and said, ‘I've brought my children here for the last two years or three years and this has been such an amazing event for our community and we will see you in Uhland, Texas.’ And I think for us, that's probably the best response we could possibly get,” Durst said. “Based on the response we received, I would say just about everyone who's ever visited our festival is going to come out to the new festival grounds and visit us. I have not received one single negative response towards us. I think everybody realizes this isn't what we wanted, it wasn't really our decision and we didn't have a choice. Now that we're going to be there, we get to grow the festival and make it bigger.”

Durst said that his team has felt “so supported” by the community of Dripping Springs from landowners offering property — even though it was not big enough or in areas that worked for the festival — to kind messages and showing up to the event for the last three years.

“We just were so grateful to the community of Dripping Springs and we're saddened that we're not going to be there anymore. But we're really excited for our new opportunities and we really look forward to everyone coming out and visiting us in our new location,” he said.

The Uhland Fall Fest will take place Sept. 28 through Oct. 27 at 39 Dairy Road, Uhland, TX 78640. Tickets will become available for purchase on Aug. 1.

For more information about the festival, visit www.uhlandfallfest.com.