Pleasant Hill has two harvest festivals on back-to-back Saturdays this October. On October 10 the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce holds its first Harvest Festival on Crescent Drive, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Chamber says the festival celebrates "Pleasant Hill's agricultural heritage." On October 17 the Rodgers Ranch Heritage Center holds its free annual Harvest Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 315 Cortsen Road.
The first event recreates Pleasant Hill's farm past for a day downtown. The second takes place on a piece of that past that's still standing. Go to both and you get the theme on one Saturday and its source on the next.
October 10 on Crescent Drive, in order
The Chamber plans to use the full length of Crescent Drive, more than three blocks, starting at the Peet's Coffee intersection and ending at a stage under the Pleasant Hill Arch. Booths line the street the whole way. Here's how the day runs:
- The Stampede opens the festival. Young children from local preschools, TK classes, and other early childhood programs walk the length of the festival to the stage. They wear cowboy outfits, bandanas, cow ears, or other western gear. Community leaders welcome them, and then the kids "officially open" the festival. There's no entry fee. Instead, each child is asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Pleasant Hill Food Pantry. The Chamber hasn't posted a separate start time for the parade, so plan on 11 a.m., when the festival opens.
- Community performances start the afternoon on the stage. The BackForty Stage is presented by Back Forty Texas BBQ. The Diablo Valley College Music Program plays first, at 1:45 p.m. The Chamber's stage page lists that set as running to 3:00, but the lineup graphic lists the DVC Viking Pep Band ending at 2:45.
- Spinout plays 3:30 to 5:00.
- Fire Peach plays 5:30 to 7:00.
- Zebop!, a Santana tribute band, closes the night from 7:30 to 9:00.
The Chamber's plan says the stage moves from local school performances in the afternoon to live bands with "adult entertainment" from 3 p.m. on. Beer and wine booths and the ticket booths sit in the middle of the festival. A pumpkin patch with a decorating contest, a petting zoo, a rock climbing wall, face painting, balloon artists, and kids' games fill the areas next to Crescent Drive. The plan states there will be "NO carnival-type rides of any type."
Craft vendors are run by After the Gold Rush, the same team behind the Chamber's Art, Wine & Music festival in May. Craft booths are capped at about 35. They're set out in groups of three, mixed in with local business booths, restaurants, and kids' games rather than in their own row. The Chamber calls the festival a "new annual tradition" and plans for it to become the city's signature fall event.
The Chamber's vendor packet describes how the farm theme will look:
"Seasonal décor such as hay bales, cornstalks, harvest displays, and pumpkins will bring home and emphasize the agricultural history of Pleasant Hill."
The farm behind the hay bales
Here's the agricultural history the décor refers to. In 1868 Patrick and Mary Ann Rodgers left the California gold fields with their children and moved to a 149-acre ranch in Contra Costa County. They grew wheat and other crops. They were also active in community affairs and their church, and they promoted public education. A historical marker at the site says Patrick left Ireland around 1843, at about age ten, and arrived in California in 1855. The marker counts the Rodgers among Pleasant Hill's first pioneer families.
Patrick died in 1891. Sixteen years later the property was divided among his heirs. Alice and James Rodgers received the 38-acre section with the house and barn, both built in the 1860s.
The ranch kept shrinking after that. In 1915 it was sold to Rollo Hough, a partner in the Luther Burbank Company, who planned a demonstration farm there. Financial trouble stopped the plan. A few years later the property was down to 18 acres, and it stayed that size until the area was developed.
The ranch also has a literary chapter. Alice and Earle Hobart bought the property in 1937. Alice Tisdale Hobart, best known for "Oil for the Lamps of China," wrote "The Cup and the Sword" while living there. The novel is about the California wine industry during Prohibition, and in 1959 it became the film "This Earth Is Mine," starring Rock Hudson. The National Register nomination recognizes both parts of the story. It lists agriculture as an area of significance for 1868 to 1900 and literature for 1937 to 1939.
Dr. and Mrs. Kaho Daily bought the ranch in 1942 and ran it as a working ranch until 1978. In 1987 the land was approved for single-family homes. Members of the Pleasant Hill Historical Society then recommended saving the buildings and creating a heritage park. That's why the ranch exists today. The Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District owns it, and the nonprofit Rodgers Ranch Heritage Center manages it. The original 149 acres are now a 2.1-acre site with shade trees and gardens. The site still has working ground. Its Urban Farm reports 40 raised beds, three greenhouses, spiral gardens, beehives, and compost bins.
The ranch is the best-preserved example of how most of Pleasant Hill used to look. A historical overview of Pleasant Hill, written by WSA Associates in 2004 and quoted in a 2013 historic-resources report on the city's CineArts Theater, describes farming as typical of early Pleasant Hill and names wheat, hay, and barley on the Hook family farm. The same overview says 1950s subdivisions such as Gregory Gardens replaced farms during the postwar population boom. The orchard side of that history disappeared more recently. In 2016 the East Bay Times reported on Italian immigrant farming families in Pleasant Hill, including the Manginis. The Molino family's 10-acre parcel held wine grapes along with nectarine, peach, plum, walnut, almond, and apricot trees before it was cleared for new homes. Those fruit and nut trees belong to Pleasant Hill's farming history in general. The Rodgers Ranch history itself names only wheat and other unnamed crops.
October 17 on Cortsen Road
The Rodgers Ranch festival is smaller and shorter: four hours, free, in the morning and early afternoon. The 2026 poster lists live music, food, storytelling, games, animals, and vendors. The Rec & Park District described last year's festival, held October 25, 2025, as a free family day with fall activities, live music, and information about local services. The ranch hasn't posted a detailed 2026 schedule beyond the poster. Expect the poster's list of activities, set among the 1860s farmhouse and barn the Historical Society worked to save.
The ranch also has events on the Saturdays and Sundays around the festival. On Sunday, October 4, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., naturalist Michael Marchiano gives a photo introduction to Contra Costa County fungi and mushrooms. It includes basic mycology and a look at the local death cap, Amanita phalloides, and it's free for Heritage Center members. On October 24 the ranch hosts "Basil, Rosemary, Oregano and Bliss: Mediterranean Herb Blending."
The rest of October, built around those two Saturdays
The other October events in Pleasant Hill fall on the days just before and after the two festivals. The day after the Crescent Drive festival is Pumpkin Splash. The night before the ranch festival is a Night Market Friday.
Date | Event | Where and details |
|---|---|---|
Fri, Oct 2 | Pleasant Hill Night Market | Chilpancingo Park, 200 Golf Club Road, 5 to 9 p.m. |
Sun, Oct 4 | Mushrooms & Fungi with Michael Marchiano | Rodgers Ranch, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. |
Tue, Oct 6 | Fratello Marionettes "Spooktacular" | Pleasant Hill Library, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. |
Sat, Oct 10 | Pleasant Hill Harvest Festival | Crescent Drive, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
Sun, Oct 11 | Pumpkin Splash | PH Aquatic Park, 1:30 to 3 p.m., registration required |
Fri, Oct 16 | Pleasant Hill Night Market | Chilpancingo Park, 5 to 9 p.m. |
Sat, Oct 17 | Rodgers Ranch Harvest Festival | 315 Cortsen Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., free |
Mon, Oct 19 | Halloween Keychains for Teens | Pleasant Hill Library, 3 to 4 p.m. |
Sat, Oct 31 | Downtown Halloween Spooktacular | Near Crescent Bistro, noon to 2 p.m., free |
A few details from the table:
- Pumpkin Splash is a floating pumpkin patch at PH Aquatic Park, with pumpkin decorating and a mermaid meet-and-greet. It costs $22.50, or $18 for district residents, and adult helpers get in free.
- The Night Market runs on the first and third Friday of each month through November 20. That leaves two dates after October: November 6 and November 20. The market advertises more than 50 vendors and extra parking at DVC.
- The teen keychain workshop is open to grades 6 through 12. No registration is needed, but supplies are limited.
- The October 31 Spooktacular offers chalk art, a photo booth, face painting, balloon art, and treat bags while they last.
Not posted yet for October 10
A few practical details for the Crescent Drive festival aren't out yet. The Chamber hasn't published street-closure hours or parking instructions. Its materials promise local food, beer, and wine, but they don't name any vendors. Most sponsor names appear only as logos. The Chamber's festival page is the place to check in the days before. For the ranch, the poster is all that's posted so far, and the Rodgers Ranch history page covers the background in a few short paragraphs.
At Robert Lilley, we run our own food and coat drives here in Pleasant Hill, so we're glad to see a food drive leading off the new festival on October 10.
