The Short Answer
Markham AppleFest 2026 runs Saturday, September 19, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Markham Museum, 9350 Markham Road. Admission is $14 for adults 19 to 54, $12 for older adults 55 and over, $11 for youth 4 to 18, and free for children 3 and under. Museum members enter free. Buy online in advance through Zeffy, because tickets bought at the door on the day cost more. Parking is free on site. The festival has run since roughly 1986 and won a Top 100 Festivals and Events Ontario award in 2025.
Want this applied to your own property? Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885.
Get the Date Right
Start here, because this trips up a lot of people. Several event listings still show Saturday, September 27 for AppleFest. That was the 2025 festival, the 40th edition. The 2026 festival is Saturday, September 19. September 27, 2026 is a Sunday.
The date has moved earlier three years running: September 28 in 2024, September 27 in 2025, September 19 in 2026. If you are working from an old bookmark, check it.
Questions About Your Situation?
Every Markham property and every timeline is different. Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885 and speak to a REALTORĀ® who works this market daily.
Tickets and Admission
Category | 2026 advance price |
|---|---|
Children 0 to 3 | Free |
Youth 4 to 18 | $11 |
Adults 19 to 54 | $14 |
Older adults 55 and over | $12 |
Admission plus pottery workshop | $35 |
Markham Museum members | Free, no ticket needed |
All prices include 13 percent HST. Tickets are sold through Zeffy, a zero fee charity platform, which means 100 percent of proceeds go to the Markham Museum.
Three practical notes. Walk up admission is available but carries a price increase, so buy ahead. There is no family rate in 2026. And ASTC, Attractions Ontario, ROAM and Canoo passes are not accepted, which catches out visitors who use them at other museums.
Two things changed for 2026 that are worth knowing if you have been before. The older adult threshold dropped from 60 and over to 55 and over, and the previous split between 4 to 11 and 12 to 18 collapsed into a single youth tier at $11.
What Actually Happens
Confirmed for 2026: apple cider pressing at the cider mill, pottery workshops, food vendors, artisan goods and community booths. The pottery workshops run at 10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., last roughly 90 minutes each, and are booked as the $35 bundle that includes admission. They sell out.
Typical of recent years, though the full 2026 lineup was not published at the time of writing: blacksmith shop demonstrations, print shop and textile studio demos, apple schnitzing, trackless trolley rides, inflatable games, mini golf, face painting, orchard apple picking, live music, and the Brews 'n Bites area with Rouge River Brewing Company.
The event runs rain or shine, with activities both indoors and outdoors. Leashed dogs are welcome.
Neeraj Moolchandani on What the Museum Grounds Tell Buyers
Neeraj Moolchandani, REALTORĀ® at Kaizen Real Estate, sends newcomers to the Markham Museum because the city is usually introduced to them as a technology and business centre. Accurate, and incomplete. The 25 acre site with its 1824 farmhouse and 1862 blacksmith shop is the agricultural village Markham actually grew out of.
The practical point Neeraj draws from it is about heritage districts. Unionville, Markham Village, Thornhill and Buttonville are protected conservation districts, which changes what an owner can alter on the exterior. Buyers who fall for the character of these streets should understand the rules that preserve it before they write an offer.
The Site Itself Is the Draw
The Markham Museum was founded in 1971 by the Markham District Historical Society together with the Markham-Unionville Lions Club. It occupies a 25 acre site with more than 30 historic buildings, which is what separates AppleFest from a parking lot festival.
Among the buildings you can walk through:
- Christian K. Hoover House, circa 1824
- Ninth Line Baptist Church, 1848
- James Maxwell Log Cabin, circa 1850
- Cedar Grove Blacksmith Shop, circa 1862
- Locust Hill Train Station, 1936
Michael John Lau, a REALTORĀ® serving home buyers and home sellers in Markham, Ontario, points relocating clients here for a reason beyond the cider. Markham is often described to newcomers as a technology and business city, which is accurate but incomplete. The museum grounds are where the agricultural village Markham grew out of is still standing.
Parking, Access and Timing
Free parking is available on site and in the surrounding area. There is no shuttle. The lot fills, and earlier write ups have described parking as limited, so treat "free but tight" as the working assumption and arrive before noon if you want a close spot.
The museum is at 9350 Markham Road, south of Highway 407 and north of Steeles Avenue. Accessible format materials are available on request. Service animals are exempt from any restrictions on dogs.
If you are bringing young children, go early. If you want the pottery workshop, book it when you buy your tickets rather than on the day.
Buying Near Markham's Heritage Districts?
Unionville, Markham Village, Thornhill and Buttonville carry rules most buyers only discover after closing. The Kaizen Real Estate Team will walk you through them first.
Make It a Weekend
September 19 is a busy Saturday in Markham. The Double Ninth Festival runs in Unionville from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m., a guided bird walk runs at German Mills from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and it is city wide Curbside Giveaway Day from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The following Saturday, September 26, brings Doors Open Markham from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., which is free and opens the Markham Museum again along with a dozen other heritage sites. The Varley Art Gallery opens its fall exhibitions with a reception the same day. If you miss AppleFest, Doors Open is the fallback.
The Markham Fair follows from October 1 to 4 at 10801 McCowan Road. It is a much larger event, drawing upwards of 80,000 people, and it is a different experience: midway rides, monster trucks and livestock shows rather than heritage demonstrations.
Why the Festival Keeps Growing
AppleFest is not coasting. The 2024 edition produced a set of numbers the museum published afterward: 65 percent of visitors were new to the event, admission sales rose 25 percent, fresh pressed cider sales rose 80 percent, gift shop sales rose 135 percent, and memberships nearly tripled.
The festival coordinator noted the audience had shifted, with more visitors in their twenties and thirties rather than families alone. That shows up in the programming, which is why pottery workshops and a craft beer area now sit alongside the blacksmith shop.
Mayor Frank Scarpitti described AppleFest at its 40th anniversary as one of the community's most cherished annual events. The museum has never published a hard attendance figure, only "thousands", so treat any specific number you see elsewhere with caution.