September is the sneaky-best month here. The fog lifts, the crowds go back to school, and the fall calendar starts stacking up before anyone else notices. Here's what's worth your time this month — dates, prices, and the honest read on each one. 

A big thank you to this month's roundup sponsors: Northern California Renaissance Faire, Maker Faire Bay Area, Treasure Island Off the Grid, Broadway San Jose, and Google Visitor Experience.

1. 🛠️ Maker Faire Bay Area — 20th Anniversary 

Maker Faire got its start right here in the Bay Area back in 2006, and this year marks its 20th anniversary with the largest showcase yet. Three days at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, organized into three themed zones spanning robotics, 3D printing, blacksmithing, fiber arts, and elaborate Rube Goldberg machines kids can interact with directly. Friday's Field Trip Day runs 10 AM to 3 PM at a discounted rate for school groups; Saturday and Sunday open the full program from 10 AM to 5 PM. Comfortable shoes are recommended, as the shipyard grounds cover significant ground.

📅 September 25–27, 2026  🕐 Fri 10 AM–3 PM (Field Trip Day) · Sat & Sun 10 AM–5 PM

📍 Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 850 Nimitz Ave, Vallejo, CA 94592

💵 Tickets from $35 · use code BayAreaKidsGo for 30% off

🔗 Get tickets: https://makerfaire.com/bay-area/tickets/

2. ⚔️ Northern California Renaissance Faire 

Kids 12 and under get in free every single weekend, which makes this one of the best-value family days on the whole fall calendar. And the deadline worth knowing: opening weekend has adult tickets at $30 online instead of $42 — the only weekend priced that way.

It's less a show you sit and watch than a village you walk into. Kids can follow the Rogue's Honor Games quest, watch the jousting and the falconry, and wander a marketplace of artisans forging, glassblowing, and haggling in character. Costumes are enthusiastically encouraged and nobody will look at you sideways.

Six weekends, six themes: Opening Weekend (Sept 19–20), Pirate Invasion (Sept 26–27), Cottagecore (Oct 3–4) and More Cottagecore (Oct 10–11) for the fairy-wings crowd, Oktoberfest (Oct 17–18), and Halloween Fantasy (Oct 24–25) with costume contests and trick-or-treating through the village.

📍 Casa de Fruta, 10031 Pacheco Pass Hwy, Hollister, CA 95023

📅 Weekends, September 19 – October 25, 2026 🕐 Saturdays & Sundays 10:00 AM–6:00 PM

💵 $42 adults ($30 opening weekend, online) · kids 12 & under FREE · parking $12

🔗 Get Faire tickets

Buy parking online Monday–Friday — it's cash only at the gate. The ground is uneven dirt and no outside food is allowed, so go in with a hat and a plan.

3. 🎭 Disney's Beauty and the Beast — Broadway San Jose 

The first North American tour of this show in over 25 years, and it's here for six days only. Disney recommends ages 6 and up for this one,, and that feels right; it's 2.5 hours including intermission. Every kid needs their own ticket, no lap seating.

📍 Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd, San Jose, CA 95113

📅 September 8–13, 2026 🕐 Tue–Fri 7:30 PM · Sat 2:00 & 7:30 PM · Sun 1:00 & 6:30 PM

🔗 Get tickets

4. 🎪 Endless Summer Festival at the Google Visitor Experience 

Google's biggest community day of the year, and it's completely free. A slime truck, 3D chalk art, face painting, a henna station, a seed bar, HoopBus basketball, pickleball, a magic show, DJs, and a local maker market. RSVP early — this one fills up. Park once and make a day of it: Shoreline Lake is five minutes away for a picnic after.

📍 The Huddle, 2000 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043

📅 Saturday, September 12, 2026 🕐 11:00 AM–4:00 PM

💵 FREE · all ages · RSVP required in advance

🔗 RSVP

5. 🚢 Off the Grid: Treasure Island 

Fifteen-plus food trucks, six acres of open lawn, and the best skyline view in the city. But the real move is the free ferry from the Ferry Building, Gate B — eight minutes across the bay, and for most kids the boat ride IS the event. Ferry RSVP is required in advance. There's a free kite program too, by signup. Go early, claim lawn, let them run.

📍 Cityside Park, 387 Avenue of the Palms, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA 94130

📅 Six Saturdays: September 12, 19, 26 and October 3, 10, 17 🕐 11:00 AM–4:00 PM

💵 FREE entry · free ferry with advance RSVP

🔗 RSVP for the ferry

6. 🎃 Pumpkin patches are opening!

It starts now. The Half Moon Bay farms, the corn mazes, the hayride-and-cider operations out in Brentwood and Petaluma — the ticketed ones go on sale in September and the good weekend slots are gone before October starts. If you only do one big fall outing, book it this month. We keep a full list of every patch, maze, and u-pick farm in the Bay Area, sorted by region.

📅 First patches open mid- September; most are running by early October

🔗 See our ultimate Bay Area pumpkin patch guide

7. 🦒 Sunset Fridays at the San Francisco Zoo

The zoo after everyone else has gone home. Live music, ambassador animals up close, kid activities on the lawn, and an outdoor bar for the grownups. It's the low-effort Friday that saves the end of a long week — you're in for two hours, nobody melts down, you're home by 7:30. Note there's no event on September 25. And remember it's Sloat: bring a jacket even when it's 80° inland.

📍 Playfield Lawn, SF Zoo & Gardens, Sloat Blvd at the Great Highway, San Francisco

📅 Fridays through October 9, 2026 (no event Sept 25) 🕐 5:00–7:00 PM

💵 Discounted after-hours rate · free for members and young kids — check current pricing

🔗 See details

8. 🎹 Flower Piano at the SF Botanical Garden

Twelve pianos scattered through the garden for eleven days, and anyone can sit down and play them — including your five-year-old banging out whatever they've got. That's the whole magic of it. Turn it into a treasure hunt: find all twelve, take a turn at each. There's real family programming this year too, including a Ballet School dance-along on the 13th and Doug Goodkin's kids-welcome jazz set on the 17th. Bring layers, it's the Sunset.

📍 San Francisco Botanical Garden, 1199 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122

📅 September 10–20, 2026 🕐 Daily 10:00 AM–6:00 PM (last entry 6:00 PM)

💵 Included with garden admission · discounted rate for SF residents with ID

🔗 See the performance schedule

9. 🎃 The Great Big BOO! at Gilroy Gardens

If your kid is too little for anything with the word "haunt" in it, this is your Halloween. Sweet, silly, and deliberately not-too-spooky — a trick-or-treat BOO Trail through the park, an animated light tunnel, character meet-and-greets, and live shows. Costumes encouraged (no full-face masks, no weapons). Gilroy Gardens is the least overwhelming theme park in the Bay Area on a normal day, and this doesn't change that.

📍 Gilroy Gardens, 3050 Hecker Pass Hwy, Gilroy, CA 95020

📅 Select dates from September 25 through November 2, 2026 🕐 Check the park calendar

💵 Included with park admission or Premium Membership

🔗 Check dates

10. 🕯️ Nightfall at Filoli

Filoli's gardens after dark, lit up and turned into a story — a cursed mansion, a witches' village, scarecrows in the hedges. I'd say it's spooky but not scary. Budget 2 to 2.5 hours to walk the whole thing, and know the parking walk can be up to 15 minutes over gravel, so while it's stroller friendly it's not the night for the umbrella stroller. Opening weekend and late October sell out first.

📍 Filoli Historic House & Garden, 86 Cañada Rd, Woodside, CA 94062

📅 September 26 – November 1, 2026 (closed Oct 8) 🕐 Nightly 5:30–10:00 PM (last entry 8:30 PM)

💵 Varies by date · members 20% off · free parking

🔗 Get tickets

What are we missing? Tell us what your family is doing this month — the best stuff on this list usually comes from you. Find us @bayareakidsgo.

Sponsor disclosure: this month's roundup is sponsored by Northern California Renaissance Faire, Maker Faire Bay Area, Treasure Island Off the Grid, Broadway San Jose, and Google Visitor Experience.We only take sponsors for places we'd send our own family, and the other 4 picks were chosen independently.

Dates, hours, and pricing are accurate as of publication but always subject to change — verify directly with each venue before you go.