Coarsegold Tarantula Festival 2026: October 24 & Rodeo Dates
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
Last October, Coarsegold's two biggest fall events were held on the same Saturday. Will they collide again this year?
They won't. On Saturday, October 25, 2025, the first Coarsegold Harvest Rodeo ran at the Rodeo Grounds while the Tarantula Festival filled Coarsegold Historic Village on Highway 41. This year the rodeo is on October 17 and the festival is on October 24. The rodeo moved. The festival stayed in late October, the season when local tarantulas come out of their burrows to mate.
| Event | 2025 | 2026 | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coarsegold Harvest Rodeo | Saturday, Oct 25, the first year | Saturday, Oct 17, year two | Coarsegold Rodeo Grounds, 44777 Rodeo Grounds Rd. |
| Tarantula Awareness Festival | Saturday, Oct 25 | Saturday, Oct 24 | Coarsegold Historic Village, 35300 Highway 41 |
The festival's history shows how steady its slot has been. A 2021 edition was set for Saturday, October 30, according to Sierra News Online. The 2025 edition was October 25, and this year's is October 24. Each of those dates falls in the second half of October. With the rodeo now on the 17th, anyone who wants both events gets two separate Saturdays instead of choosing between them.
The Harvest Rodeo is a partnership between Veater Ranch and the Coarsegold Rodeo Grounds. When it started, the organizers said the focus was "celebrating community before competition." The second year sticks with that format and tightens the schedule. According to the Harvest Rodeo FAQ, the day runs 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.:
The rodeo lineup includes bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing, breakaway roping, team roping, mutton bustin', youth bull riding and bucking ponies. The music has changed since the first year. Sierra News Online's 2025 announcement listed a Jason Aldean tribute concert, and this year Brady Stovall plays both before and after the rodeo.
Early-bird pricing has ended. Ticket prices went up in steps:
| Window | Adults | Kids | VIP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1–2 presale | $20 | $10 | $100 |
| Aug 3 – Sept 30 | $25 | $12 | $125 |
| Oct 1 through event day | $30 | $15 | $145 |
As of today, October 12, the top row applies. Parking is $5, first come, first served. Lawn chairs, umbrellas and pop-up tents are welcome. Dogs are not allowed, and service animals are the only exception.
The Tarantula Festival is built around a natural event, and the timing follows it. The Visit Yosemite Madera County listing says the festival "celebrates the local hairy arachnids that emerge in October to mate and sustain their species." When Sierra News Online previewed the 2025 festival, it described October as the tarantulas' "coming out" season, arriving with cooler temperatures and the first fall rains.
The National Park Service explains the biology in its tarantula guide for Pinnacles National Park. For most of the year, tarantulas stay hidden in burrows during the day and usually come out at night to hunt. In September and October, mature males wander day and night looking for mates and checking burrows for females, which makes those two months the best time to see them.
Scientists have named a tarantula from the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Aphonopelma johnnycashi, after the singer, in a 2016 study in ZooKeys. That study doesn't connect any sightings to Coarsegold, so the spider on your porch may or may not be that species. Either way, the festival is scheduled for the weeks when local tarantulas are easiest to see.
The festival has a long history. Sierra News Online called the 2017 festival the 20th edition, and the 2021 event was billed as the 24th. If the festival ran every year, counting back from those numbers puts the first one around 1998, which would make it decades older than the rodeo now held the week before.
The 2026 listing gives the date, the hours of 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the location at Coarsegold Historic Village, 35300 Highway 41. It also says the full schedule "will be completed soon." CCParent's 2026 Halloween calendar lists the festival as free. Until the full schedule is posted, last year's program is the best preview. According to Sierra News Online, the 2025 festival was co-hosted by the Coarsegold Chamber of Commerce and included:
Last year, admission was free and parking cost $2. No 2026 parking fee had been posted when this was written, so bring a few dollars just in case. Last year's festival started at 10 a.m. This year's listing says 10:30, so anyone heading out for the costume contests should plan on the later start.
Once the festival ends, Coarsegold's fall events move up the hill to Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino at 711 Lucky Lane. Its entertainment calendar lists:
The longest-running event on that list is the Winter Wonderland ice rink, open November 21 through January 10 in the parking lot next to Chukchansi Tower. As of the October 2 announcement, prices and hours had not been posted.
The season starts with the rodeo on October 17 and the tarantulas on October 24, moves to Halloween at the Firehouse Lounge a week later, and ends with skating from the Saturday before Thanksgiving into January. The 2025 calendar had just one big Saturday in late October. This year's has two, a week apart.
Wondering how life around Highway 41, with the Rodeo Grounds and Historic Village nearby, fits into Coarsegold's housing market? Shannon Sells the Sierras puts together a local market report covering the foothill streets and acreage near these events. Get your market report and consultation, and Shannon will walk you through what's happening in the part of Coarsegold you care about.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
Let me work hard for you and make all your real estate investments easy, fun, and most importantly, happen! I look forward to working with you.
40307 Highway 41 Oakhurst, CA 93644