(Photo courtesy of Old Mill District)
The Old Mill District has another big weekend headed our way October 2-4, and we’re here to help you prep for it. Starting Friday, October 2, and running all weekend is the 30th annual Bend Fall Festival. Take your pick of fresh local produce, tap into your creative side with new art pieces, or mix things up with the new Harvest Bake-Off.
Bend Fall Festival
From Friday through Sunday, October 2-4, the Bend Fall Festival will take over downtown Bend for its annual autumn celebration. This year’s event also marks 30 years of tradition in the heart of the city, expanding across six blocks and inviting locals, visitors and all fall junkies to celebrate in proper fashion. Think regional fine art and craftsmanship, seasonal harvest flavors like fresh apples and mouthwatering pumpkin bread, and live music performances to tie it all together.
Arts, Crafts and Design: Bend Fall Festival is a major event where West Coast artists rendezvous for a festive art showcase displaying a variety of talent and individuality. It’s a great place to explore the work of new and familiar artists who inspire thought-provoking questions and deep conversations, all while offering a little head start on some holiday shopping.
Harvest Bake-Off: New to the lineup of festive fun is this year’s 2026 Harvest Bake-Off! We won’t speak for everyone, but our tummies are already rumbling over here. Contest categories include three of fall’s main comforts. Can you take a guess? If you said pies, breads and chilis, it sounds like you’re already chasing the first-place prize! Put your cooking or baking skills to the test and fill out an application now to secure your spot in this year’s Bake-Off because spots are limited!
The Harvest Market: Who doesn’t love farm-to-table produce?! Find seasonal fruits and fall vegetables from local farms, along with fresh meat and poultry from local ranchers. You probably didn’t even think it was possible, but that homemade chicken pot pie recipe is about to taste even better!
Family Fun Zone: The kiddos will have plenty of ways to get the most out of their Fall Fest, too! Let the kids burn off some energy in the bounce houses, browse the Halloween decorations, try their luck at festive carnival games, get creative with pumpkin painting or become the canvas themselves with unique face paint designs.
Live Music: Throughout each day of the Bend Fall Festival, there is quite the roster of live music and other fun acts. Enjoy performances by School of Rock, BEAT Children’s Theater, Trick or Trivia and local bands like Taken by The Sky, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, along with Low Down Brass Band and Sweet N Juicy.
Black Label Society at Hayden Homes Amphitheater
For heavy metal and hard rock fans, this may be one of the most anticipated shows of the season. Black Label Society comes to Bend on Friday, Oct. 2, at Hayden Homes Amphitheater.
Frontman, vocalist and guitarist Zakk Wylde rose to fame in 1987 when Ozzy Osbourne tapped him to become the guitarist for his solo band, following Osbourne’s departure from Black Sabbath. Wylde and Osbourne would go on to perform together for nearly four decades, recording and performing legendary albums including “No Rest for the Wicked” and “No More Tears.” Wylde didn’t just join Ozzy’s band, he became one of the defining guitarists of Osbourne’s solo career.
A crowd at Hayden Homes Amphitheater gathers along the front-stage barricade, singing, dancing and raising their arms as a soft orange glow illuminates their faces at night.
In 1998, after Wylde’s initial, multi-year run with Ozzy, he founded Black Label Society and recorded the band’s debut album, “Sonic Brew,” which was recorded and released in 1998. Wylde created BLS as a creative outlet for his own musical ideas. He essentially had a mound of riffs with nowhere to unleash them, leading to the birth of BLS.
Though BLS has plenty of Sabbath-inspired tone, Wylde spent much of his songwriting time experimenting with his bluesy, softer side of music and combining it with his heavier metal side, giving BLS its signature identity.
A fun fact we think whiskey drinkers may appreciate is that the band’s name was inspired by Wylde’s love for Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. As Wylde once put it, “I took lessons at Ozzy Osbourne University where I also majored in drinking and graduated in flying colors.”
As a fun side project in 2014, Wylde also formed Zakk Sabbath, a Black Sabbath tribute band featuring Rob “Blasko” Nicholson, known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie, plus artist Joey Castillo, who has played with Danzig and Queens of the Stone Age. The band was created as a way for Wylde and his bandmates to return to the songs that inspired their careers, let loose and have fun while reliving the music that helped shape them as musicians.
Zakk Wylde is known not only for his time with Ozzy Osbourne, his work with Black Label Society, his chainsaw-like guitar shredding and his Sabbath-inspired attitude, but also for two unmistakable trademarks like his legendary beard and bullseye-covered guitars. It has been said that with a beard of a Viking and a bullseye on his guitar, Zakk Wylde has become one of the most recognizable figures in metal.
Empire of the Sun at Hayden Homes Amphitheater
As sad as we are to see the 2026 concert season come to an end, we knew we had to go out strong. For the season’s final show, Hayden Homes Amphitheater is over the moon to welcome Empire of the Sun on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Empire of the Sun made its debut in 2007 with its breakout album, “Walking on a Dream,” which launched the band internationally. The Australian electronic duo, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore, wanted to redefine indie music in a way that encompassed a more magical, psychedelic and almost sci-fi sound, along with their theatrical visual identity.
In doing so, the duo drew inspiration from the one and only David Bowie. Drawing from the introduction of Bowie’s characters Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, Steele and Littlemore stepped into elaborate alter egos of their own as the Emperor and the Prophet, the larger-than-life personas behind Empire of the Sun.
Through the Emperor and the Prophet, the two transform their live performances into the sci-fi aesthetic storytelling they initially envisioned when redefining their form of indie music. The duo is known for wearing intricate headpieces and elaborate makeup designs that add to the spunk behind the band’s sound and deepen their unique personas.
Singles “Walking on a Dream” and “Half Mast” have both become wildly recognizable tunes. Several of their lyrics seem as though they could have been written specifically for Bend, with lines like “Never looking down, I’m just in awe of what’s in front of me” from “Walking on a Dream” and “Listen now can we talk in love and walk the town / Be easy now, go hiking through the hills in a summer gown” from “Half Mast.” It’s words like these that capture the beauty of Central Oregon and make us feel right at home at Hayden Homes Amphitheater.
Reaching beyond Empire of the Sun, these songs have also found their way into the work of other major artists. The well-known and highly talented rapper Wiz Khalifa sampled “Walking on a Dream” for his song “The Thrill,” featured on his 2009 mixtape “Burn After.” Along the same wavelength, renowned hip-hop artist Mac Miller drew inspiration from “Half Mast,” sampling the single to create one of his most-streamed songs, “The Spins,” from his 2010 mixtape “K.I.D.S.”
Coming off their recent performance at the 2026 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, Empire of the Sun is sure to make the closing show of the 2026 Bend concert season one to remember.
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