How far is it from Florence Avenue to the booths on West Main Street? A mapped walking route puts it at about seven-tenths of a mile. You head down North Wayne Avenue and turn onto West Main. That short walk matters more than usual this year. The Shenandoah Valley Art Center's 55th annual Virginia Fall Foliage Festival Art Show runs Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Admission is free. Organizers list about 160 artists and artisans, plus food trucks, music, wine, craft beer, and children's art activities.
The posted hours cover two days. The closures cover three. Waynesboro City Council's July 2026 minutes list the approved street-closure period as October 9 through 11. For anyone on the north side, the weekend starts Friday afternoon.
The Clock Starts at 3 p.m. Friday
The Shenandoah Valley Art Center's instructions for artists show how the downtown core opens and closes over the weekend. The instructions are written for exhibitors, but they're also the most detailed public schedule for the show.
- Friday, October 9, 1 p.m.: Artist registration opens at the Pavilion in Constitution Park and runs until 8 p.m. No one can drop off or set up before 3 p.m.
- Friday, 3 p.m.: Streets close. Starting around 3:45 p.m., staff let artist vehicles in to unload, first come, first served.
- Saturday, October 10, 7 a.m.: Second-day check-in opens at the Yancey Building, at the corner of Main and Wayne. Artists drive to their spots to set up.
- Saturday, 9:30 a.m.: All vehicles must be off the street. The show opens at 10.
- Saturday, 5 p.m.: Artists who want to pack up for the night can bring vehicles back onto the street. Waynesboro Police officers stay on site overnight.
- Sunday, October 11, morning: The street opens briefly for those same vehicles.
- Sunday, 5 p.m.: Teardown begins, with volunteers directing traffic. Every street runs one way during teardown.
Between those windows, the streets are closed to all vehicles except emergency vehicles. SVAC's instructions also warn artists that "some things may have changed from past years," so returning exhibitors are re-reading them too.
The Sunday teardown matters for anyone driving home from errands that evening. Downtown has one-way traffic and a long line of vehicles loading tents, so the streets don't reopen the moment the booths close at 5.
Why Wayne Avenue Is the Natural Approach
The walking route from Florence Avenue runs down North Wayne Avenue and onto West Main Street. That corner is the show's working center. The Yancey Building at Main and Wayne is where artists check in on Saturday. In 2024, WHSV reported that parts of Main Street and Wayne Avenue were closed for the show. SVAC has posted a 2026 show map, but no text-readable 2026 list of closed blocks was available for this post. Treat the 2024 footprint as past practice and check SVAC's map before the weekend.
For drivers, SVAC says parking is free around the show's perimeter, and it points large vehicles to a City lot near the downtown Kroger. Perimeter parking works, but drivers approaching from the north still have to get around the closed blocks. As of September 30, neither SVAC nor the City had published a north-side detour. A neighborhood about three-quarters of a mile away can skip that problem entirely. For reference, the same mapping put Wayne View, another north-side neighborhood, at about a mile.
The seven-tenths figure comes from one starting point on Florence Avenue. Homes elsewhere in the neighborhood will be a bit closer or farther.
Saturday Morning Runs on the Greenway First
The show opens at 10 a.m. Saturday, but downtown is busy two hours earlier. The Fall Foliage 5K/10K starts at 8 a.m. from Constitution Park, 101 Short Street. The course runs through Waynesboro neighborhoods and along the riverside greenway path. City planning documents describe the South River Greenway's first section as following the river from Arch Avenue near the YMCA to Constitution Park, with a later segment toward North Park. One of the greenway's listed parking areas is the Constitution Park/Arch Avenue lot at 207 W. Main Street. On race morning, that lot sits right where runners and artists are both gathering.
Back at the curb, artists finishing setup have to move their vehicles by 9:30 a.m. Race start, final setup, and the 10 a.m. opening all fall within about two hours and a few blocks. Someone walking down from Smith and Harner can catch the race finish and the first booths without moving a car.
The Apple Days Arts & Crafts Show at Willow Oak Plaza, 901 W. Broad Street, lists October 10 and 11 as its rain dates. If rain moves it from its scheduled weekend, it will overlap the art show.
The Indoor Room on Main Street
Not all of the art is outside. EMERGE, inside the Shenandoah Valley Art Center's gallery at 416 W. Main Street, is a market-style space for 10 to 14 selected local and emerging artists. It's built for artists who want to show at Fall Foliage without setting up a tent and booth on the street. Each artist gets a 6-by-8-foot spot with one back wall and a $125 booth fee, and stays all weekend to talk with visitors.
The street booths are where the crowds are. EMERGE is a smaller room where you can talk with the artist about the work. It keeps the same 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours on both days, so it works for a second short trip down Wayne Avenue on Sunday. On Saturday, SVAC schedules its artist awards ceremony for 5:45 p.m. in the food and beer area.
The Weekend Before Is the Busier One
The art show takes over downtown on October 10. The first weekend of October has more going on, spread around town:
- Friday, October 2, First Friday downtown: Stone Soup Books, 402 W. Main Street, lists an event from 5 to 8 p.m. on a night when downtown businesses stay open late.
- Saturday, October 3, British Car Festival: The Shenandoah Valley British Car Club's 45th festival features Jaguar this year. The field at Ridgeview Park, 700 S. Magnolia Avenue, opens at 8 a.m., and car-show registration comes in through S. Linden Avenue.
- Saturday, October 3, Wine Over Waynesboro: Runs 4 to 7:30 p.m. at Sunset Park, 300 N. Winchester Avenue. Wineries pouring: Common Wealth Crush, Star Party, Lightwell Survey, Midland, Novella Wines, Stinson Vineyards, and Allá Wines. Music from Liz Barnes and Barbara Martin, followed by the Queen City Porch Swingers.
- October 3 and 4, Apple Days Arts & Crafts Show: At Willow Oak Plaza, 901 W. Broad Street, with Saturday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Listed vendors include Lucky Duck Kettle Korn and Happy Monkey Churros.
That weekend is spread out. Ridgeview Park, Sunset Park, Willow Oak Plaza, and downtown sit in different directions, and none of these events closes the Main Street core. The art show weekend works the other way, with everything in a few blocks that are closed to traffic. For a neighborhood within walking distance of those blocks, October 10 is the easier weekend to reach on foot.
After the Booths Come Down
The rest of October is quieter:
- Saturday, October 17: Shenandoah Valley Trout Unlimited hosts a free evening with executive director Chris Wood at Seven Arrows Brewing's Compass Event Hall, 2508 Jefferson Highway, from 6 to 9 p.m. Live music and a silent auction of fly-fishing art and gear.
- Saturday, October 24: The Waynesboro Farmers Market at 215 W. Main Street, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with live music, children's activities, and food trucks. The address is a few doors from the art show's center.
- October 30 and 31: "The Last Passenger," a ghost-story train ride from the Wayne Theatre and Virginia Scenic Railway with actors from the Wayne Theatre's ReperTOURy. The listing puts the train in Staunton, so it's a drive. Check ticket prices and the departure point before you book.
A few details for the art show weekend weren't public as of September 30: the 2026 list of closed blocks, the food trucks and beverage vendors, and the musicians. The official event listing and the Shenandoah Valley Art Center are the places to watch for those details before Friday, October 9.
At Nest Realty - Shenandoah Valley, we keep track of how weekends like this one play out on each street, from which blocks close to how far each neighborhood is from the action. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of downtown Waynesboro, we'd be glad to walk the route with you and show you what a short walk from Main Street looks like.
